9:30 Club
Review by: Andrew
we arrived at the 9:30 club in DC last nite at about 8:00. there was a fair amount of people inside and we quickly made our way up to the front. at about 9:00 the opening band Athaneum (sp?) came on. if i had to use one word to describe their stage presence it would be 'awkward'. they were clumsily flailing around and when they tried to do the stereotypical run over to each other and jam like rock stars, they looked like they didn't know what to do. as everyone else has said, all their songs sound pretty much the same. one thing i noticed is that the lead singer sounds like the lead singer of the crash test dummies. anyway, they finished up their set and the goo took their time coming out. they started again with the keyboard sound and the 'altar boy' lighting the candles on stage. then out of nowhere, the goos came out and started with dizzy. as with every goo show i've ever been to, they continually had sound problems. johnny did his usual yelling off stage for the first two songs to turn things up or down. their set list differed slightly from what other people have posted for previous shows, so i was happy about that. their set was as follows (in no particular order):
A couple of interesting things about the show. robby said he did have laryngitis, but i wouldn't have been able to tell. he sang with more energy than ever. i was so happy they did 'another second time around' and 'burnin up'. johnny again told the 'name' story which everyone loved. at one point he was making fun of people from arkansas and then he went into his bill clinton impression which was actually pretty damn good. also, he said the keyboard player's (dave schultz?) favorite band was styx and dave started to sing "sailing". but robby went over and threw his water bottle on the keyboard to make him stop. when johnny was introducing the band, he introduced mike as the best girl drummer in rock and roll. also, when they started to play "hate this place", johnny said "this one's by the replacements". overall, they were being very funny and playful with the audience.
after it was all over people started to clear out. i went upstairs to see what was going on. after waiting awhile, nathan came out and then mike and finally robby and johnny. the girl waiting in line in front of me is the one that got to do mtv's fanatic. i'm not sure if she's on the list or not. she looked like she was about 16. anyway, i got to johnny first and got him to sign my ticket and some album covers. we talked about the shirt i was wearing, a sunny day real estate shirt, and he was saying how he liked the artwork. i got my picture taken with him. he got down on one knee saying i would look really tall in the picture. then i went over to robby and told him fabfay said hi. he said that was cool and told me about how she had eaten dinner at his mom's house. i got my picture taken with him and then headed over to mike. mike, as expected was pretty quiet, and i got my stuff signed and got a picture. then we kind of hung out for awhile talking and i called robby over for one more picture with my whole group who had been waiting for me. it was a great time. i'll be getting the pictures developed soon and they'll probably be posted on fabfay's website. -andrew
ps - a lot of things have changed since the previous tours. for those of you who have been to concerts in the past, be prepared mostly for a dramatic change in the audience and in the overall show. it's a lot different. i would say more scenery and costume then pure energy. but it's still awesome!