Marts Center
Review by: Steve
Hey all,
I thought I'd give you a little taste of the show Saturday night at the Marts Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA. The Marts Center reminded me of my high school gym. It was a hardwood floor with bleachers on the side. The place was general admission and there were probably 2000 people, mostly students from Wilkes University.
First off, Athanaeum was excellent. The sound was incredible. That is probably more credit to the sound people. For an obviously non-acoustics structure, the sound was amazing, better than I've heard in large arenas. They probably played for 30-45 minutes.
The Goos came on around 9:30 and played until 10:45. It was my 3rd time seeing them, twice as openers for Rusted Root and Bush, respectively. The crowd was really dead other than when Name, Iris, and Slide were played. There were cheers when they came on stage and when they returned for the encore. So, that makes 5 loud occasions. Right before Name, Johnny told a story about how the song came to be. He played the riff that led into the main chords of the song. It was pretty neat. Johnny invited this girl Kat on stage to sing the end of Name. He noted her being in the crowd earlier in the show, worried that she might be stalking to kill.
The set was excellent, it was a great mix of Hold Me Up through Dizzy. They opened with Dizzy, followed by Slide and Long Way Down. I don't remember the order of the rest other than playing There You Are and Two Days in February in the encore. They also played Fallin' Down, Another Second Time Around, Naked, Burnin' Up, Flat Top, Broadway, January Friend, Black Balloon, Bulletproof, Full Forever, Iris, and Hate This Place. I don't think I missed any.
Hearing Robby singing was great! The last 2 times I had seen them, he didn't get any vocals in. He obviously had recovered from the problems around DC show time. As a whole, the crowd sucked, but the show rocked. I'm looking forward to seeing them next time around.
Steve