When I think about some of the songs, renditions, and possibilities I continue to get stuck on the possibilities.
The end of the show, TR, Joe, Ethel teaming up for a great, yet limited, selection leaves me wondering...why didn't you put an entire 2 1/2 hour show together with everyone of stage.
With Ethel in the background and Todd signing, Pretending to Care actually brought out the accapella roots of which this song is written. The viola and bass were wonderful and really brought out the essence of the song.
Todd and Joe have such an excellent and diverse catalogue of music that together, with Ethel backing them up, truly could have put together an amazing show, one that would easily go down as a top 5 (this one was not).
I've always thought of Todd as a bit of a risk taker, probably why we all love him so much (we relate). Yet, when he has the opportunity, which the encores showed the potential of, he falls back into something safe. I can imagine Afterlife being performed by the six of last night's performers (together) so much better then Todd did solo. It's a great "new" song, that I really felt Todd didn't do justice to, fumbling through several chord progressions and really rushing through the number. I was looking forward to it, seeing it had been played during most of the tour, and was disappointed.
There have been countless reviews written on this site over the past 8 or so years (I've probably contributed one or two). One of the underlying themes that seems to be a constant is that many of us feel that Todd performs much better when he's playing with a band. Whether that be the gang from WAT, the power trio, Liars, Utopia, etc. etc. we all eat up those performances. Don't get me wrong, I love watching OH even on his roughest of nights. I hope he'll treat us to something truly amazing at least one more time.
