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From: "Chris Roden" croden@hotmail.com elliott came on around 8.45pm. one of the first things i noticed was that he's lost weight, even since the promo photos for figure 8. he was wearing his no 1 limo t-shirt and a wooly hat. the keyboardist had this mad boilersuit thing on, brown 'n' stuff, which kinda made him stand out a bit. they opened with big nothing, but after that was a blur so i'll put up the 19 songs they played in no particular show order: either/or: ballad of big nothing cupid's trick 2:45am x/o: sweet adeline independence day bled white amity bottle up and explode! figure 8: son of sam junk bond trader everything means nothing to me la in the lost and found (honky bach) stupidity tries color bars can't make a sound new stuff: just between us (only found out the name by asking him) pretty (ugly before) covers: i me mine (beatles) most of the set came from figure 8, seeing as that's the record he's promoting, but i was disappointed he didn't play anything off the first two albums. he also avoided the acoustic standards - the only one i suppose would be color bars but even that was with the band. however, i can say that it was one of the tightest performances i've seen, not only by elliott but also the rest of the band. people who had fears that they wouldn't be able to pull of figure 8 live won't be disappointed: this is largely due to the variety of sounds the guy at the keyboards had at his disposal and also the accuracy of the drummer. elliott's voice is also a lot stronger and more confident than it was a couple of years back. people who've seen him in the us were right: he can't keep the smile off his face now, and looks really proud of some of the new material. i don't think the band were overly keen on the crowd: a lot of people didn't know some of the stuff played, and despite the more up-beat sound didn't get into it as much as they really should have. on a side note, some guy (either canadian or american) was asking about a line in bled white, and whether or not it referred to ontario, canada (something about the 409?). the bassist, doing a really good job on backing vocals, pointed out that it was 4 or 9 - the guy who asked the question seemed pleased it had been cleared up. a lot of people were shouting for waltz #2 and miss misery, but elliott didn't really seem in the mood for requests (not that he was down or anything). i me mine was very, very good, and the two new ones sounded nice (just a slight similarity between the intro of just between us and magical mystery tour). the highlights out of elliott's material came, strangely enough, from either/or, but also: independence day, bled white, son of sam and la. i was expecting a second encore, maybe acoustic, but it never happened :( still, on the back of the strong performance, we got far more than our moneys worth. 6/10 for the audience, 9/10 for elliott and the band.
From: DADWALLAN@aol.com After the opening number he informed the audience, "I'm kinda' jetlagged but this is fun".a full ninty minutes of sheer bliss, a mixtire of old and new, a wry wit ,and nonstop tunes about twenty five made it on of the best evenings i've had in a long time. if anyone is undecided about seeing him on this tour or at the festivals this summer,you have to go, i'm only dissapointed he's not playing Scotlands summer festival. Figure 8 features heavily on the play list as can be expected,but what a band he's touring with.reallt tight arrangements mean it's as close to the studio versions as i've heard a live artist do for a long long time.anyway enough of me rabbiting on do yourself a favour and see it first hand Dave....Scotland
From: "antoine j. quint, esq." antoine@graougraou.com I went to see Elliott on sunday night since my flight home to France had been cancelled the day before (i'm so lucky). So the airline company pay me two day in a nice hotel and I get to see Elliott too, I can't complain. The show was mostly excellent. The opening band (didn't catch their name though I think they are called Clearlake) were ok, but obviously nobody really cared about them. The venue (the Garage) was packed the gig being sold out. Elliott comes on stage with his band and rocks the place out by starting with Ballad of Big Nothing, Independence Day and Son of Sam. Basically, the set was pretty much similar to that of the US shows, except for Baby Britain and the Zombies' song and the running order. I was really excited by going to see Elliott with a band because I had only seen him on acoustic gigs before and the LA show on the FTP was truly amazing. But the Glasgow show was not as good. Elliott said they were totally jet-lagged for a start, and they seemed quite exhausted. Elliott didn't say much but was pretty smily when he was speaking. Some guy behind me asked him if Bled White was about Ontario because of 409 (???) and it made Elliott laugh. Really, the show started getting a bit dull though after In The Lost And Found. He had rocked so hard until then that the smooth songs appeared a bit tiresome after, and they were really worn out. Also they played those two new ones Pretty (Ugly Before) and Just Between Us that I'm not too keen on, I think they are a bit cheesy with cliché bluesy bits, but then again it's only my opinion (no flames please). But everything returned to "normal" when he finished the set with Can't Make a Sound which I thought was one of his best recorded song, but now also an amazing live song. he returned for an awesome encore with Color Bars, I Me Mine (such a great cover) and 2:45 am. I hope the band will get some rest before the other UK gigs becaus the first half was just so good. Now I've got a question, did Elliott's drummer play in Samiam before? Thanks for any reply... antoine p.s. Sam's the best in the band
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