Reviews by...
Richard Bragg
Everything opened again, and they were good again. My girlfriend hates that "Hooch" song a hell of a lot more than I do, but she still thoroughly enjoyed the rest of their set. I definitely think that this band has some potential. For their last song, Johnny came on staged a played with them. That was a great preview of things to come.
When Cracker came out, again they started with "Been Around the World", and it seems like they had even more energy than they had the previous night. Of course, it could also be that I was on Johnny's side this time and he generally is a tad bit more enthusiastic than Bob. Not to take anything away from Bob of course, they are just different personalities, and I love them both... And sure enough MG was back again for a repeat performance! It was great to be able to read the chicken scratches on Johnny's guitar just two feet in front of my face!
The next few songs were:
Seven Days
Mr. Wrong
The World Is Mine
The Good Life
Euro-Trash Girl
Teen Angst
Wedding Day (another duet with MG)
By the end of this set, I was already sweating from dancing so hard- it seemed like the band was really smoking and everyone was having a great time. I made eye contact with Johnny a few times and got a smile of approval when I knew the words to the new songs! There was one girl up front who was totally strung out on something and kept trying to get Johnny's attention by taking off her wedding ring very seductively whenever Johnny came towards her part of the stage. She was pretty whacked out, but she did get a smile out of Johnny.
There was another funny moment, too, when they started "Mr. Wrong" David started out with the wrong verse!!! He sang "Meet me at the river, little darling" instead of "...that goes nowhere", and as soon as that happened the whole band stopped playing! They had a laugh and started over, Johnny showed us his bad tattoo and that was that...
After that, Johnny started the intro to "Pictures of Matchstick Men" and that's when bad things started happening... First, this one frat boy asshole decided that he wanted to be up against the stage, so he started charging from the back and disguised his rush to the front as an attempt to start a mosh pit. The next thing you know, people were slamming in to me, and luckily since I am a big guy I was able to hold my ground, but there were an awful lot of people who wanted to just enjoy the show that had to give up their position. I changed positions with my girlfriend to shield her from the violent elbows and such, but lets just say I was getting pissed... and so was David. At first he was just shaking his head disapprovingly while he was singing. Then that song ended and they played "I Ride My Bike" Of course, this just kept the mosh pit going and then people even tried to head surf. One girl was actually thrown on stage by the crowd, and the soundboard lady had to run out and grab her as she was going toward David while he was playing. I was tempted many a time to put some of these mindless thugs (and thugettes) out of their misery with a quick shot, because the band was obviously not appreciating it. These people had no respect for the guys, and obviously just came for the "Hooch" song.
So then I think David tried to slow it down a bit to end the moshing. He played "Big Dipper" and it got even worse. While this song was playing, a bunch of low-lifes to my left started trying to talk to each other OVER the music. This seriously pissed off David. After the song, David grabbed his cup of water and threw it off the stage in their direction and said "Fuck them!" to Johnny. Johnny went to his mic and said "The people down here didn't pass the IQ test on that one!" and they both were clearly fuming.
It only went downhill from there, David was visibly shaken for the rest of the show, and it seemed like on some on them he was just going through the motions, but of course I can't blame him, and I really loved it when he threw the water at them, because I wanted to kill them myself. So, they finished the regular set with another song by MG, and, in no particular order:
Low
The Good Life
Lonesome Johnny Blues
Hold Of Myself
I Want Out of the Circus
Nothing to Believe In
At the end of the regular set, Johnny walked up and shook some hands of some of us up front, including mine!, because I got the feeling that he was thankful that some of us really respected them and were real fans. The bastard moshers were clearly too busy bashing into each other to notice that the band was seriously pissed. I was kind of hoping that they wouldn't do an encore to teach these people a lesson, but what happened was even better.
First, Johnny and the MG came out by themselves and Johnny played guitar while he/she sang one of his/her songs. During this one, the moshrats were screaming out stuff during the slow parts, and at the end of the song, MG was really mad too, and yelled at the moshers "Don't piss me off" and some other stuff I couldn't make out. Then David came out and pointed out the sonofabitch that started the moshing, who was calling out for them to play some song, and said something to the effect of, "I'm doing nothing for you, you been on us all night. So we're going to end with a polka and you can shove it up your ass!" Those of us who knew what he was talking about went crazy at this, and the Shiner Song finished the show. Awesome!
The only problem with this was that it was really difficult to enjoy the second half of the show when the band members were clearly upset, and I was getting elbowed on a regular basis. But it was great to sing along and have Johnny acknowledge me during the show, and to shake his hand afterward! I really felt bad for David and MG because the people were soooo disrespectful to them, and it was such a contrast to the great crowd at the Fillmore, only a few blocks away. But it was still a great show, and I really liked how they responded to the problems. Well, that's about all I have to say- I hope I haven't bored you to death! I can't think of a much better weekend, and there is still one more day.
Rich
After rereading my post, I realized a couple of things that I left out.
I think that even more than the moshing and crowd surfing, it was the talking over Big Dipper that pissed them off the most. David was so distracted by that, he even messed up on the lyrics twice!!! That definitely was the point of no return as the rest of the show was just going to be a formality. And last, as Lisa said, it was Joan Osborne, and since those of you for the next shows won't get to see it, at least listen to the webcast, because it was great!
Take care,
Rich well, I keep remembering stuff, so I hope you are still interested...
Like I mentioned at the end of the Fillmore show, David had to have the lyrics to Rainy Days and Mondays written down in front of him. After the show, the fans right in the center actually took these sheets as souvenirs. If only I had been three people over to the left and I would have had one!!!
Another particularly funny moment came in the Slim's show, which I left out originally for obvious reasons, but Joan was singing her encore song and was pressed up against Johnny playing the guitar, and he made the guitar "whistle" at her, clearly out of the context of the song. It was pretty funny and everybody loved it, but the funny part was that Joan then leaned over to Johnny and said "You are so full of shit." with a big smile on her face. It was hilarious, and of course only the people at the very front caught it, and only those who weren't moshing.
Rich