wow, last nite's show was really great. i'm not a huge fan of "i" but after seeing them play almost exclusively "69 love songs" tunes the last four times i've seen them, it was nice to get a change of pace. they played exactly 90 minutes, about 25 songs, 1/3 from the new album, 1/3 from "69 love songs," and 1/3 various other stuff, including an excellent back-to-back of "swinging london" and "smoke and mirrors." stephin was in a very playful mood, which was nice. he played yukelele exclusively, claudia played piano, sam was on cello and john switched off between guitar and banjo. even on the synth-heavy older stuff this arrangement worked well, just a really pristine sound.
it was sort of a theater set up, all seated but there were no tables. hard to believe how empty it was last nite, at least a couple hundred empty seats. got there around 945 or so and still got a relatively great seat, although i doubt that will be the case tonite. for the person who asked about stephin's hearing problems, he did mention them once, asking that when people applauded that they refrain from whistling because that's really painful for him. one annoying thing was that since it was a pretty quiet show, every time someone came out of the bathroom you could hear a bit of flushing. not cool, but not much you can do. very much looking forward to round 2 tonite.
