Minneapolis, MN - First
Avenue 06/28/00
By Dinojr
I saw the band for
the first time back in October of 1998, and they were
awesome. I got to meet everyone but Dan, and I got everyone's autograph
thanks to a very cool Joe Howard (Sky Cries Mary rules)!
The opening band (No
Knife), was better than most of the opening bands I
have seen...but that is not saying a whole lot. They were trying to be
dynamic like SDRE, but most of their songs were far too repetitive.
The sound in the club
was very good, especially since I forgot my custom
ear-plugs. The stage was high enough so that most everyone had a good
view of the band.
I am pretty positive
that the playlist was the same as the Seattle show
(8, The rising tide, and In Circles were the encore). The songs with
keyboards added sounded great (I was suprised), although the keyboard
player played 3rd guitar on a couple of songs and it was overkill (Dan &
Jeremy's guitars were washed out by him, and Enigk's voice seemd to
strain in competiton for volume). William's drumming was increadible as
usual (I actually think he is getting better if that is possible)!
My biggest complaint
was from the idiots up on the balcony who kept
whining for songs from Diary! Lets face it, we have heard those songs
thousands of times already if you own the album....I am sure that the
band is tired of playing them also. The Rising Tide is the new album
and I am sure that the band is anxious to see the crowd's reaction to
all the hard work they put into those songs in the studio!
I had a blast, I just
wished that the actual performances had started
much sooner after the doors opened (late).
dinojr