Hammer In My Heart
Secret Society
World Wide Epiphany
This was the first concert of the tour so far that was held at the same venue as last year but unfortunately this year it wasn't as full. Ventura is just over a one hour drive north of Los Angeles and when I stopped for petrol on the way up, they were playing Can We Still Be Friends over the petrol station tanoy!
The Majestic Ventura Theatre really is majestic and is worth going upstairs to the loos just to look at the lobby! Inside the hall there were long tables up to the stage (some were reserved) and then smaller tables further back. As I was told that the best sound in the hall is at the sound desk I stood behind that tonight for part of the show but personally I prefer the sound on the left hand side as Kasim can be heard more clearly! It was fascinating watching the lighting guy work, especially during Yer Fast when his fingers just danced around to keep the lights in time with the music! He's also now learnt to recognise the opening bars of Trapped so Kasim doesn't have to wave to get his spotlight switched on!
The support band tonight were an amazing six piece Celtic band who played a mixture of Irish and Scottish reels as well as a couple of modern songs. Most of the band played several instruments and one guy gave a couple of demonstrations of Riverdance style tap-dancing!
Kasim, Todd and Trey came on at 9.30 and Todd straight away complained that he felt ill with the flu (fingers crossed he doesn't do a Meat Loaf and cancel the next few concerts). Although he may have felt bad, it didn't detract from his performance other than at times his voice came over slightly deeper.
It was a pretty typical set list tonight (the tracks after Todd's solo spot are often the same) with lots of Utopia songs which most people seem to know. Yer Fast always goes down well too. Maybe it was because Todd felt under par but the concert was only about one and three quarter hours long tonight.
Tonight when Todd introduced one of his guitars he side-tracked to talk about two characters called Stumpy and Stinky! I'd never heard of them but Kasim seemed to be quite knowledgeable about them! Todd seems to have stuck with his new guitar but hasn't named it yet! Todd's solo spot tonight consisted of The Beatles "Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "Bang the Drum". I've noticed that if they play two concerts relatively close together (so people may go to both) that he'll change songs to give some variety.
I've noticed that Kasim and Trey have now stopped having their little chat and laugh during the first verse of World Wide Epiphany but recently Kasim has started doing a hand-punch at the end of the first verse of One World!