Patrick A.
VENUE: Extremely shitty. The show was NOT held in the Fine Arts Auditorium like it was originally scheduled to be. It got moved to the Field House, which is really just a big gym. There were no comfortable seats or elevated aisles, just a bunch of folding chairs on the basketball court. At least I was lucky enough to have a chair...the rest of the people got stuck in bleachers. The acoustics weren't very good, either. CROWD: VERY good....surprisingly. A little yelling and a few "I love you, Dave"s in between songs, but we were pretty well-behaved for the most part. A few morons got carried away during "Proudest Monkey" and started making monkey noises, until David shut them up with a frustrated, "I'm surrounded by noise..." comment during one verse. But, we were commended multiple times throughout the night. Davespeak: "Thank y'all for being so cool tonight...we really appreciate it. Most times we have a battle with the crowd...they get a little carried away, but y'all have been great tonight...thank y'all..." COMMENTS: He really had the crowd going during "Ants" but then he slowed it WAY down and ended the show with "Christmas Song"! I didn't understand that one, but hey, it was still cool. I LOVED "You Are My Sanity"...Timmy is so gifted. WWYS was EXTRA slow...very cool. Highlights for me were "Sanity", "LIOG", "Minarets", and a very, very phat "Ants". The show seemed a bit short....only 2 hrs. 15 minutes. Don't they usually go for almost 3 hrs? Anyway, the show was pretty good, but definitely not the best I've ever seen. Last year's show at MSU was MUCH better. Of course, my highlight was getting to talk to David for a few minutes afterwards. My friend was working the show as an usher and we just walked past everyone and into the locker-room (which was their backstage). He was real cool, asking me my name and if we liked the show. I was super nervous, but he was so down-to-earth. He definitely looked tired and his voice was a little raspy tonight. I wanted to meet Timmy, but he was at the back of the locker room and I didn't want to push my luck. So, I got David's autograph, shook his hand, thanked him for the music, wished him a Happy Belated Birthday (to which he gave a huge grin) and we left after 5 minutes. Alright, enough of my rambling... Some interesting tidbits: I asked David about when the band is going out on the road again, and he said "not until the summer". He mentioned something about taking some time off to rest, but he told me what each band member is up to: Stefan is working with another band right now, Roi is doing more Code Magenta stuff (I think that's what he said), and Carter has "like, five projects going on on the side right now....he's all booked up." He didn't mention Boyd. I asked him if Stefan was going to sit in on the NY shows, since they are headed to Syracuse right now, and he sounded like he didn't know. "I'm not really sure if he will or not...he's working with these other guys right now, but he might stop by..." So, it sounds like the guys are doing their own thing for awhile...good for them. They all need some R&R after a long 1996. I also talked to Bagby for awhile about SBD patches, and he said, "It's really up to the band. There's a bunch of stuff with copyright infringement, and it's taking money away from them...it's really up to those guys." He did NOT give out a single patch this year (not even for 10/3 MSG)...the last patch was given at NYE '95/'96. I told him about the Care To Share program, and our reporting of stores that sell bootleg CD's, and he seemed pleased that we were doing something about it, and he said that "we really appreciate that stuff...it's definitely a valiant effort." He was really nice. Oh yeah...I also commended David for his "liveliness" in Washington D.C. last weekend, and he said something about how "crazy that was"....I forgot his exact words.