7/16- San Juan Capistrano- Webcast Review

I thought Todd started off very rough, with Real Man and LOTCM sounding very strained and, if I'm being honest, unpleasant. I thought 'Hoo boy- I guess Todd's still battling a virus. 5 songs into the show, when he starts singing Lucky Guy, it was like he flipped a switch and his vocals became clear and beautiful. For the rest of the show he was in fine voice- better than other times I've seen him, I'd say. There were no changes or surprises from the recent set lists. It's a good show, but I wish he would do 'Leroy Boy' instead of Flaw or Soul Brother. It is, as Todd said, a fan request show, and I've got to believe more people want to hear WGGYAW than those other songs. Also, I think Bang the Drum would fit in nicely between Hello It's Me and ADGOF. For better or for worse a lot of people want to hear that song.

I have no complaints about the video presentation. It wasn't flashy, but it got the job done. There was no hi-def, and everything looked kind of soft, but smooth and very solid. There were no break-ups or stuttery satellite glitches in the streaming for the entire show, and I never had to re-connect. One of the cameras couldn't seem to get the lighting on Todd's face right, causing it to be washed out in the lights, but it wasn't that big a deal.

As far as I could tell the webcast was all in mono- no 5.1 or stereo. The other Todd webcasts I've seen were all in stereo. Hopefully this was a last-minute technical problem and the VOD will have improved sound. As others have mentioned, there was a section in the middle of the show where the BG vocals got cranked up to 11 and that pretty much ruined about 4 or 5 songs before some bright boy realized there was a serious problem and fixed it. I'll be watching the show again, and hopefully all of the sound issues of the live webcast can be ironed out.

For me, these webcasts are a great bargain at $20. They give you some of the excitement of a live show, but you can enjoy it in the comfort of your home and save yourself a lot of cash. I'll continue to support them as long as they keep being offered. If you haven't yet seen this tour, I would definitely recommend watching this when it becomes available as video on demand. It's a set list full of popular Todd songs and he is in fine voice throughout most of the show.