Sydney, Australia

Just got back from Sydney and i'm still on a high from seeing Todd at "The Basement". We had "dinner and show tickets" and were seated at a table about 15 feet from the stage. You could have also bought standing room tickets for half the price and still would have had a good view if you got there early. It was a great venue, but I told my husband that the worst thing that could happen would be if they sat someone at our table for 4 that wasn't a fan, and sure enough, one of the guys barely knew Todd's music, the other, not at all! Agggh! The support act of Davey Lane and Tony Featherstone was great! They were obviously huge fans of Todd and said how excited they were when they did the sound check that afternoon with him. When Todd came on, he joked that it was nice to be in Sydney again under his own banner, instead of grouped with "the pirates", and that he was glad that he "survived the sinking". I didn't know much about Robert Johnson, so I didn't really know what to expect from the show, but OMG, Todd just rocked!! He was so unbelievably awesome on guitar in every song!! His voice was so clear and confident. Some of my favorites were "Unloved Children", "I Went to the Mirror" "Open my Eyes" and an amazing version of "Mystified". Oh, and Weakness!! Todd was really great with the audience, he played such a cross section of stuff, i'm sure everyone went out of there happy. During one song (maybe Mystified?) I heard "Come into my Kitchen" which is a favorite David Bromberg song of mine! I was pleasantly surprised to hear "Can we Still be Friends", but wished that the piano was facing us instead of the other side of the room. During "I Saw the Light" the adrenaline took over and I had to get up and dance!! After the show a bunch of folks waited around for Todd to come out. I ran into Jesse and had a short chat with him. Then Todd came out to a line of people waiting for photos and signatures. I told him that I just wanted a photo, that I was a NY transplant that had been waiting 21 years for him to tour Australia. Todd put his arm around me and sang "you, are a na-tive New Yor-ker" and my husband got the photo, it was funny. I told him it was a great show and to have fun the rest of the tour. I was so pumped that even though it was like 2:00am, we walked around Circular Quay afterwards, The Sydney Opera house all lit up and a wedding going on near "The Rocks". Nice night, but i'm so jealous of Anthony getting to hear "The Wheel" at the Auckland show!! Maybe next time.