A little background on my Todd experiences. I saw 2 acoustic shows last year, one at the Birchmere in Virginia, and one in Harrisburg PA. The birchmere performance was great, the harrisburg show was rough (todd's voice was shot and he was guzzling spring water mixed with Halls lozenges). In addition, i saw Kasim Sulton's solo performance in virginia a while back. He's incredible live and his solo album kicks ass. So as you can imagine, i was thrilled to see my 2 favorite utopian heroes in one venue. So...........
This Liars show was INCREDIBLE. I was already won over by the new album. Great stuff. I had no idea all the pro-tools sounding stuff (like "Truth") could translate so well on the live stage. It did just fine. In the case of the song, "Mammon", i thought it was better live than on the studio version. I'm waiting for a live release of "Mammon". Twas too good live!
Kasim was great live. This was the first time i've ever heard todd and kasim work together live. I was very impressed. I love their voices so much together anyways, and it was nice to hear them harmonizing in areas. Kasim! your voice is incredible and yer one hell of a bass player (even if you do dress like a priest! hehehe).
One thing is funny though. Everytime Todd plays his electric guitar and grimaces like a rock star, he cracks me up and makes me wanna get up and dance around. He's so silly... I love it!
things i was less than thrilled about (really hard to pick these out cuz it was a great show):
while my guitar gently weeps. not necessary. todd/utopia have enough incredible music (and most are much better than an overplayed beatles tune). I would have much rather heard todd and kasim do a blistering version of "trapped" or while we're at it, on the religious tone, he could have done a bit of "eastern intrigue". it would have fit in so much better than a hackneyed beatles cover.
and fellow todd fans, you can hate me if you want, but i dont like the 'swingin' version of Born to Synthesize. he just de-wierded the whole song making it kinda vanilla.
otherwise, best damn todd show i've ever seen, and this new album is INCREDIBLE. if you haven't seen the show, go see it. if you haven't even bought the album yet, SHAME ON YOU!!
and by the way, he did "Love Science" at this show and it kicked ass!!!
so get out there and listen/see
cemego
rockville maryland
