Yes, this was my first chance to see The New Cars and I was a bit apprehensive after being underwhelmed by their performance of "Good Times Roll" on The Tonight Show. But I was pleasantly surprised last night by their show at The Boulder Theater. Those guys can really rock! Some of the weaker Cars material (Hello Again, Shake It Up), was rather ho-hum, but their rendition of "Moving in Stereo/All Mixed Up" was worth the price of admission alone. Todd's vocals worked really well with most of the material, and it was fun to see him throw his persona into the mix. And there were some really nice surprises, too. I loved the extended jam-band rendition of "You're All I've Got Tonight" with Elliot Easton playing guitar hero while Todd looped the riff from The Beatles' "Day Tripper". Way too cool! For the Todd-heads in the crowd, Our Hero's material was a bit short, I think. Five or so songs into the show he did a weak version of "I Saw The Light" which really didn't hold up so well, considering the original is such a pop masterpiece. Couple that with the throng of old dudes in the crowd singing along behind us (we were up front and center, getting our ears blown out), and my wife and I had to laugh at it all. But "Bang on The Drum All Day" was good fun, "Black Maria" sizzled, and seeing "Open My Eyes" at the encore was one of the high points of the show for me. The band was great, and the new kid on bass was quite good. But I wished we could have seen Kasim, of course, because... hey! I'm a Utopia geek. And kudos to Prairie Prince's fashion sense (he had black and white polka dots on his drums and his body). The opening band was Persephone's Bees, and they were very tight and great fun to watch. When the lead singer played her theremin, my wife snapped a pic on her cell phone and sent it to her sister, an avid theremin player. Gosh... technology can be so cool! OK... to my friends who turned down the FREE TICKETS I won on the afternoon of the show... ya really missed it.
