Ben Folds from what we saw, was totally awesome. I hate his music, but his stage presence and banter is simply incredible. I was entranced through his entire set (sans when he laid a brick with “Brick”) and he sang to Tori for her birthday. Well, we all did.

GuitarSoloGod on the stage-very exciting-he gave me perma-grin, two females (bass guitarist and keyboard/harmonica/flutist), drummer and lead, tight and professional pop rock a la Tom Cochran and maybe Blues Travelers, things I won’t tell GuitarSoloGod: the girls’ voices suck, the lyrics are smarmy to the point of being possibly Christian rock, and GuitarSoloGod is not the star

many members, Spanish festival music, good I’m sure since they play everywhere all the time, put the dance into people

08.24.2003 Tori Amos Lottapianos Tour FleetBoston Pavilion, Boston, MA
Opener: Ben Folds
Tori Amos is a singular majesty. We had damn good seats, but getting to the Pavilion is like your worst commute in Boston. It is near the water, but no where near anything else. They offer a shuttle – one. shuttle. which is ridiculously pokey and small. We crammed on and made it to the venue in the middle of Ben Folds set.

The summer tour was really just leg three of her promotion of Scarlet’s Walk although by this time, it had leaked that a greatest hits album was on the horizon. Oddly most of the hits are missing from that release, and I guess appropriately enough, they were also missing here tonight.

But for a setlist riddled with b-sides and obscure studio tracks, any Tori show is still an experience. She bookended the concert with her best-known songs and it was a free-for-all in between. She ran through a number of Scarlet’s Walk tracks, including “Wednesday” and “Sweet Sangria” both of which are what passes for a high energy Tori track these days. “Wednesday” is schizophrenic and fast. “Sweet Sangria” is better if you don’t wonder why a song about the underclass is so uptempo.

During her solo set, she threw in a Scarlet b-side, “Seaside” and a Joni Mitchell cover that was near heavenly. I can do without the saturation of Little Earthquake tracks and this version of “Take to the Sky” included some of the line “I feel the earth move under my feet” which didn’t transition well in and out of the rest of the song. I know some people found this new version to be earth-shattering, but it was a bland and she took out the arrangement that I thought made the the song rocking from when I heard it in Lowell. “Tombigbee” is seeing release as a cd track on her new DVD release and I think I was the only person excited about hearing “Glory of the 80′s” tonight. One of my favorite Venus tracks but nobody else seemed to be in the groove.

Set List
Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Professional Widow
Father Lucifer
Cornflake Girl
Rattlesnakes
Upside Down
Lust
Wednesday

Band Leaves
Leather
Seaside
A Case Of You

Band returns
Bells For Her
Siren
Sweet Sangria
Liquid Diamonds
Take To The Sky
I Can’t See New York
Precious Things
1st Encore
God
Suede
2nd Encore
Tombigbee
Glory Of The 80′s
Your Cloud

Stew was so bad that I blocked it from my memory. After starting with a passable blues number, this four piece band hand-chosen by the Counting Crows, sunk into mediocrity, worsened by the intended provocative subject matter of their songs. One was a spoken-word condemnation of alcoholism (or the recovery of said condition, it was hard to tell) and the other a song about a prostitute that we were apparently supposed to empathize with. I only felt sorry for myself.

Counting Crows choose mostly their best known songs for the set, and they performed with gusto. Having always been kind of a passive fan of theirs, I really wasn’t expecting to be blown away. In the first twenty minutes, they played “Mr. Jones” and Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” – my two Crow favorites, and I started to wonder if the rest of the set was going to be a bomb.

But actually not. Counting Crows have played together forever, and that kind of synergy defines quality. They eschewed most of their slower material, and that translated into a vigorous, lively set. And they played songs I recognized, always good for a few points on the enjoyment meter. All my worrying was for nothing, they are simply an awesome live band. They ripped through versions of “Rain King” and “American Girls” and gave a bittersweat extended version of “Round Here” complete with a five minute invasion of Van Morrison’s “Sweet Thing.” The two songs blended seamlessly into each other and this was easily the highlight of the whole evening. Even “Hanginaround,” which is by far the most painful tripe in their singles catalog, was performed with style. They invited the opening act, Stew, to take a verse on “Hanginaround.”

Counting Crows Setlist
Rain King
Hard Candy
Mr. Jones
Big Yellow Taxi
Miami
Black And Blue
St. Robinson In His Cadillac Dream
Omaha
Round Here / Sweet Thing
American Girls
Hanginaround
Encore
Goodnight LA
A Long December

cover band like I haven’t seen since Las Vegas-party band for the older folks, good but can you really respect them or yourself for liking them?

08.22.2003 John Mayer with Counting Crows Tweeter Center, Mansfield, MA
Opener: Stew
Much of the world of radio friendly music is divided into two philosophies. On the one hand, you have those who question why a band with such a hardcore following like Counting Crows would ever be the opening act for a punk like John Mayer. Then you have the rest who wonder why Counting Crows are there at all? I passed on John Mayer tickets when he toured with Guster in support of his first album. His radio hits definitely appeal to me, but the rest of his first album is unimaginative and immature. But the second album, Heavier Things was a distinct improvement. My friend from college was coming to visit, a self-proclaimed John Mayer fanatic, and so I bought two tickets so we could go to the show. I fall into the category of wondering why John Mayer wasn’t the opening act for Counting Crows. The result of the pairing, although they were listed as co-headliners, was a full set from John Mayer and an abbreviated set from Counting Crows.

We duly trekked down to Mansfield off of route 495 in southern Massachusetts. It’s a hike, and you can actually end up in a line of cars that stretches for miles because there is one entrance to the venue (it’s also the only exit, don’t get me started…) But we had plenty of time, and once we got inside the venue, we were able to walk around and peek at the merchandise onsale and leisurely make our way to the seats.

A lot of times I find that a performer who I’m otherwise ambivalent about, impresses me the most when I don’t recognize the material. This describes my John Mayer experience completely. He opened with a pathetic version of best known tune, “No Such Thing” and then backed his way into “3×5″ with some terrible stage banter that begged for a little lovin’ from his hometown (he went to college in Boston.) But he warmed up a few songs into the set and “My Stupid Mouth” and “Bigger Than My Body” were decent, little more energy, little more love from the crowd.

The best showcase for his work was “Come Back to Bed” which includes a dialogue of sorts towards the end, and humorously segued into the chorus “You can’t always get what you want.” It was playful and performed perfectly with his lopsided “I know I’m adorable” grin even though you just know he does it every night. “Your Body Is A Wonderland” was great, and I probably could have just left then.

John Mayer allows people to record his shows, so during the set change, quite a few mics were hiked into the air. The people who make these recordings are now apparently used to receiving requests from the rest of the crowd, and my friend fearlessly asked for his own copy from the guy closest to us. I got my own copy, and I can tell you that listening to it in the comfort of my home is a much more enjoyable experience than being there.

John Mayer Setlist
No Such Thing
Boston Intro/3×5
Something’s Missing
My Stupid Mouth
Bigger Than My Body
Come Back To Bed
Your Body Is A Wonderland
Why Georgia
Encore
Daughters
Love Song For No One
Back To You

expected them to be more adult contemporary but had a Santana flavor and some wailing guitars-put on a good show, not terribly moved

kind of cheating because I was only there for a few songs what with my unsound mindstate/fear my car would be towed/being yelled at by waitress for ashing in her water (empty plastic cup), per Chronicle “The Golden Apples” roster reads like an all-star lineup of Texas power-pop alumni, was ready to dismiss them (being pop and all) but they were so enjoyable for their difference from typical Austin music and for their undeniable tightness, next set was to be “more rocking” but I left

tight fast rockabilly-quite good actually, lead singer is the main attraction-a massive burly man in semi-drag (colorful cowboy hat and glitter and streamers over tight black pants and black t-shirt-oh and flaming platform boots) scream-roaring the entire time, he’d ocassionally break into a gay dance, made stupid obscene jokes and ordered shots of Jaegermaiester but wasn’t impressive after the antics of previous band

the best show I have ever seen in my life-which totally slams any pretense I had to musical integrity, so three “farmboys” that played hard and fast, waiting for their lead singer, he comes to the stage wasted in an eighties straight-boy outfit, swaying, he proceeds to jump off the stage into a trashcan and the show descends from there into total debasement, he divebombs all of the trash cans-rolls around in them-bumps into audience members-humps trashcans-rolls on the ground, non-stop awesome rock-and-roll entertainment, the crowd is disgusted but entranced, keep waiting for him to just collapse but he really never loses the song except for when he loses the microphone-delicious to think of the band’s fury, his back is bleeding by the end from the broken beer bottles all over the ground, disappointing denouement though was him back in the crowd after the show in shorts and t-shirt and appearing sober-so perhaps it was all just a show

near-punk rockabilly, singer had a growly fake-deep voice, most members wore ties, rockabilly is a new scene to me and I realized last night that it is to the “2000s” what glam-rock was to the eighties-lots of visual imagery, rock attitude but sooo little substance-superficial as all hell-and especially annoying because copping off of the fifties-guess interesting mostly because taking something clean and good and making it trashy, so all those little goth/bopper girls are just that, teenybopper rock groupies

lively soulful bluegrass, two GuitarSoloGod-looking rockers crooning and strumming together to the accompaniment of an upright bass and drums, really enjoyable

Dave Lazarus (from J & R’s party and Love Pistols) with a skinny emo-girl with country-rock attitude (she looked remarkably like his old partner but was not, I think), drummer and other guitarist too, good but same old Austin thing

too far away to really appreciate but just typical Austin woman bar blues, once got up there admirable because sprightly and enthusiastic while old with striped hair, she was playing a keyboard too