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Joe Crane's Review
(more reviews coming)
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The show details.
A Columbus Dispatch review (mostly covers Pretenders).

1. Motorcycle Mama
2. Powderfinger
3. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
4. I Believe In You   [electric]
5. Unknown Legend   [electric]
6. Dance Dance Dance
7. Buffalo Springfield Again
8. Razor Love
9. From Hank To Hendrix
10. Daddy Went Walkin'
11. Peace Of Mind
12. Walk On
13. Winterlong
14. Bad Fog Of Loneliness
15. Words (Between The Lines Of Age)
16. Don't Let It Bring You Down
17. Harvest Moon
18. World On A String
19. Tonight's The Night   [on piano]
    Encore
20. Cowgirl In The Sand

First of all, thanks to Carol for the ticket. Terrific seats about 11 rows back, dead center. These were corporate seats, so there were a lot of casual fans (i.e. yuppies) in our section.

We met at the Polaris Cafe, and i arrived early. While i was waiting i could hear the sound check as clear as a bell. At first i thought it was a car blasting Neil out his windows, but after a few minutes i realized it was the sound check. It was a version of Bad News Beat, but instead of Neil singing "i got a man on the street", it sounded to me like "a man on the stage". Whatever he said, it was pretty cool.

Carol arrived and we had a great meal at the cafe, and headed for the show. To any of you Columbus Rusties that get snowed in this winter and need to get out, call Carol. With her monster 4-wheeler, she can definitely "deliver the mail"!

Got to see the last song or two from Tegan & Sara, not bad.

Pretenders did their usual set, starting with The Loner and kissing the stage. Chrissie did screw up during TNATDD, during the second verse. She started singing a completely different song, then said "fuck it, i'm starting that verse again". A highlights was My City Was Gone -- outstanding! At one point before the start of a song Chrissie pointed out a huge flock of birds that were flying by. Probably the best warm up set before neil i've ever seen.

During set-up for Neil, we wandered back to the second stage and caught a bit more of Tegan & Sara. I enjoyed them, but they are just not worth the bandwith here.

Neil started a lot earlier than i expected (later i found out we were racing with a noise curfew) but we got back to our seats in time to see the band stroll out. The crowd was fantastic. Except for a few songs, everyone as far as i could see were on their feet. I really never noticed much talking during songs from where i sat.

We got 5 "How ya doin'?"s, 3 "Thanks for coming"s (two of them were followed with "We love ya") and two "You're a great crowd"s. Afterwards he said something to the effect, "Since you're such a great audience, we're going to add one right here". And then they played Don't Let It Bring You Down. (Pegi and astrid left during this song.)

i dont want to go everything song by song, but some things i noticed:

• Pegi had surprising strong vocals during her Motorcycle Moma verse. i was impressed. What a great song to open the show with.

• During Powderfinger and EKTIN, Neil kept glancing up at the monitors stage left. Between both songs he was conferencing with Larry and another crewman. i later found out Neil couldn't hear the band.

• i think it should be a law that during the final chorus of Dance Dance Dance Neil must segue into Love Is A Rose.

• Razor Love has to be one of my all time favorite Neil songs. And this band plays it as well as any.

• Right before DWW Neil mentioned he was from canada, and that his dad is up there right now on their farm. Then he kinda glanced at Astrid, who was nodding her head yes. Neil then dedicated this song to his dad.

• From Walk On to Words i was in heaven. What a great four song stretch. Walk On rocked. Winterlong was played with so much emotion. Bad Fog was a song i never thought i'd ever hear in concert (my only complaint it was much too short). And although Carol may disagree, i thought Words was the song of the night. i played that song over and over again in my head on the three hour trip back to Indy.

• After those is where we got the "bonus song" -- although come to find out it probably cost us MMM at the end. I would rather have had MMM, since i've heard Neil do DLIBYD many times.

• When Neil introduced the band, the four corporate guys in front of us freaked out when they heard it was Neil's sister and wife doing vocals.

• CITS was unreal. Ranks right up there with the Indy version i heard in '96. During one of his extended solos, Astrid and Pegi were shaking their heads like they couldn't believe what a zone Neil was in. I was shaking my head as well.

joe

(more reviews coming soon... --RE*AC*TOR)