9/27/2000 - Sacramento, CA - The Crest Theater
By Dan Trudell

I arrived an hour early to The Crest theatre which is truly a beautiful
place. The crowd wasn't that huge...this part of california is on the
edge of the middle of nowhere...even though it's the state capitol, so it
was locals and fans (like me) willing to drive for 2 hours to see
them. The security dudes almost didn't let me in because I had a
"professional camera", but the boss lady let me in...keep checking...I
still haven't scanned my pics from the SF shows, but I plan to send in
pics from all 3 dates shortly :).

The openers were "Gardener" and "Peter Yorn". Gardener was pretty
cool...the lead singer-guitarist guy said he read the people compare SDRE
to Rush in a magazine, so he made a joke about their bass player looking
like Geddy Lee...some people got the joke. They set up a mini-merch on
the stage...nobody was front and center on the stage at this point....just
hanging in the cushy chairs.

Peter Yorn was pretty good. I was dissapointed that they didn't have a
merch setup....cause I wanted to grab one of their CD's....oh well.

And then SDRE :) When they arrived on stage, there wasn't even a bass
guitar present, so Jeremy, Dan and Will improvised a bit with the chat
until that was remedied. Then they started playing.

setlist:
--------
pheurton skeurto
one
killed by an angel
song about an angel
snibe
the ocean
the blankets were the stairs
100 million
every shining time you arrive
faces in disguise
rodeo jones [not played?]
48
j'nuh
in circles
the prophet
seven
the rising tide

That's right kiddies, they started with pheurton skeurto. It was not
standard, they had guitars and drums at some points...but don't get in a
big huff about it...it was pretty darned cool. It took me by surprise,
but i really enjoyed it. One and KBAA are still 5 times better live than
on CD or MP3...say what you will about Napster, if you love music, you'll
go to the shows, because nothing beats being there......nothing.

Song about an angel ruled as usual, it was the best performance of it I
heard....but that's not saying much, because it was the second time I
heard it live. Truly cool. It's because of this one, seven (read
below) Blankets and TRT (I LOVE that live ending) that I'll likely fly out
to see the last show of the tour.

The blankets were the stairs was absolutely the best I'd ever heard
it...ever...well in my opinion. I was front/center on the stage, and I
said so to Jeremy, he responded...which threw me and my speech skills off,
but I think he took it as a compliment, which is cool.

100 Million was better than the HIFTBSO tour. I'd say that ESTYA was
better too. I think te band is having a better time than that tour this
time around. Dan, Will, and Jeremy were talking and joking a lot, it was
fun. At one point, Dan was saying something to the audience and nobody
could hear it because some crazy noise came out of Jeremy's setup. That
ensued a game of them trading talking and "accidentally" making noise over
the speech.

Will did a drum solo. It was cool. He said it was his first. Somebody
told him to sit there and look pretty, then to play some old Foo Fighters
tunes...that was funny.

48 absolutely kicked ass. I think the last couple shows of this tour are
going to be te best in years. They said they were working the kinks out
of this setlist.....it still rocked...I can't wait to go to an un-kinked
show from this tour.

Jeremy broke a string on j'nuh [foreshadowing]. The guitar he grabbed to
replace it wouldn't take a strap, so he finished the song sitting cross
legged on the stage. It was the 4th string i've seen him break....always
on the black guitar.

In Circles was fun as always.

I can't be sure (having too much of a good time) but I think the
pre-encore break was here. It was a small crowd, so it was hard to keep
the applause up, but a few strategically placed "YEAAAAAH's" and
"WOOOOOO's" helped a lot, along with the people at the front pounding on
the stage and monitors......the monitors was probably a bad idea.

The Prophet. Of the HIFTBSO I've heard live....I'll keep saying it...this
was the best performance of it.

Seven. This one started by Dan trying to give hints as to what was coming
up next. "...probably the most requested song". People started shouting
almost everything but seven....mine were grendel, Spade and Parade, and
polly wolly doodle for the fun of it. Then they started playing seven,
and it was good, and there was much rejoicing. Then, the curse of the
black guitar invoked itself....two broken strings. At this point, I had
seen as many broken strings on that guitar as it can hold at a time. I
was too busy moping to have my camera ready when Jeremy raised it above
his head, striking it down on the stage as if splitting wood with an
axe...not for firewood, for frustration. The band kept playing, then Dan
stopped, then jeremy came to the mic and said "were going to start this
one over" and there was much rejoicing. He was fiddling with the
replacement guitar, saying it was crappy. He wanted to know if anybody
caught the smashing on video...hoped that somebody did....if you know
somebody who did...please try to get it to him....it seemed real important
to him. I got a picture of the guitar laying on the stage by Dan, but
that's as close as my coverage gets. They started playing again. I can
now understand the frustration....Jeremy wasn't lying...that black guitar
sounds sweet in comparison to the one he grabbed to play seven after the
fact. It's a crying shame it breaks strings. But despite all this, seven
was sublime....it was awesome...yes, it was full of some awe...a whole
bunch of it. I would say worth saving up and following the last week of
the tour like a deadhead.

Get to one of these shows at all costs...you won't regret it.

-Dan T.