June 15, 2006: BRMC (Acoustic), T-Bone Burnett, Monsters Are Waiting, Forward Russia

I got to the Great American Music Hall super early, around 5:15 PM since I told Jodi and Kimberly I'd meet them there at 4:50 PM. They were buying tickets to Better than Ezra at the Independent when I got there. I walked by the entrance where I saw Peter and various people preparing for the show. I saw Peter come out a little later and he waved to me as I waited for Jodi to call me back. I later noticed that he'd grown a beard, which I think looked pretty nice on him. Then Dave, his guitar tech, came out to say hi. He's going on the Pete Yorn tour next. I told Dave I was planning to meet people so we could hang out at Edinburgh Castle before the show, but we ended up just waiting in line.

Kimberly was there first to tell me that Jodi was circling until 6 to get a good parking spot. She had on a tight blue skirt which in her opinion made her look like a prostitute. Jodi soon followed and was also dressed up in a black skirt and top. I felt pretty underdressed in my BRMC T-shirt and jeans. We talked to some T-Bone fans in line about BRMC while we waited in line for the doors to open. Right before doors opened, we noticed they were letting people with dinner tickets in first. It turns out that the first 9 tables in front were reserved for dinner tickets. We were second in the non-dinner ticket line, so we still ended up in the front row. Right before going in, we met Theresa (piwaket) from the forum who lives in Portland.

The acoustic set was a refreshing reminder of how good the songs are off Howl. Peter played "Restless Sinner" and "Fault Line" by himself and was joined by Robert on "Ain't No Easy Way." They played together for "Complicated Situation," "Mercy," "Howl" (which was especially lovely with Robert and Peter's vocal layering), "Weight of the World," and "Shuffle Your Feet" - which got some people to clap along for awhile. As Robert was introducing the cover of "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" as not one of their songs, people were cheering alot so he said, "Don't get too excited." The last song was the slow version of "US Government," which someone had yelled for earlier in the set. The audience seeemed to be pretty impressed by the acoustic set.

Restless Sinner
Fault Line
Ain't No Easy Way
Complicated Situation
Mercy
Howl
Weight Of The World
Shuffle Your Feet
The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll
US Government

After BRMC's set, Alexander and Tomica (tdivic) from the forum came to our table to say hi and Alexander sat at our empty seat. T-Bone Burnett was surprisingly loud and rocking. He threw in a couple gospel songs, but they still seemed more electric. The guitarist was particularly good and T-Bone was impressively tall on stage. He did have a lyric stand, which was a little unusual as he seemed to be closing his eyes mostly during the set. Peter and Robert were at the back of the room enjoying the set.