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IN THIS ISSUE: Dude, Where's My Hobbit? & Philly Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 And The Message Board Says... Page 4 Dambuilders/Noho The Reviews News & Links TTOY Hall of Fame Archives
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MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, LOUIS
The day started out perfectly, with a bunch of crazy Ezralites meeting up for dinner at one of St. Louis's best restaurants, Blueberry Hill. After watching all of the "interesting" characters walking down Delmar, the street where both Blueberry Hill and The Pageant are located, we drove over to venue. When we walked into the Halo Bar, where ticket holders are allowed to enter before everyone else, the line was already long. Luckily most of the people in line headed for the seated section, not the dance floor. After what seemed like forever the opening band, Blue October, came onto the stage. With a couple of good songs and some spastic body movements of the lead singer, Blue October certainly got the crowd pumped and ready for the main act. All things considered, they were a pretty good band, but we were all ready to see what crazy antics the BTE boys would get up to that night. After waiting while Uncle Mike and co, set up the guys' equipment, we finally heard the opening music to the show, which surprisingly was part of "At Charles De Gaulle, etc." The first surprise of the night was that Tom was wearing a white shirt instead of his usual black. The concert started off with "Misunderstood," and led into "Good," which Kevin customarily introduced as a "new" song. Next "Rolling" and "Live Again" were played and Kevin introduced James Arthur Payne on the keyboards.
After that Kevin announced that the DVD will be out this summer, but we all know that means (maybe by next Christmas?). Next the band played "Special", with Kevin doing his best rock star jump, and comparing Uncle Mike to veteran rocker Neil Young. "Get You In," came next which Kevin introduced as a "song for all the ladies, and all of the hoochie mama's in the crowd." "Extraordinary" followed and Kevin decided to delight the audience with a tush shake. Kevin also mixed in "Walk this Way" by Aerosmith, "Wild Thang" by Tone Loc, and Outkast's "Ms. Jackson." Kevin also took the opportunity to thank Travis for getting "all Rush on my ass." He also read a thank you note that Ezralites Audrey and Heather had written him for writing them birthday messages at the Christmas shows.
"King of New Orleans" was played next, but without Beck's "Debra ." I should explain that Audrey and a couple of the Ezralites at the show had "J.C. Penny" nametags made up especially for the show. When Kevin saw it he got very excited and took the nametag from Audrey, explaining to the audience what she had done. He then sang "Debra" to her, mouthing "call me" to her, and gave her back the nametag at the end of the song. "In The Blood" was next, and then the guys segued right into fan favorite "Hollow." At this point in the show Kevin sat down to let Jim play the guitar
and play the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil." Kevin announced to
the crowd that" Jim Payne rocks his world." Kevin then sat behind the
drums, played a little bit, and tried to get Travis to sing, but he said
that it was was "too early to experiment with new awakenings of BTE ." |
The Ramones' "Sedated" came next. KG said that the song was considered too "rustic" for the O' Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, but it certainly serves as a great introduction for "Sincerely, Me." This rocker soon gave way to "Desperately Wanting," the last song before the encore. "Particle" was the first song played during the encore. It's great to have this song back after such a long absence. Moving briskly, Kevin dedicated the next song, "Recognize" to all the servicemen and women overseas and thanked them. The song included a cover of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus." "Happy Day MaMa" soon followed and then "A Lifetime." During "A Lifetime," Audrey and I made a sign for "In A Little While." Tom mouthed that they played it the previous night, so "Lifetime"was the last song of the night, ending the show. Overall the setlist for the show was pretty standard, with the exception of " Particle," but the show was still great and exciting. The band seemed to be in a good mood, although there wasn't much banter going on between Tom and Kevin. After the show we all waited behind the Pageant for the band before realizing they were all hanging out in the Halo Bar. So we all headed into the bar to meet the band. Audrey showed her amazing BTE scrapbook to the band. It was an awesome show that was made even better by the great Ezralites I met who all very kindly put up with my excited attitude.
AN ACOUSTIC TREAT AT DASANI FEST Storm clouds filled the Central Texas skies as assembled Ezralites stood in front of the stage outside the Alamo Dome wondering whether the rain would end up ruining yet another BTE show. But this day the weather gods smiled upon the Dasani Fest and the crowd stayed mostly dry for the entire length of the show. And what a show it was! I had heard rumors that this was to be an all-acoustic show, and it turned out the whisperings were true as fans watched the crew as they set up barstools behind the mics instead of Kevin and Tom's standard rugs. Kevin tried to tell the assembled throng that their truck had broken down and they didn't have any of their instruments, but the Ezralites in the crowd knew better! Because of the limitations of the venue, the show did not start with the usual rooster crowing. Instead, the guys just walked out onto the stage and went right into playing "Extraordinary." The set list was what one would expect for a one hour set at a festival type show: all the singles such as "Misunderstood," "Good," "King of New Orleans," "Desperately Wanting," plus "Rosealia" and "A Lifetime." They also played "This Time of Year," complete with guest guitarist, Wesley, whom Kevin said was the spitting image of Justin Timberlake. He played very well and even sang some! Since there was no drum riser for him to jump off at the end of the song, Kevin had Wesley stand up on a barstool and jump off of that. He jumped off the stool in a graceful arc and, thankfully, managed not to hurt himself or the equipment. The sound quality was unexpectedly amazing. I loved the fact that,
for the first time ever, I was actually able to understand Kevin as he
sang Beck's "Debra" during "King of New Orleans." The banter was also
easily understood. At one point, Kevin told the crowd that poor Travis
had a gambling problem and that they were going to have to send him to
the Promises Treatment Center in Malibu. We also got to enjoy other
covers and extras such as Outkast's "Miss Jackson" and "Whole World",
and a great impersonation of Dave Matthews during "Desperately Wanting." Overall, it was an excellent show and possibly one of the best I've ever attended thanks to the superior sound quality. I had been leery of making the two-hour drive to San Antonio for a festival show, but this one was well worth the trip! Cara, thanks for covering the show. Sounds like it was a lot of fun.
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