Having just had a first listen to Liars a few days before the show, I felt a sense of apprehension with a twist of adventure.
Here's the guy that indiviualized and tiki bar twisted the night away. Wasn't prepared for the upscale visual effects that required their own mixing and lighting area taking over part of the lower floor. The band donning various religious garb took things strongly with "Truth" and several other uptempo numbers from the new album. Live the songs grow on you with a full fleshed out band rendering. I really felt the album suffered from some sameness of droning groove instrumentation. Just like Todd got lazy in the 80's with drum machines and programmed sythns. I'd love to lock him up in an early 70's era studio with an arp syth, a few guitars and some skins and hear the results.
The early part of the show was dominated by songs of critical religious content, little interaction with the crowd and some shredding vocals at times.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps was touching but could have utilized an introductory ode to George. Costume changes were shaky even if Green Onions was fun. Things picked up with Love Science as most of the crowd had no familiarity with the new material. Past is just a classic song and went over well. Born to Synthesize was campy but fun. Want of a Nail really hit stride, Hello it's me was a little too lounge lizardesque and Just One Victory was the perfect ending.
