West Des Moines, IA - 1st June 2000

I thought that after driving over 650 miles we would have lost Syn-o-matic but no, they were the support act again (with the lead singer in the same outfit!) so I purposely didn't arrive until halfway through their set.

The ballroom looked very run-down from the outside but was smart inside. Unfortunately there were long bench style tables on the dance floor itself so most people remained seated all evening, although Todd did receive a standing ovation when he first walked on stage.

Without going through all the set list again we had the usual opening three songs (with Todd getting the words wrong in Play This Game!) and then it took about five minutes for them to turn the lights on so that Todd could actually see his guitar on stage!

The next few songs were mainly Utopia ones with Todd catching Kasim out again by starting strumming Trapped as Kasim was swigging some water!

Yer Fast is really growing on me the more I hear it and I'm always amazed that they all finish together as there seems to be no recognisable way of knowing when they'll end the song!

Todd did his solo spot again tonight but took so long telling us about his "Hawaiian song" that some people were calling out for him to hurry up! Two guys beside me at this point were deciding that Todd was 55 and Kasim (whose voice they said they'd recognised) was 48!

There was no Mystified tonight but they played The Ikon and all took their turns in the spotlight which was great!

As usual we had two encores, firstly of One World and The Surf Talks and then World Wide Epiphany so I always drive back to my hotel singing that one!

All three of them were dressed all in black again. The concert tonight lasted just under two hours.