Photo by Ron Hromoko
The Surf Talks
World Wide Epiphany
Kalamazoo was only a three hour drive from Chicago and fortunately I arrived early as I discovered that it's in a different time zone which threw me! The State Theatre was an ornate but slightly run down building and they were very strict on not allowing people to use cameras. The support group were the best so far as they were a rock group called The Symphonics (I think).
In total contrast to last night, only a few people stood when the band came on stage and security actually told some guys to sit down near me!
After ISP (which grows on me more and more each time I hear it) we had the usual Play This Game with an unusual twist as halfway through the song, Todd knocked his microphone stand over so Kasim sang a few lines to cover which was brilliant to hear!!! Within a couple of bars, Todd then managed to break a string so he had "an unexpected guitar change" as he remarked after the song! He also broke another string later in the show too!
The State Theatre was really warm but Todd came on stage again wearing his long coat (but only for a few tracks). As all three of them were wearing all black again (tonight Kasim was wearing his loose black shirt) Todd announced that this was the "Men In Black" tour and that they'd work on us the audience so that we didn't remember their mistakes!
After Love Of The Common Man (which really gets the crowd rocking), they switched the order from how they've played it at the first two concerts because they went straight into Love In Action. Todd has a list of songs at his feet but it seems that they just play what he fancies at that time as I could see him mouth to Kasim and Trey the next song. It makes for a more interesting tour for someone like me who is going to all the concerts but it certainly tests my memory!
Unfortunately tonight they were light on the Utopia songs as Todd omitted Fix Your Gaze, Hammer In My Heart, Secret Society and (the one I missed the most for obvious reasons!) Trapped. The set itself was shorter tonight (one hour forty minutes compared to two hours yesterday) but I think that was mainly because Todd was suffering with his voice (in his words it was on "that thin line between being croaky and funky"). His voice all but gave out on him during The Surf Talks - he missed out two lines near the end as he was coughing and then just left Kasim and Trey to sing the final "The surf talks, the surf talks". That was obviously why we didn't have the Todd solo spot tonight but, to my mind, it seemed all the more reason to have included Trapped so that Kasim could share the lead vocals.
Todd isn't chatting as much between songs on this tour but he did announce that the name of his green guitar was "foamy" (or possibly phoney) and that people chatting on the Internet shouldn't call it the green guitar anymore but "foamy"!
The "Musical Interlude" was back tonight (which saved Todd's voice for a while). As I was right near the front, I was SO impressed with Kasim's bass playing during his showcase part! It makes me realise how understated his playing usually is. Trey seems very good on the drums too but he has an unusual way of singing as he hardly opens his mouth when sings!
The audience tonight redeemed themselves during One World as loads of people got up and were dancing at the front of the stage which was great to see! Fortunately the security guards realised that they were outnumbered so let the people enjoy themselves and only waded in when a slight scuffle broke out.
The first encore tonight consisted of only the one song, The Surf Talks but, for the first time on this tour, they added the modem sound at the beginning. Last night and tonight Todd shouted the "I love you, do you love me too?" line. They went off stage for quite a while and I was beginning to wonder if we'd get the second encore but they did return for the usual great song World Wide Epiphany.
As there's no concert tomorrow, fingers crossed that Todd's voice improves for Cleveland on Monday.