I had visited this place for dinner in February when Kasim played a solo gig in the town but there must have been 50 times more people in the town tonight as it was a warm summer night.

It was a standing gig and the stage was a strange shape with speakers blocking some of the sight lines. I stood to one side so that I could lean against a wall (as I’d already been on my feet most of the day). This meant that the only two that I could see clearly were Kasim and Todd, plus John was sitting (for me) behind a big wall of speakers. Prairie seemed to be sitting at a 90 degree angle to Todd and I could mainly only see his hat! Jesse I only saw walking on and off stage and then when he walked to the middle of the stage for the scissor kicks in Couldn’t I Just Tell You!

My favourite ever of all of Todd’s tours was the Power Trio Tour in 2000 (I’m so glad that I went to all the gigs on that tour) so when I heard this tour described as ‘Classic Todd’, I hoped that there would be several songs from that. There weren’t but they started off quite strong with crowd-pleasers such as Real Man and Love of the Common Man. It was only by Hawking and I Saw the Light that I started to notice my aching feet so that was a good sign.

Todd didn’t play much guitar during this set. He probably played for less than a quarter of the songs (if that) and he played very few long guitar solos (if any).

Todd did have a collection of percussion things he shook during various songs such as Espresso.

There were a few times when the band didn’t all start exactly together and he had to count them in but he seemed to find it amusing.

Todd spoke a few times at the beginning of the set but not so much after that.

After Couldn’t I Just Tell You, they all left the stage. This wasn’t the easiest thing as they had to walk through part of the crowd to get outside. Todd then came back and introduced the band before they played Hello It's Me and A Dream Goes on Forever as the encore. Todd then left the stage while the band finished the song. I expect that will be smoother when he’s on a proper stage and doesn’t need to walk through the crowd to exit.

The set (thankfully there was no opening act) lasted almost exactly two hours.

Comments by fans posted to various messageboards and mailing lists include:
"Really nice / strong performance in a small but packed venue."

"Doesn't play enough guitar on this IMO, but the band is great."

"The band was in great spirits."

"Todd brings out all the "hits" and some others we haven't heard in a long long time. His voice is spot on."

"There were still some kinks in the music that they will no doubt work out in the next show or two."

"The venue was small, cramped, with crappy visibility, but the crowd still loved the show."

"Go see the show, the set list is fun."

Other websites:
TRConnection has reviews and photos of this gig here.

Videos