[DANDOM-NYC] Beacon Internet Request Night Report

[jwilliamlll at socal.rr.com]

Beacon Internet Request Night, 22 Sept 2011 
Setlist and Report 
 
Intro: Dizzy's Bidness 9:02 PM 
 
Your Gold Teeth 
Aja 
Black Friday 
Hey 19 
Time Out Of Mind 
Show Biz Kids 
Bodhisattva 
FM 
GodWhacker 
Home At Last 
Papa Don't Mess/Band Intros 
Rikki 
Dirty Work 
Do It Again 
Josie 
Peg 
My Old School 
Reelin' In The Years 
 
Encore: Kid Charlemagne 
Untouchables Theme ~11:22 PM 
 
The setlist was about what I would have predicted, based on the evolution of 
"Request Night" setlists this tour. I came to this 
show with a different mindset: just sit back and enjoy things I had likely 
already heard during the Beacon run. With that in mind, 
this show was still well worth attending. Any time I can watch a top-notch band 
at its peak, the setlist is secondary.  
 
IMHO, the band ABSOLUTELY NAILED everything tonight. They came out with a 
smoking version of YGT and never let up. Of course, nearly the entire setlist 
was made up of standard songs from this tour, so I would have expected the band 
to be tight. Possibly the "hometown" sentiment enhanced the performance 
The entire band, and Donald especially, seems to be bringing a little something 
extra to the Beacon shows. 
 
At some point during YGT I started to notice that everything sounded better than 
it had the previous nights. I was wondering if it was the drink 
I was finishing, but everything continued to sound as good for the entire show. 
So the sound crew is still making improvements, apparently. 
 
Donald sounded strong from the start, and he was really on fire for Black 
Friday; I can't recall him belting out lines like that before. 
After the first couple of lines of Hey 19 were clearly a sing-along, Donald 
said, "You know this one". Walter's monologue noted that we had 
changed seasons, and commemorated the arrival of autumn with a brief rhyme, the 
second half of which went, "When there's frost on the pumpkin, 
it's time for dicky dunkin'". At least I think I got that right; I missed that 
one in elementary school. 
 
FM featured a solo by Roger Rosenberg; I can't recall if that version has been 
done before. 
 
Donald had a bit of fun with the crowd when he did a little Rhodes solo teasing 
us with "Do It Again", but then started into "Rikki". 
 
Now to the crowd tonight, which was the most unusual I have ever seen. There was 
maybe a 5% standing ovation for Aja, and then nothing until Bodhisattva, which 
finally got a decent standing ovation. Then it was back to the normal malaise, 
and seat vacating for various purposes. Perhaps in some language the term 
"Godwhacker" translates into "time for a beer"; if so, I await enlightenment 
from one of the many in the crowd tonight who apparently made this connection. 
It was rather comical to watch the crowd rush back in when Home At Last started. 
I can imagine the collective "Hey, I KNOW that one; I had better get back in 
there!" in the lobby. 
 
I have to give the crowd credit for refraining from shouting requests during 
Jim's enthralling Josie intro. Not that things were completely quiet, but the 
crowd noise was reduced to a low buzz of people quietly talking among 
themselves. That was enough for me to hear the solo clearly, and this is one way 
I judge the overall sound quality. Last night was remarkably clear; the best so 
far at the Beacon. It was not quite like having Beard "in your living room" as I 
think Lurker Ray said about Pechanga. And my seats at Pechanga were in the 
fourth row; here we are about 24 rows from the stage. So my compliments again to 
the sound crew for getting possibly the optimum sound quality attainable at the 
Beacon. 
 
All this magically changed when Peg started, and the crowd was on its feet to 
stay for the remainder of the show. In my view, the 
crowd should have blown the roof off of this place tonight for the performance 
they got. 
 
I should add that for this show I was near the back of the orchestra section, 
and could not see what was going on in the loge or balcony. And almost all shows 
have more energy at the end, but I have never witnessed such a contrast in 
audience reaction over the course of a two-hour show.