I was also at this show. only part i disagree on is the opening act. ill say this. go see him and form your own opinion on him, but i wont be getting to the future shows later, not worth getting there early for my tastes, though many people seemed to enjoy him. i liked the last song of his set a lot, the rest was so so to me. movin on. spot on review there, no other way to put it really, they kicked ****. this was the first full joe show i have seen, but also the best. this was a great venue to see him in. we were about thirty feet from the stage, this was easily the most enthused crowd i have ever seen at any of his live shows, and the sound was phenomenal. set list was exact same as he has been doing, which would disappoint me a little(though not nearly enough take anything away from the great time i had) but since i hadnt seen the first half i was actually grateful for this. now i can say I have seen so many roads played live. WOW. I heard this on some of the live torrents, and all i can tell you is though the torrents actually do do as much justice as you possibly can to capturing a live song (ie a good recording of mountain time) so many roads MUST be witnessed first hand. He just rips it up on that song. Love love love the chugging riff, the soloing is different in concert, less in the intro, more in the middle and different throughout from the studio version. Seeing mountain time live is always good. of all his songs i think that one changes the most noticeably from show to show, i have heard about 5-6 different live versions of the song and they are always unique. what feeling in that one, a great live one. and i know i already talked about woke up dreaming in the last review, but enough good cant be said about it. The song is a marathon and you can see the expressions of awe on the faces of all who are seeing it live for the first time. how the hell doesnt he break a string on that one anyway!? i like to imagine what it would be like if he walked into an open mic night in some town and just played that. also, i shouldnt say the setlist was the exact same as indy due to the special encore at indy, so here i can add more to the review. asking around for you live is good, particularly the soloing, but i have to be honest, it is the only song he does where i actually prefer the studio recording to the live. ball peen hammer live was terriffic, gotta see it. only thing i wish is that he would play longer, but like i said the guy really fills out a little over an hour and a half with more music than anyone else going today (that i am aware of that is).
one more thing, after the show, we went back around to the bus and were able to meet joe. what a class act. he was obviously in a hurry to get back inside, where i guess he did a meet and greet with the crowd, but i am honestly kind of glad we didnt know about that and were able to meet him alone. it was so funny, we walked back around to where the bus was, which was actually on the way to our car, but we were planning on going to the bus anyway, and we see this guy looking like a mechanic drinking some red wine. then it hits us, oh yeah, joe was wearing a workshirt during the latter part of the show. so my brother starts yelling joe joe and we go up to him, he turns and smiles and shakes are hands. of course no one plans what to say in a situation like this, but the best part was it was clear joe actually listened to what we said. we told him we had seen him in indianapolis too and how cool it was to see one of the only live performances of tea for one, and he talked about doug for a second, and i told him how impressed i was with dougs vocals. really nothing profound, but just writing about it puts a smile on my face. so funny to see him drinking that red wine. what a multi layered guy.
ps, hope the set list has some minor changes coming back thorugh the midwest by the chicago dates, i and any other midwesterner who go to multiple shows of yours will be eternally grateful.
pss
seems i cant go to see joe without something going wrong. though i was actually able to get to this one before the show started, i had the pleasure of having a tire explode on the highway on the way back. then the jack had a missing part so we had to call the police as people are understandably hesitant about stopping for people pulled over past midnight on a sunday. so didnt get home till past two in the morning and had to be at class at 9. completely worth it though. have a good one.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=fCdNsm7gvu8If wine and pills were hundred dollar bills
I might keep you satisfied
