Post by theboot on Jul 29, 2004 0:48:55 GMT
This concert had quite a different feel to any other I’ve ever been to. It must be the first in a long time where I knew all the words to all the songs and I was trying not to anticipate too much after waiting so many decades to see them. I remember putting Tommy on the turntable for the first time and the deflated feeling I had when I got to the end and I hadn’t had any revelationary happening that I was expecting, so I didn’t want to repeat that. Usually at concerts there is a sense of desperation knowing that it is the only show the artist is doing or that I’ll be going to, but as I’m going to tonight’s show as well and moving from row 35 to row 7, last night felt more like an incredible entrée where “The perfume nearly beats the taste.”<br>
Support band You Am I were hot. Being big Who fans and nice guys, front man Tim Rogers stated and restated what a thrill it was to be doing the support. I bumped into Tim in the foyer while he was examining the merchandise and said, “Break a leg” to him. He said “thanks mate.” There was chat room talk about whether he would/should do the windmill and jumps he usually does and he did do them and with style.
Some guys two rows in front of me tried to stand up when the house lights went down and the people right in front said “Sit down” and I thought, Yeah, you’ve got Buckley’s, (aussie for no chance). Everyone on the floor was up as soon as they came on stage and ripped into the old standard opening. Wow, they’re here, its happening- sounds great.
There were a few fluffed lines in the opening songs as they warmed into. BOR was great; love the ending of that song. It was not until after BBE that any chat happened. “Why are you so far away?” said Roger, referring to the tyranny of distance that afflicts Australia. For those of you worried about where the new album is – in introducing RGLB, Pete talked about it and ORW being two of the new songs they were working on and later when he introduced the band, he described how Simon was producing “the rest of the record” and gave the impression that it was definitely on the go.
From RGLB, the playing picked up and there was nothing dud (apart from Pete missing a chord or note here and there, which is one of the things I find so endearing about him and Neil Young – it’s a live show, bum notes happen, we’re not all virtuosos but boy have they got the passion.
Drowned was a Pete solo acoustic effort – my wife Cate loved that one, so did I, nice change of pace and no bum notes that I heard – she knew nearly all the songs despite never having played a Who record in her life; she doesn’t have to, she gets it by osmosis.
Eminence Front was neat. I was wondering who was doing the riff till I realized it was Roger. You don’t get this info from still pics. Roger sang really well all night doing a good job on the high and holding notes, better than I was expecting.
Pete had a rave about how good it was to be back in Australia and talked about the plane flights of 1968. A local music journo, Glen A Baker had written a very good real history of the famous thrown of the plane flight in Monday or Tuesdays edition of The Australian newspaper, which Pete referred to as well as chatting about water skiing and his love of water sport. He also said they intend to tour here again and we all went “YEEEEAAAAAHHHHH”<br>
I’m not normally a great fan of MG (perhaps I’ve heard it too many times) but when Pete hit that riff, the place took off, me with it – fantastic – even if we are older. “They must work out, to look and perform like that”, Cate said.
There was a tease of Sensation as Pete said that he’d written that song while in Australia in 68. Perhaps they’ll play the whole of it tonight. I’m glad they didn’t play Another Tricky Day. Sorry, but I’ve always found it to be a dud song.
Sparks sparked and then it was all over till tonight. I loved it. Will get the CD – best concert souvenir going, particularly as the T-shirts were so ordinary, I didn’t get one. You Am I’s T-shirt was much better. But it’s payday today, so I’ll get a stubbie holder. Better get one for my brothers too.
Still you can’t please everyone. One chap we were talking to on the way out was complaining about the guitar being distorted and the mix not being clean. I told him it was as it should be. He thought the Stones had a cleaner sound and didn’t change guitars on stage.
Roll on tonight.
