the last show of the second leg finds us on the mild, breezy gulf coast of florida. :>
the state theatre is an old, gutted movie theater turned into a performance club, capacity around five hundred. the tiki set barely fits on the retro- fitted multi-purpose stage. the ceiling is high, so there is reverb, but not enough to overpower the overall sound.
the band is tight and comfortable. the standard set list is back in play after last night's USF deviation. The Voice is on, as it was last night. i feel bad for the northeast audiences, as their recent reports were less than flattering wrt vocals. cause, tonight and last night were just freakin outstanding. get a boot and listen real close to 'fidelity', 'lost horizon' and perhaps the vocal break in 'born to synthesize'.
the spice girl rap goes over well, as does a mock 'what if' tangent on lewinski-gate. the first set ends with a movin-to-the-groovin 'espresso'. the second set is musically rewarding. 'can't stop running' stands out as the finale night's magical moment. TR-i inadverdently kicks a few monitors off their perches while running in place for the ending stanzas. 'eastern intrigue' feels more intense somehow. the panties get thrown up immediately after 'real man'. yougolia.
..which makes me notice the other panties strewn about the set. hanging off mic stands, off prairies kit, john's keyboard, in spitoons at the bar, everywhere. in the third set, todd even dons a sequened pair over his black trousers for a few minutes before taking them off because 'this just doesn't feel right'. ferenzik reminds todd of 'flossing the wrong area'.
the second set ends with prairie pounding the jungle beat for 'hello...'. but instead of fading it out, he speeds it up and solos for a few minutes in the fog to the toon of bora bora 2000 / love bomb!
the two acoustic numbers leading off the third set are fun and fresh. in st petersburg, he give us 'cliche' and 'lysistrata'. lysistrata is preceded by an extended rap on clinton, madonna, and presidential prissy pants hanky panky. woman in the white house. russian heffers.
'born to synthesize' includes a melodic tangent off into 'pink panther'. jesse breaks a string during the jam, then finishes with the classical. a cucumber shaker provides triplets into TR's lead mic, along with that squawk box he uses for those canned screaming sounds.
the flight attendants 'look too young' to be flight attendants, that's because they're the 'daughters of the flight attendants'. the drunk at the bar gives the best performance i've seen this tour! 'dream goes on forever' finishes with a fast lounge riff for about eight bars.
TR-i blesses the drunk and the band do a few shots before leaving the stage.
it's the last ride
romo