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From: Gregory Campbell mod_lang@hotmail.com Other people pleeeease respond i'd love to hear yr views. Gregory
Nicola Snowden" njsnowde@scimail.uwaterloo.ca I went to the edge last night to see elliott before the show. He came for about a 10 min. interview but he didn't seem very excited to be there. The DJ asked silly questions like "What are the similarities and differences between XO and Figure 8" and "Do you think that people talk behind your back?" The show was great. Not the best one that I've seen, but really good anyways. There were so many people there! He opened with pretty (ugly before). The set list was very similar to what people have posted recently with a pretty good mix of old and new songs. The older ones got the most reaction from the crowd. Elliott apologized a couple of times for not having a good show. Something about middle of the tour blues. They sounded fine to my very untrained ear though! My favourite part of the evening was the encore. Elliott played between the bars and say yes solo acoustic. Then the rest of the band and Whiskey Biscuit came out and played I Me Mine with him. So great! The worst part of the evening was that elliott's merchandise didn't make it across the border! Wha Wha! So now I have to beg for a t-shirt. Sorry. I hope I'm not being annoying. I was just looking forward to getting one of those blue shirts with the shoes on it. If anyone can pick up an extra blue one (size medium) at an upcoming show I would really, really appreciate it. If you think that they can help me out please, please, please e-mail me (njsnowde@scimail.uwaterloo.ca)! You will be fully reimbursed. Enough begging, Nicola
From: "A Spent Bullet" futurebutterfly@members.student.com Every moment leading up to the last seconds when my friend Sarah and I were standing in line to get into the Phoenix was filled with trepidation. Since the day the concert was confirmed, bad omens quivered throughout my journey to reach my goal of to seeing the lovely Mr. Smith perform live. To keep this concise, I did get a fake ID (thanks to Olivia's directions and help!) and bought the tickets (my heart skipped a beat as the ticketmaster teller told us that only 9 were left when he had last checked). Sarah and I went down to the Phoenix around 6pm, paced back and forth past the venue for ten minutes, took a couple of pictures of Elliott's tourbus + trailer, went to the Edge102 studio, and waited for an hour for Elliott to arrive. Elliott came in around 7:45pm, stayed for about a short 10 minute interview; he only stayed for a minute to sign a few autographs; he signed the picture I took with him last year : ) : ) I asked him if he could take a picture with me and he said yes but he was reminded that he had to get back to the venue by a blond long haired lady (does anyone know who she is?) so he approached the door again and someone else managed to sneak a picture in with him before the lady told him again...I ran out as he was getting into the black Honda (rental car, I'm sure) and he looked out the window when he was seated and waved at me with a little smile. : ) we left for the phoenix again and saw a loong line up. I started getting worried again, looking at all the college/uni-type kids in line. my eyes wandered while we were waiting, and I saw Elliott sneak past the crowd (at the end of the line) and walked past his silvery tour bus..heh..he was wearing his army-camoflauge baseball hat...I ran to the back of the line (just to see where he had gone and possibly stalk him) and saw him and Sam disappear behind the building. there were four bouncers. we approached the kindest-looking one...she took my newly made ID, looked at the front, the back, the front and...asked to see my bag...she took my camera and I had to go put it in camera-check. darn. BUT...we got through!!! aahhhh!! I was insanely disbelieving that we had actually gotten in. yea!! I'm happy to be the newest 20 year-old from OHIO. : ) I saw that they were only selling Whiskey Biscuit merchandise. For some reason, Elliott's merch hadn't made it into Canada. ARgh. Please please please will someone buy me one each of the three shirts in the smallest size? I'll pay for the shirts and shipping, of course, and I'll throw in something or a few other things for your troubles...please email me at futurebutterfly@members.student.com AND at frohike89@hotmail.com Whiskey Biscuit opened of course. They played for an hour, the set ended at 10pm. I don't like them much...they simply didn't make an impact on me. The highlights of their set occurred everytime I saw Elliott or Aaron or Sam sit/stand on the steps at the Stage Door. I could see them clearly...Sam was kinda into their music; he'd nod his head to the rhythm... Elliott came on at 10:30...I stared at him the whole time...I'm more in love with le beau monsieur Smith than ever before!!! I was a bit disapointed that my painting hadn't dried (darn oil paint) 'cos I wanted to show it to Elliott ...esp b/c people who've seen it said that it does look llike him hehe...unfortunately, the other painting of done of him wasn't completed and is far to large to carry anywhere... here's the setlist that I managed to quickly jot down: pretty (ugly before) son of sam junk bond trader wouldn't mama be proud? * sweet adeline stupidity tries** everything means nothing to me bled white colour bars (brought out the acoustic for this) independence day*** lost and found amity alameda + a question mark can't make a sound ++ encore (Elliott solo acoustic...the best Elliott): between the bars say yes (then the rest of his backup band joined him, as well as WB for a final song): I me mine *he aborted "wouldn't mama be proud" after about three lines, saying that he just doesn't want to play it tonight and apologizing **after "stupidity tries", he introduced everyone (aaron, scott, sam), and a couple of techies and smiled a bit ***I'm trying to read my writing and after indie day I think he apologized, saying that "it's not their fault, it's mine" (paraphrased) about his performance + "alameda" -this made me soooooo happy since I was going to call it out and it's one of my top three Elliott songs... ++"can't make a sound" was neat 'cos during on part (with the heavy percussion) another drummer snuck in from the stage door and started drumming with scott I yelled out "easy way out" a couple of times, but he didn't play it... : ( he wasn't taking requests...I also yelled out "I me mine" several times (along with a guy somewhere behind me) when he announced that he was going to do a cover the set was too short though...only an hour... I saw Liz at the near the front of the stage too (I was behind one person, infront of Elliott) thank you so much Liz for the promo poster!! And I love your "xo" hat... btw, someone asked about my purple+pink Ferdinand t-shirt -- I made it. hoorah for iron-ons! During "junk bond trader", I noticed Elliott looking frustrated at his fretboard for a second...he muttered something under his breath and got right back into the song...he's so graceful, I don't think more than a couple of other people noticed! Since it was my first Elliott concert, I don't know if his performance was any less than previous ones, but last night was one of the happiest days I've had in a while, and the best concert I've ever been too. Elliott looked like a beautiful angel playing alone during the encore, with the blue and violet lights illuminating the air... I've vowed to paint more of Elliott; two just isn't enough... floating on clouds with hearts and swirling stars...and stilling hearing Elliott's beautiful voice sing "I me mine I me mine I me mine"..., Tina xo. p.s. I was wondering, since Elliott's American and naturally uses American spelling, and since his lyrics are published using American spelling, is it incorrect of me to write "colour bars" instead of "color bars"? p.s.s. please will someone buy me the t-shirts? if you can't buy all three..then maybe just one (the blue one and the other one w/out the cover picture on it)...please email me futurebutterfly@members.student.com and at frohike89@hotmail.com (I think futurebutterfly may be full...) thank you so much. p.s.s.s. thank you Liz and Olivia again!! http://driftwood.i85.net drifting...
From: Gabe melonman@rocketmail.com After a few minutes of standar bouncer-arguing, I gave up and went and sold my ticket to a scalper for half what i had paid for it (the show wasn't even sold out!). I sulked around in front of the Phoenix for a while and then my friend and I decided to sulk around to the back entrance. After climbing several fences, tresspassing in peoples' back yards and getting our shoes covered in mud, we arrived at the back entrance and realised that there was a driveway leading up to it from a few feet away from the front entrance. Oh well. Tresspassing is fun. We stood there, waiting for elliott, and then the tour manager told us to beat it and laughed at us when we asked if elliot was inside yet. "Of course he is, you silly kids! And you must be crazy if you think he'd leave the comfort of a warm backstage room to come out here in the rain!" We had to move onto the sidewalk and stand right in front of a big-ass trailer. And who should walk out, but.... Sam Coomes. So I called to him and we started talking and I asked him about their three-say stint in New York, and in true rock-star fashion he said with a confused squint on his face, "To tell you the truth, it's all a haze really". His stoned-ness continued as he commented that "The New York shows were a few weeks ago. Actually, maybe that was a few day ago." I told Sam of our situation and he, miraculously, decided to set out to try and get us into the show. He asked a few people inside, reporting back to us outside after each unsuccesful attempt, and finally realised we would not be allowed in. At this point, I already knew he was the coolest guy ever, but then he had to go and re-affirm that by giving my friend and I Either/Or and Xo on vinyl as a consolation. Can you believe that? I got XO, because my friend is a recent fan and she only has XO and Figure 8 on CD. My XO is a limited edition 180 gram record, so it's really thick and heavy. I always thought that the self-titled albumwas the best, but readin the giant-sized record lyrics on the subway ride home made me realise that XO is his best, and just maybe edging out Blind Melon's 'Soup' for the best album-of-all-time award. You are insane if you don't like 'Amity' (as I know many on this list think it's too loud). The breath before jumping into elliott's loudest song so far is brillirantly planned to scare us, and the beauty within that song's distortion is astounding. 'A Question Mark' probably makes more sense lyrically than any other elliott song, and the last line is an absoluute killer. I realised that, in my 150-or-so CD collection, XO is the only one with multiple scratches due to over-listenage. I have to buy a new copy. But now I have it vinyl. ...gabe P.S. After my encounter with Sam, I regretted not asking him about Quasi and his involvment with the billiant Built to Spill. Next time, I guess.
From: MissKlaatu subrosa@golden.net First of all I would like to thank my wonderful fellow listee, Julie, for making it all possible. She provided a ride for me to both shows, and endured my unusally strong Elliott fixation during the two days - which presented itself in endless litanies about the man, and "I need, I need" type whining from me to try and get as close to Elliott as possible, be it during or after the shows. What can I say, you're the best friend I've had in a long time. :) The Toronto show was indeed somewhat strange, starting with a bag-and-body search at the door. When the doorpersons said "alright, girls on one side, guys on the other" I knew there was trouble. A possibly drunk man loudly started complaining about it and got promptly thrown out from the premise. Then his woman (also possibly drunk) started screaming "Call 911!!! He didn't do anything!", so she was carried off as well. The rest of us stood there shaking and very very quiet as not to give the bouncer any reason to further shorten the lineup... This would have been my opportunity to get a real first generation boot, but after seeing what was happening at the front, I got rid of my tape-recorder. But they found my camera and kept it till after the show. Nice place. I'm just not used to this treatment, and I hope Elliott never plays there again. We got a good center spot right behind the front row. Us few lucky "earlybirds" also noticed some Figure 8 posters on the walls, which we immediately salvaged for ourselves, me getting two. They were all gone in seconds. The floor behind us quickly filled up; I could have sworn the show was sold out. A girl tapped me on the shoulder; it was Tina. So glad you could get in! For that dedication you deserved one of my posters, enjoy! :) Then we got treated (?) to Wicker Basket's efforts. (Another friend of mine at the show came up with that one.) I think I got lung cancer right there and then - the five of them standing on the stage all smoked, and the drummer might have too, couldn't see. The crowd politely clapped after each song, but was obviously not into this kind of music, definitely not before an Elliott concert. The "percussionist" almost fell over several times from being under the influence of ... something. He randomly shook the shaker or made intermittent noises with some other instrument. The singer's performance in Strange Parallel was much better than his singing here. The guitarists were good, but I (and I think most people) breathed a sigh of relief when they finally finished their 50 minute set. Then... Elliott. Looking better than ever - which is a strong statement coming from me who thinks he always looks beautiful - he delivered an amazingly strong (but tragically short) set with absolutely perfect singing, and a painfully obvious "man, I don't want to do this tonight" performance. He didn't actually say it like that, but it was in the air. I did feel somewhat disappointed because of it, but later I realized he's entitled to be like that from time to time, and at least his admirable honesty is still intact. He had no intention of trying to fool us, and kindly apologized. To his actual comment "it's the middle of the tour, and I'm sick of myself" somebody from the crowd shouted in "Toronto loves you!" and I would like to think it helped Elliott a bit to gracefully soldier on for us. He did adorably smile and smirk the most I've ever seen him to, and I think that helped US cope with the situation. The crowd was indeed very loving and warm, and euphorically greeted every single song. It seemed like most people were quite familiar with the Figure 8 material, but the XO songs got the biggest ovation. (From me definitely, since it is my favourite album.) While Elliott seemed like he was on a reluctant autopilot all evening, the four-piece setup worked really well, as it so spectacularly got proved on "Amity" (wow!) "Can't Make Sound" and other tricky, trying tunes. This is definitely the best touring band for him so far; practically no mistakes from them, or our man. The only thing is that I wasn't entirely happy with the choice of songs; it was a bit too heavy overall for my tastes, but that's just me. I also have to admit I miss Elliott's little goof-ups, which he had none of this time. So when he abruptly aborted "Wouldn't Mama Be Proud", I felt right at home... What can I say, I'm weird. My non-Elliott following friend at the show horrifiedly asked "does this happen often?!" To which I said it used to happen all the time, but sadly not so much anymore. He didn't ask me any questions after that. After the show Elliott came out to meet the waiting fans, signed everybody's things and dutifully posed for pics with people. I know it's wrong to add to his misery, but I just can't help going for it every single time. God knows it's worth it. I got a little laugh out of him by my good-bye line "See you tomorrow" when he realized I was talking about next day's show...
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