Grand Rapids, MI - Calvin College - 10/27/2000
By M B

Easily the best Sunny Day show I've ever been to. The setlist was
jawdropping. I think the stuff they've chosen to play for the second leg of
the Rising Tide tour has been a lot more energetic than the first time
around.
The Euphone set was thankfully short, and they sounded a lot more "rock"
than they do on the record. It seemed like they were having a really good
time playing it and were jamming out a lot of stuff. Still, I can only
handle about 20 minutes of that shit.
They played the Smiths and the Kinks between band setups, which I thought
was pretty right on. Set up time goes by so much faster if you know the
songs on the PA.. :)
The venue was a really cozy little college auditorium with excellent
acoustics. The sound really carried but it was in a really intimate way.
Kind of like being at a huge basement show. Or like being at an amusement
park with no one else around and getting to ride all the rides you want all
day without waiting.
The bass player and keyboard player for Sunny Day hit the stage next and
started playing the opening bars of Pheurton and the place went up. It was
awesome. Then Jeremy wandered on stage, started singing and the place
exploded. Then a few seconds later Dan and Will walked out, and for a third
time, crazy crazy cheering. It was really cool and they rocked out the end
of the song which I thought was a slick touch. They rocked out hard all
night, but didn't really have too much to say to the crowd (even Dan was a
little quiet!)
The setlist was pretty much the same as all the other dates so far. I was
kind of expecting a lot of the songs, just from checking out what was being
posted on 'In The Blue'. Hmmm, I know they're not Phish or anything, but how
rad would it be if Sunny Day diversified the songs on the setlist for every
show?? That would make for some sweet bootlegs too! Anyway, looking out
across the audience, most of the kids were just kind of standing still and
didn't really seem too into it (aside from the kids packed upfront bobbing
up and down and dancing) but then towards the end of the show, there was a
lot more excitement and lots of kids who were just standing still really got
into it and started hopping around and stuff. Really cool.
Then SUnny Day left the stage before the encore and then this kid kind of
hobbled up on stage and the place went really quiet. Then he waited a few
seconds and said his name was Kermit and he wanted to thank Sunny Day for
playing and that he had just gotten his girlfriend pregnant and he wanted to
propose to her in front of the crowd. The crowd's applause was probably the
loudest it had been all night! Everyone cheerd, the girl got on stage and
was smiling and seemed really shy, but she said yes and they hugged and the
place went ballistic. It was sort of awkward to watch, but it was cool of
the guys in the band to let them do that.
Then the band came back out for an amazing rendition of the Prophet, Seven,
and TRT.
A really really outstanding show.