From: Carmel <carmellie@yahoo.com>
Ah, where to start.... Elliott took forever to come out and I'm still baffled as
to why. He finally did and it was soooo worth it. He looked great--very long
hair though! He played mostly new songs in the beginning--mostly what he played
in SF....including true love, strung out again, somebody's baby, and other
favorites. The crowd was rather, um, rambunctious. I even smelled pot, which is
kinda weird at the crystal ballroom--at least I've never seen anyone smoking in
there. They were just all riled up yelling for songs and screaming in the middle
of songs...it was weird. He played say yes (of course), xo, independence day,
started, but did not finish division day, christian bros (we were all a little
shocked and although he wasn't really messing up he said fuck about 20 times),
started miss misery for about 2 seconds and couldn't do it, give me love (give
me peace on earth), The biggest lie (which was AMAZING). i can't even think of
all the songs. 2 encores and for the last song one of the guys from alaska and
sam coomes came out to sing back up. Oh my goodness sam doesn't look ANYTHING
like he used to! His head is very closed to being shaved and he looks really
clean. it's kinda freaky. Most people were whispering, "is that sam?"--i'm
still a little unsure, but i'm almost positive it was. Elliott was in good
spirits. He couldn't hear anyone though because they were all screaming at the
same time. At one point he stood up and goes, "WHAT?" he looked like
he was about to jump up and kick someone's ass! (good thing charlie wasn't there
or he might have!) At the very beginning someone whistled at him and he goes,
"i'm a man". Came out with the Smirnoff ice again too. oh, too many
good things to say. if anyone cares, i'll let you know what happens tomorrow
night in seattle. it was sooo great seeing him again. Can't wait for the new
album!!!
Carmel
From: "Janice Ordal-Odrane" <janiceordal@yahoo.com>
I timed it just right for this show. I got there about three minutes before
Elliott came on and got a spot where I could see him, even if he sat down.
He did look very different than last I saw him...the long hair and stuff.
It seems like it was pretty much a repeat of the last SF show. He played mostly new songs at the beginning. Those were played well and I liked them (but wasn't blown away by them). Then ppl started in with the requests, which he seemed to welcome and was fumbling for a song to do. When he played the old songs, though, he messed up quite a bit on them (apparently just like the SF shows). He played Say Yes (pretty much clean - with no mess ups), Christian Bros, Between the Bars, XO, Division Day, The Biggest Lie, Give Me Love, and the encore was the Zeppelin cover (Bran Y'aur) w/Sam singing back up. Sam had no hair!! It was getting so bushy and now he has none.
It was a decent show, but not great. I always prefer him acoustic than with the band, but I still was a bit disappointed with this show. I guess I agree with a couple of the opinions I heard on Komacke list: I'm glad he took the chance to play old stuff - because that's what I wanted to hear. I also was disappointed when he played those same songs, since he was obviously ill-prepared to play them. (Oh yeah and it's funny to me how ppl clap and cheer at his mess ups too. We love anything Elliott does, don't we?)
--janice
From Sweet Addie board:
I just got back from the show. These are my impressions from tonight. Someone else will have to post the details. Overall- really great show. I've seen Elliott 6 times and listened to many, many bootlegs and it was an excellent acoustic show. I didn't know what to expect after reports from the last 2 shows but he was in many ways at his best. To me anyway.
He played some songs from his list and then basically responded to requests. And he had almost no problem remembering the words- no more than in most shows he's done- and these were unplanned songs. He got angry at himself and said a few fucks during Christian Brothers although it sounded great to me. He tried Miss Misery although he told us he probably wouldn't remember it and I'm not surprised he didn't complete that since it's been out of his repertoire for so long. And he messed up Division Day and said something like there has to be one messed up song during a show-and that was really the only one. A surprise song was that he played Doing Ok, Pretty Good which is a very early song performed only twice that I know of.
Russ came out and sang Somebody's Baby with him and then hugged Elliott on his way off- very sweet
From: rae sheen <dansheen@yahoo.com>
I think that because I was close to the stage I had a different impression-
Elliott wasn't mumbling at all. He was joking with the audience and asking for
song requests etc. As for the length it is unfortunate but it's what I expect
from Elliott. I told my friends we'd be out by around 11 and the show ended at
11:115 so I was pretty close.
As for give me love- its a song he's played at shows over the past few years and it's one of my favorite covers Elliott does. I think Elliott really likes George and this was out of respect. Different strokes I guess.
Anyway, I've been to quite a few shows by Elliott and I enjoyed this one a lot. The last time I saw him at the Ballroom I was much further away and couldn't hear anything he said so I understand how he could sound like he was mumbling.
From: Peter Boss <peladromey@yahoo.com>
Thing 1: I yelled for "Give Me Love" and Elliott played it with NO
hesitation. Probably in his mind already, but it was pretty cool.
Thing 2: My friend got the setlist. I got to watch her be exuberantly happy (that's how she is about Elliott, she's got an actual shrine in her room); it was hilarious and cute. The list consisted of a whole bunch of song titles written down, but he didn't play most of them, and the ones that he did were in no kind of order. It was mostly new songs, but it was interesting to see what older songs he remembered/felt like playing.
Thing 3, especially for Charlie: The setlist was written on the back of a print out of the lyrics of "Everything's Okay" as seen on Sweet Adeline!!! It had all of the menu bars and everything, and it was way cool. He made some corrections to the lyrics (probably where the question marks are, I didn't look very closely), so when I talk to my friend again I'll send those to Charlie so we know what's correct. (I heard him change a few lyrics in some other new songs, too.) Okay, so we already knew he visits the site, but I really liked that he actually used a printout. Maybe he forgot the songs he had and went to the site as a convenient index? Pure speculation, but still possible. Anyways, it was yet another reminder to me of how awesome Charlie is.
The Portland show was generally fun. I was in the 3rd row so I saw most everything. I let two short girls in front of me because I'm 6'4", which I only mention because of previous discussions on the list. My friends and I thought Elliott was a bit out of it during his set. Banging on his guitar, having a somewhat strange interaction with the yelling people in the back, and stuff. He just didn't seem all there. I still enjoyed it, though. Even his relatively low-level out-of-it-ness didn't prepare me for Seattle, though. That deserves a separate email, which I'm writing now.
Peter