Reviews by...
John
We all got in to the club ... except for Alex. The club had recently lost it's license for serving drinks, so they were especially anal when they got it back. Bugs did a stellar job in getting Alex through the door, but the club refused to let a 21- person even run the merchandise booth. My hats off to Bugs, and my hat is smacking the club people for being so uptight...
Anyway ...
I cant seem to find my set list for Victor & Jonathan's set, but I do have theirs...
1.Tear Stained Road
2.Nothing Outside
3.Bittersweet
4.One Here
5.Dreams Die Hard
6.Healer
7.I'm an Idiot
8.Thunderhead
9.Little Blue Fish
10.St John's Mercy
11.Long Way Home
Tear Stained Road, Nothing Outside, Dreams Die Hard, Thunderhead, St. John's Mercy,
and Long Way Home are ALL on Victor's cd "St John's Mercy". It is an incredible album
and I think your nuts if you dont pick it up.
Cracker's set was ...
1.Been Around the World
2.7 Days
3.Good LIfe
4.Lonesome Johnny Blues
5.Dr Bernice
6.Tania
7.Eye of Fatima 1 & 2 (DL broke a string)
8.Eurotrash Girl
9.Movie Star
10.Big Dipper
11.100 Flower Power Maximum
12.Pics of Matchstickmen
13.Teen Angst (DL broke a string)
14.Trials and Tribulations (JH broke a string)
15.Infirmary
16.Mr Wrong
17.Golden Age
18.? CVB Instramental (Mao?)
19.? CVB Instramental (Paid Vacation Greece?)
20.Turquoise Jewelry
21.Cracker Soul
22.Nostalgia
23.Sweethearts
24.Low
-- encore --
25.I Want Out of the Circus
26.Dixie Babylon
27 songs!!
Johnny was wearing a River Red t-shirt and I asked where I could get one, but Johnny
said there werent many made and Eric Drilling might have a stash of them somewhere.
We'll see sometime I guess...
Just before the show started I saw Jackson and got permission to get up on the stage and take a picture of the crowd.
During Trials and Tribulations Johnny was playing David's guitar that he uses for Low (that little black acoustic) and Johnny actually broke a string! THat was the first time I've seen Johnny do that. After he broke it he continued to play, but it was obivously causing him trouble .. one glance at David and David reached in and grabbed the string and pulled it loose enough so that Johnny could continue unhindered (and without missing a beat).
During Mr Wrong we got an especially good treat - two bad tattoos. Johnny and Victor both have shoulder tattoos. Victor's is much bigger and badder looking though ..
Towards the end of Nostalgia David was on Johnny's side of the stage stomping on all his effect pedals, you should be able to hear something funny in the boots from this show.
They closed with Circus, and Johnny was able to remain standing for the entire song. He didnt even stumble. : ) Also, the beginning of this was a little slow - David was over by Victor telling him the chords to play on bass for the song. This was the very very first time that Victor played the song - and it sounded great. Victor went on to play Circus at a few of the remaining shows too - an incredible bass player. Thats really learing on the job ... the final song was Dixie Babylon, and Johnny was able to keep his guitar strap on this time, so the solo at the end wasnt as good as the previous time - but it was still great. : )
For this show I was right under David's mic, and had his digital camera (got it at the Coach House show) - so I was able to take some good close up pictures during both sets. This was the show that Victor came up to me afterwards and hooked me up with the Bay Guardian since they were doing that article about the tour.
John