A Review by Tim Stanton
Todd's magical tiki tour wound up in, of all places, Petersburg, Virginia this evening. The Copper Mine is a renovated furniture store, and it really wasn't a bad venue. The black lights were overdone, and a staircase in the middle of the floor ate up prime space, but the (my guess) 300 Todd fans were in for a pretty decent evening.
Since I wanted to play the drunk for this show, I had intended to wear my tux with a matching B and W flowered pattern bowtie and cummerbund (it would've been absolutely stunning under the black lights), but time got away from me at my pre-show party, so I grabbed a sports coat. I was also not as early as I had hoped to be, but Al had fortunately not cast the drunk, so I signed for the role.
Musically, the show was classic Tiki, with Todd playing "Tiny Demons" and "LOTCM" during the acoustic portion. Todd remarked how he was over the flu, and he sounded to be in good form, but I haven't seen any flu shows, so it's hard to say.
Some highlights: during "Lucky Guy", Todd aborted the second verse and grabbed a cigarette from a woman in the front row, and stomped it out. Totally screwed up the song, but a nice moment nonetheless.
Lia's panties played a prime role. They were in a bowl on the bar, and Al and Steve would use the as props occasionally. During "Synthesize", Todd threw them at Jesse during his solo, and they landed on the neck of Jesse's guitar - somewhere around the 4th fret. It didn't faze Jesse a bit, he kept on playing great. After his solo, he flipped them back at John, but Todd intercepted and placed them on John's head, with the behind part over John's face, and the tag hanging on John's mouth. John kept playing, doing his scat bit with the panties on. Stephanie, a bar girl, took them off for him, and he remarked how the top of his scalp felt "itchy." So Todd starts vocalizing on the word "itchy." It was priceless.
Sometime in the third set, like maybe after "Synthesize", I felt a sensation on my face, like, I dunno, a dry spitball or something. Then it happened again, and I saw the trajectory of the missile - it seemed to be coming from either Kasim or Prairie. I looked down and picked up one of Kasim's picks. He was firing picks at me, from over 15 feet away, and absolutely nailing me! If he gives up music he has a future as a dart player.
Well, playing the drunk is fun, but I kinda feel like I missed some show while doing schtick - it's probably a trade-off. I'm glad to have done it, but I almost enjoyed the first set more - down in the pit with the cogniscenti.
Thanks to Al and Steve. You guys couldn't have been nicer. And Stephanie - thanks - you wield a mean cup of water. Jaxx on Saturday, if I can make it (I didn't).