Kimmel Center 4/24/05

Incredible show at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. The Kimmel Center was built about two years ago and is Philly’s crown jewel to the performing arts. Todd played in Verizon Hall, which is the large, acoustically as close to perfect as a hall can get, venue to what seemed to be a sell-out crowd of about 2,500. He even quipped at one point that the ukehele never sounded so good. I think Todd realized the ultra conservative and professional nature of the venue he was in because the performance he gave was one for the ages. No screw-ups, no broken strings, no missing picks, no raspy or cracking voice, very little stage banter, and close to flawless renditions of the (albeit a bit tiring) set list that he’s been performing on his solo tours for the past three years. Even my 14 year-old son, Brendan, was surprised by a seamless (and ceaseless!) rendition of The Viking Song. The setlist included Lysistrata, I Don’t Want To Tie You Down, Black and White, Love of the Common Man, Hello it’s Me (he even seemed to be enjoying himself and we know how much he hates that one!), The Viking Song, Hawking, AfterLife, Cliché, Bang on The Drum All Day, Hide Your Love Away and One World. One question: when my 12 year-old daughter, the LadyBug, asks me why his hair looks like that, what do I say?