From: "janice ordal" <janiceordal@hotmail.com>

It looks like the reviews of the Elliott shows in SF have been
plentiful, but gotta write my own to put on my website, so thought I'd
send it along to the list anyway.

Unfortunately, my friend Asher and I didn't get to the first night's
show (3/1/99) until about 6:50 p.m. We missed out on a seat in the
front part of the balcony because of this. It's funny, because I did
see Charlie, but didn't know it was him until the next day at Amoeba. I
wouldn't have even known it was him then, unless he introduced himself
to me. I'm thinking he probably knew it was me, since I was visably
pregnant, but I'm still not sure about that.

I thought the show might start late, because of the many times I'd seen
Elliott before. Amazingly, No. 2 came on only 10 minutes late. They
played a great set. I LOVE this band. Unfortunately, they have nothing
recorded. I guess I have to get a live tape of them from a friend, if I
want to hear them anywhere other than a show. At the Satyricon show,
though, they said they'd have a record out soon.

Elliott came on very soon after No. 2, and played almost exactly the
same set he played in Portland. I'm assuming that Sam and Pauly only
know a certain amount of songs, since they aren't really his band. I
*did* realize this tour that I don't need to see five shows of his every
tour. I always end up seeing basically the same set every night.
Although, the acoustic shows usually offer something different, so I
will continue to go to those. It's ALWAYS great to see him live, but
travelling as far as I do is completely unnecessary.

The first night's set consisted of (in order): Ballad of Big Nothing;
Independence Day; Speed Trials; Bled White; Son of Sam (which is a great
song, btw); XO; Stupidity Tries; Cupid's Trick (which I love live and
don't think I'd seen live before this tour, don't think I saw it in
either 97 or 98); Baby Britain; Living Will; Bottle Up and Explode;
Tom's Start; I Didn't Understand (solo); Clementine (solo); Everything
Reminds Me of Her; Say Yes (solo); Christian Bros. (which was incredibly
rocked up, like it was in Portland and I love it); and Sweet Adeline.

Although Elliott didn't look too into the show, he sounded really good.
I've been amazed at how intense his playing has been on the tour,
regardless of his demeanor.

I did get one of the Filmore posters, as well as a promo sticky card
too. That was good, although I don't like the design of the poster much
at all.

The Amoeba show was really good. We got there an hour and a half early,
so there was nobody there. I was smack-dab in front of Elliott. The
sound wasn't great, since we heard everything from the monitors and not
the actual speakers. Since my riend was taping, it was not the best
place to be. Even though he used a mini-disc, I don't know how great
it'll turn out. Elliott was very shakey, as evidenced by his drinking
of his 7-up. Poor guy. He'd probably been up late the night before.
Nonetheless, he played well, as usual. I really got to watch his
fingers on "Southern Belle". That must be a hard song to play. I
couldn't believe how fast his fingers moved on those strings. Since I'm
not at all a guitar player, I was amazed.

Got to meet Charlie and Cheez after the show, as I mentioned before. It
was good to talk to them. We just talked about Elliott of course. We
talked a little about Cheez living in Sacramento too. My friend wanted
to get his poster signed. I wasn't too into standing in line for
signing, since I have a few things signed by Elliott, but I sure wasn't
going to deny my friend the opportunity. Since I bought an "either/or"
CD for my doctor, I thought I might as well get it signed. I had
Elliott sign it "To Stephen". When I told him that was my doctor he
thought that was quite funny. It's always good when you can get a rise
out of Elliott, since he's so shy.

The set list there was: Tomorrow, Tomorrow; Last Call; Pitzelah; XO;
Son of Sam; Southern Belle; Everything Reminds me of Her; Angeles; Tom's
Start; White Lady; Taking the Easy Way Out??.

It only took 37 minutes of a mini-disc, so it was a very short set.

The show that night at the Filmore was very good also. No. 2 played
almost the exact same set as the night before. Neil wore his Alameda
shirt again. I'm thinking that it's from one of the many places here in
Portland named after Alameda street, as opposed to any kind of Elliott
Alameda shirt. Neil was also much more talkative than the times I've
seen them live. Usually it's the bass player who talks.

Elliott's set was really similar to the night before, except he played
Miss Misery (!); 2:45; and Pictures of Me. (I've lost my copy of the
set list). He did not play the great new song, Everything Reminds Me of
Her. Again, he was very into it and played really well. Janet Weiss
(from my other favorite band, whom I've also seen live an obscene number
of times) came out and sang on a couple songs. Even though the ATN
review said that she got a loud applause, I didn't think so. I was
surprised at how little applause she received.

So, that's it. The end of my Elliott tour for this time. Only saw him
in two cities -- Portland and SF -- didn't actually make it to the
Seattle show.

It was great meeting you Charlie and Cheez.

--janice