But I see alot of people criticizing Todd's performance, and I have to say I must have been at a different show. I saw two of my favorite performers and an awesome string quartet. I wasn't tallying every messed up chord (I think Joe might have missed a couple too guys) and broken guitar string. I was too busy enjoying the music. I don't expect Joe to talk about his nose hair during a show, BTW, I have some really nasty "itis of the rhine" myself, but Todd is Todd. I love the fact that he jokes around with the audience. I'm just a young guy, and my peers don't get to see shows like this. They're at big arenas looking at little dots through binoculars. Todd told the Cincinnati crowd (I was there too) how he remembered playing Cincy and barfing on stage. A guy in the audience called out that he had saved a sample and Todd asked him why he hadn't put it on eBay.
As for the set list, at least he mixes it up a little each night. Many performers don't. A bunch of the Liars tour reviewers complained that he didn't play enough familiar favorites. I guess Todd can't win. I've seen him at least twice on every tour since Power Trio, and I agree he should retire the ukulele, but when he pulled it out in Cincy and some of the audience groaned he said he knows, but the Joe fans haven't heard these jokes yet. That brought laughter, I think. At least I laughed.
I just recently discovered Todd, and I'm sure I felt the way you all did when you first heard his music. A co-worker was throwing out old tapes, and offered them to me. One was the white 1982 self-titled Utopia album. Soon after I heard it I bought all the Utopia albums, and most of Todd's solo albums too. No other artist has ever had such an effect on me. I told Todd this after an Indianapolis show, afterwards realizing maybe it wasn't the best thing to say, discovering him because someone was throwing out his music, but he smiled and said he was glad the stuff could be recycled.
Utopia next year???
