Club Caprice

November 7, 1998

caprice is a dinner theater. the venue formally known as the strand has picnic style tables lining the floor with a bar in the rear. trendy waitresses squeeze their way between the tables bringing overpriced food and drink the the LA masses. on a negative side, it was amazing how many peoples they could fit into this club. on the positive side, there was a more-than-good turnout to see TR TV.

todd begins his show at 9 sharp, wearing more jammies; this time in faded maroon-red. he talks to us about the show and what's going to happen [or, maybe, what's *supposed to* happen] during the course of the show. promises include:

after no less than ten minutes of this intro, todd decides to play some songs on acoustic guitar while he and chuckie try to connect 'to the web'. the opening set includes: no flubs. first show voice. no flu. the club is small enough to get a good full sound from the black acoustic. chuckie is excited to be typing on the laptop resting on the piano behind TR.

a five minute rap follows, including some takamine-tooning, smart kids in high school, and boos for knewtie.

todd extemporates on the web, customer service, hollywood's shortage of conservatives, and last night's politically incorrect. then, TR checks on chuckie, and "we're" connected. the chat room is full, we're told, and chuckie's fingers get to work. todd puts on the p-project for a unique version of one more toon before todd faces the horror of the piano. i've always liked this song better on acoustic guitar over that woodgrain piece-of-shit.

piano forte includes another intro of the legend of the now-popular bipolar boB. segovia practiced. we have been warned.

a few lyrical and finger flubs find there way into the piano section, but nothing like we're used to seeing. todd sounds good, and is having fun with the music and the peoples. he sounds like he did when he was in his late forties... BHH!

next, everyone strikes a pose as todd takes a few QTVR shots of the audience, 20 degrees apart.

the hook-uh-lay-lee returns to the states for the channel surfing tour. the rendondo beach crowd loves it when he give us jesse comes out for a few glorious toons after todd takes a few more QT pictures. jesse is also a charter member of the pyjama party with bright green and orange. and, i mean *bright* green and orange. todd takes a stool at center stage, a shaker, and relaxes with 'mated' is new; and so fresh, it's pink. the tempo is faster, though todd does try to slow it down a few times. the lyrics feel rushed until the end, when todd and jesse agree on a slower pace.

chuckie is still typing away furiously, as todd grabs an additional guitar for

which sounds good with two guitars, jesse taking the lead, cleanly. as todd takes the last six QT pictures, jesse plays some light dinner music, which i recognize as 'believe in me'. anyone else catch this? 'i want you' is slow, perhaps too slow. but, it's hard to mess up this song. the voice holds, and todd looks unusually strong going into the encore zone. after a short break, the encore finishes with 'dream' is so santa-cruz sweet. 'hawking' is labored as todd forgets some words and is still suffering from some excessive coughing at the end of 'dream'.

in the end, the music is what i remember, not the technology, or the other activites, mainly because the audience didn't share in these [save posing for the QTVR]. a large TV monitor was present on the stage, but not used. i assumed incorrect media, the QT camera, or the chat could've been projected somewhere.. but wasn't.

hopefully, in future shows, we'll get to see the results of these during-show-efforts.

i recognize the name, but not the face
romo