4/23/04 Count Basie Theatre Review

The Count Basie Theatre was a very nice place to see a concert, although they need to upgrade their sound system. The opening bass on Sweet alone was distorting the speakers; not surprising the sound turned to mud with the whole band. We were in the second row, left side and had Todd in front of us on many occasion. It was great to see him and he seemed to be having a good time. Here are some notes real fast. Truth is a great opening song. The LED light system was amazing to watch. Todd's guitar solos were crisp and clean during Buffalo Grass, Fascist Christ and Unloved Children, which culminated into a wonderful While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Mammon was very good live. Watching Todd sing God Said brought the song home as the music floated threw the air which erupted into Liar, which was fantastic. Jesse did a great guitar solo. The green guitar during his two solo numbers I have never seen before, but it was gorgeous. Soul Brother sounds great live, as I'm not crazy about it on the CD. Sweet and Past just made you melt. There was quite a good sing along in Sweet with the "Sing & Shout It, Tell the world about it" part. Born To Synthesize cooked. I loved Feel It, it was great to hear it again. Want of a Nail actually was a great close. Todd was singing his butt off. Couldn't believe people actually fought, but there were several 50+ year old people who apparently don't handle their liquor/drugs/whatever as well as they use to, and it was a little embarrassing. Everyone had rushed the stage at this point. Hello It's Me and Just One Victory had the sing a long going again, but apparently over the years we have forgotten exactly when to clap towards the end of JOV. :) Nothing replaces the anticipation of Todd's guitar solo at the of JOV. It was a great show and the last time I saw Todd this on was during the Nearly Human tour in Atlantic City in 1990. My ear just stopped ringing this Monday morning.