Even as late as noon on the day of, there was no confirmation or rejection. Right down to the wire, I had no idea whether I'd get in or not.
At 3 PM, I got the call. We're in. I cancelled the rest of my work-day, Showered, Shampooed and Shaved, jumped in the car and headed down to the Cape, about an 80 minute drive with no traffic. The Liars CD never sounded better.
Imagine my surprise when the tix were in the first row, directly in front of TR's mike stand (before the stage starts turning; CCMT is one of those concert-in-the-round-with-a-revolving-stage places).
I thought TR had more focus at CCMT, but that may have been a subjective viewpoint deriving from my incredibly close proximity for most of his set. His voice seemed stronger, too, especially on the high parts that cannot be falsetto'd.
Song lists for TR, H&O & the combined encore set were the same as in Boston, except that someone right behind us shouted out a request to H&O for "You Make My Dreams", so DH took his guitar off, stepped over to the keyboard and belted it out. It was impressive to see such a tight band swerve into a different lane and then back into their planned groove so effortlessly.
The house was packed with mostly DH fans since TR was such a late addition, and when H&O were on-stage the place looked like a sea of dancing femalia. It was intoxicating for an old hetero-male such as myself to turn around and watch that.
Sound was MUCH better than the Boston show, even though we were so close that we were "under" the house array, and were getting a varying mix depending upon the stage orientation with respect to our seats. This allowed us to hear how tight the H&O band is, both on their own material and on TR's. I think they are "getting the hang" of TR's stuff quickly, and the remaining shows on the TR&H&O tour should be great.
TR's command of lyrics on the H&O stuff seemed much better at CCMT, probably because they had flat-screen monitors running lyrics for every tune in a 90-point font right at his feet.
I don't know who's 'member of the family' tix I got, but I thank whichever bandmember released them. What a GREAT NIGHT!
