The first band was from Washington state, had a blond singer with a powerhouse voice (including a shocking falsetto), and performed a cover of “White Rabbit”. But no, it wasn’t Nevermore, it was Two Ton Boa. This particular singer was a girl, and her bandmates were two bass players (sometimes one swapped with her to play keyboards) and a drummer who had genuine garbage can lids for cymbals (the few times I saw him actually hit them, they made a rather unremarkable sound). Some of their songwriting wasn’t so hot, but then at other times they’d really rock out and grab my attention pretty well. The singer is the obvious highlight (the Jefferson Airplane song was a perfect choice for her voice), but there was something slightly off-putting about her presence. However, her lyrics all seemed a bit dark and twisted, so maybe that’s the point. Probably won’t go run out and buy their albums, but I wouldn’t mind seeing them again. They said it was the largest crowd they’d ever played for (it was a sold-out show at the 1400-capacity theater).

Then we had a dancing troupe come out and do some sort of non sequitur performance called “Yes, Juliet” that involved lots of simulated sex performed to Britney Spears’s “Toxic”, for some reason. A bit amateurish, but damn entertaining.

Then it was a time for a 17-year old singer-songwriter and Dresden Dolls fan to get up and do a solo song on acoustic guitar/vocals. Turned out to be a mildly creepy stalker-song (“Yes Amanda Yes”?), but she had a very good voice and did a fine job of performing under what must have been fairly terrifying conditions, so much respect to her.

Then it was time for yet another fantastic performance by The Dresden Dolls. I’ve now seen them enough where it’s clear that I’ll never get tired of it, both because they perform so well, and because every performance is new and different. This time they did two new covers I hadn’t seen before, six(!) originals that aren’t on their albums, and even the “classics” sounded fresh, with things like an extended jazzy jam worked into “Mandy Goes To Med School”. And the improv instrumental intro to “Half Jack” seemed like the best, darkest, and most frightening version I’ve heard so far, but I think that every time I see them play it. As much as I enjoyed seeing Amanda play with Estradasphere a couple months ago, it was great to see her back again with Brian, because they have that history, and dang, can that guy play the drums.

Contrary to my belief after that Amanda solo show, the band was still able to get involved with the crowd at this big sold-out venue: during “The Gardener”, Amanda walked through the crowd in front of the stage from one side to the other, eventually ending up in one of the balcony boxes. And then during the encore (“Fight For Your Right (To Party)”), they invited the audience onstage, and it seems like nearly 100 people joined them, which started making Amanda (on drums) a bit nervous about lawsuits, and caused Brian’s guitar to get cut off halfway through, as he was absolutely engulfed by the masses surrounding him.

As usual, the crowd was totally lifeless during the songs, but between them, was cheering like mad (a group of teenage girls behind me nearly blew my ears out before and after “Coin-Operated Boy”)

Setlist:

In The Flesh [Pink Floyd]
Girl Anachronism
Mrs. O
Missed Me
Ultima Esperanza
Coin-Operated Boy
Glass Slipper
The Gardener
Sorry Bunch
A Night At The Roses
Mandy Goes To Med School
Astronaut
Sex Changes
Half Jack

(You’ve Got To) Fight For Your Right (To Party) [Beastie Boys]
Bad Habit

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 11:01 am and is filed under concert. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.