Alright, my vacation truly started this weekend and let me describe it.
Had tickets to see \'A Perfect Circle\' and the opening band \'The Year of the Rabbit\' (fronted by Ken Andrews). Waited out in the cold for over an hour. Let me say this, Louisville Gardens has the worst staff and it showed. There was no crowd mangement what so ever. There was cutting in line - if you could even fine the line, which was almost impossible. However, finally we (Capcom and I) got in and got great seats. Low, perfect view. Ken Andrew\'s band \'Year of the Rabbit\' opened up and I must say, I was really impressed with them. As an opening band they done great, enoguh that I decided I would buy their cd later on... After they was done, something happened and we had to wait an hour for APC to come out on the stage.
Once APC came out, they started it off with \'Vanishing\' and a beautiful light show. Maynard on a podium in the middle, James Iha on a podium on the right, Jeordi White (Twiggy) on the floor / right hand side, Billy Howerdel across from him and Josh on a podium on the left. Before anyone asks, no you never see Maynards face. All you ever see is a shadow of him stomping on stage and dancing.
The band seemed to be bipolar though. James Iha was having a lot of techincal problems, which forced the band to constantly take breaks during songs and tell Michael Jackson jokes. Maynard was really enjoying himself , but he was getting annoyed and it was present. He started complaining he had a flu and that Ken Andrews would not join them on stage for \'The Nurse Who Loved Me\'. Billy never left his spot or looked up. He looked dead almost...Josh, was hard to see. The only one who was really enjoying himself was Jeordi. He was dancing, he was jumping, he was break dancing. If it was possible, he was doing it.
Maynard at one point decided to cut the concert short. He confirmed that \'The Outsider\' was going to be the next sequel and said "have a safe travel, see ya later". Played the song and the lights started to come on..Jeordi could be saw talking to Maynard and the next thing you know, they had changed their mind. They went on for two more songs (Noose and Judith). After Judith Maynard said that was it and walked off. James followed extremely fast and so did Billy. Jeordi and Josh hung out abit, played around and then Josh took off...Jeordi however did not. He kept on playing, he played some stuff I never heard, played some Mettailica and had the crowd chant for the rest of the band to come out. They didn\'t. The only thing that happened was Billy came out, played with Jeordi, then tapped him and said "it\'s time to go" or something to that extent... Did that stop mister Twiggy? No. He got on Maynards podium and kept playing. Lights was on, crew was taking the stage apart and he kept going. I have to say I was more impressed with his show than anything...
Afterwards, I went to pick up \'The Year of the Rabbit\' cd and guess what? The band was there signing, \'cept there was no one wanting autographs.. I have always dug Ken Andrews, so I went ahead and had the band sign it and talked to the band abit. I must say, they are extremely polite. The moment was spoiled by the crowd mangement though. I had three cops standing behind me staring, the band noticed and rolled their eyes. At one point, the cops even said "If you are not buying anything, get the **** out" to the rest of the crowd around the merchandise area.
List of songs I remember being played and notes..
\'The Vanishing\' - Opening. Maynard played the congo drums.
\'Pet\' - Second song. Great song.
\'The Hollow\' - Third.
\'Magedelan\' Fourth
\'Fred\'s got Slacks\' - Jeordi\'s little number.
\' The Package\' - Extended outro
\'3 Libras\' They brought out Paz to play violin on this one. She was great. The lights was great on this one. Once Maynard started the \'You Don\'t see me at all\', he kept dissappearing more and more, until the middle of the podium was pitch black.
\' The Outsider\' - Maynard confirmed that this was indeed the song single.
\'Blue \' - A song I never cared about on the album, but carries a lot of weight live.
\' Rose\'
\'Gravity\' - Slightly reworked. Added drums and Maynard took the chorus and made the notes much higher, more akin to the "You don\'t see me at all" in 3 Libra\'s. Extremely rocking.
\' The Nurse Who Loved Me\' - No Ken Andrews duet, however it was a reworked version. This is a song they keep reworking. The album version is so laid back, then there is the failure version they play live usualy and then there is the version they played lastnight. It was a mix. Some of the first verse was repeated a couple times, all the instruments was upped a notch and by the end of it Maynard was belting out the lyrics.
\'Judith\' - Last song.
\'Noose\' - Great song live.
\'Thinking of You\' - Dedicated to the "anal queen of Louisville".
\'Weak and Powerless\' - "This song is called SUCK IT". No doubt a reference to the fact that the fans have picked this song apart, saying it is extremely simple and what not. Uneventful song really. Could of done without it.
So, as you see they didn\'t play \'Orteses\' - which is a damn shame. I am not sure why they cut it from the set list. They did not play others like \'Brena\' or \'Stranger\'...
I\'m just upset about them cutting \'Oretes\', more than anything.
Sunday (today) I went to SkydiveKy and made my first tandem skydive. Jim, my jumpmaster, Steve the cameraman and I jumped at 10,500 feet or so. Fell at 120mph for around 30 seconds and then pulled. Had a decent landing and a great time. Just wish I had more money to do another jump today.
It was cold though. It was right at 50 degree\'s (F) and had 20-25 mph gust winds. Hopefully next week will be better, as next Saturday I take my first jump course.
Props go out towards Capcom, who suffered through the weekend with me, shared a hotel and in general burned me to death with the heater.
