The Ikon
Open My Eyes
World Wide Epiphany
Well, I think this concert actually surpassed my previous favourite on this tour! Maybe it's because I've now seen the show 35 times (don't get me wrong as it's been wonderful and every concert has been different!) but I almost look forward to when things go wrong now! Last night in Pittsburgh it was the lights and tonight it was Kasim's microphone!
The Whittaker Centre for Science and the Arts was in the centre of Harrisburg and was a very modern building with a great theatre. It was smallish (maybe only 500 seats) but it was sold out and had an intimate atmosphere! The support act was a local guy who was excellent on the guitar. Although he played folk style music which I don't really like, he held the audience almost spellbound with his guitar playing - fortunately he only played three (long) songs too!
Kasim, Todd and Trey came on promptly at 8.30 to rapptous applause. As
always, Kasim tested his microphone but his usual "Hey!" never came out!
The sound guy spent a few minutes trying to fix it with no success but
they played I Hate My Frickin' ISP anyway. Kasim, to his credit, did
sing through all the song (I assume in the hope that they managed to fix
the mike) but the only time we heard him was when they unplugged Trey's
mike for a while and put Kasim's on instead!
Todd announced that they HAD to get the mike working but it certainly took a while! Todd suggested that they share his mike and Kasim shouted out that he could "SING VERY LOUD"! Thankfully the crew must have learnt from the Columbus experience and they brought out a spare mike so, when Kasim started singing in Couldn't I Just Tell You, he got a massive cheer!
Tonight the set order at the beginning was unusual as after Black And White we had Trapped (another massive cheer!) before Fix Your Gaze and then There Goes My Inspiration before # One Lowest Common Denominator. I think tonight was the best version on the tour of LCD. It's the only track they play that I'm not too keen on (although I know it's very clever guitar-wise) but tonight all three of them seem to just be playing it perfectly! Todd's long guitar solo at the front of the stage was pure magic and he hit all the notes perfectly when he sang. This theatre is supposed to have perfect acoustics and it certainly sounded it during this track!
At every concert when Kasim removes the plastic top from his water bottle, he always tosses it at Trey. Most times he manages to hit him but sometimes he gets the drums or occasionally a cymbal but tonight, for the first time, Trey threw his bottle top at Kasim. It was bad-timing on Trey's part as Kasim happened to have a mouthful of water then which ended up all over Trey and his drums! The next time Kasim went to get some water he turned towards Trey so he immediately quickly took a mouthful of water too to create a stand-off! Unfortunately for Trey though, of course, he is static behind the drums whereas Kasim can choose when to go towards his water bottles so, at the beginning of Hammer in My Heart, when Trey was drumming, Kasim threatened him with water again! It was hilarious to watch!
Todd was obviously in a great mood too tonight as during the break in Love In Action he kept going to restart the song but didn't to keep Kasim and Trey on their toes. He did actually catch Kasim out once!
At the beginning of Todd's solo spot somebody shouted out that he should sing Oh Baby which he did and was great to hear again. This seems to be the new plan for this part of the tour as on the first leg Todd only ever sang either Cliche or Got to Hide Your Love Away but this was the third concert of this leg and he's sang a different song each night. This audience were really great as they actually clapped all the way through Bang the Drum too! Todd gave an abbreviated version of the Hawaiian War Chant Song story without the "We're gonna go rape, we're gonna go pillage and we're gonna kill everybody there" intro.
Yer Fast got a massive cheer too tonight and lots of people around me seem to know the song so either they remember it from the Letterman show or they've bought the album.
All too soon for me it was time for Buffalo Grass and then One World (complete with Kasim's hand punch and the line "From New York to Harrisburg"!).
The band returned to a standing ovation to play The Ikon and the popular Open My Eyes and again for World Wide Epiphany! Unfortunately though, as it was in a theatre, the audience soon sat down again, despite a few people trying to persuade them to remain standing!
The concert had a totally understated lighting show tonight as they just kept the same lights on the whole time (but at least we could see the band tonight!) but possibly that was a restriction due to the theatre. One effective part was that Trey's drum riser had some lights underneath it which lit up the underside of the cymbals!
All in all it was a brilliant concert!
