03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

2018 - Now with opening act Emo Philips!

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Yankomaniac
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by Yankomaniac »

Good, Rich is on it. I don't have to sit on facebook waiting. Fun Zone, you bastards. :lol:
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
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ergalthema
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by ergalthema »

Another setlist I'd be more than happy to hear.
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by ThisGuyMarty »

Carpenters? Really? Why? :P
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by richegreen »

Ok, so thoughts on this show.....

Show #20 for me! I'll be turning an Aldult tomorrow night with 21! So my fiancee decided to ditch me to go see Miranda Lambert in Newark tonight (don't worry, she'll be back in the proper place tomorrow night), so I bought a single ticket, in the Stadler & Waldorf boxes. The one I had held 3 people, and I was sitting with two other singles. It gave a nice view of the front of the stage and Ruben in the back (which I didn't have at my last show) but I couldn't even see the drum set, let alone the drummer behind it. Aside from finding out why everyone keeps calling it "My Drum Solo" (and of course his ever awesome drumming) I wouldn't have even known Jon was there tonight....

Finally getting to see Fun Zone performed live was a surreal experience. I didn't think I'd ever get to see this performed live, and it was still an in-the-moment feeling and it took a minute to snap that this was actually being played on stage live in front of me. It's still a headscratcher why they didn't decide to open every show this tour with a live Fun Zone, especially since Al doesn't even play or sing on it.....So then Al comes out and decides to play the most New York song he could think of - I'll Sue Ya (big cheers for sueing New Jersey! Ben Affleck got even BIGGER cheers!)

"I'm gonna let the audience guess what the next song will be. One hint - it's about a woman named Melanie". Strangely enough this is the 6th time I've seen this live, across 4 different tours (1996, 2002, 2003, 2018). The only song where Al actually commits suicide at the end, and it's a live staple! So next was the first of a number of first time live songs for me - Bob! That's right, I've never seen Bob live. And I really wish I had, because it's a really fun live song, with Al doing some great harmonica work. Note that on this and the next song, Steve played an upright bass.

Twine was a song I never liked until I saw it live back in 1996, which quickly turned me into a huge fan of it......so this was really the first time I got to ENJOY seeing it live. They make it look so easy....this was the longest song they did tonight and didn't break a sweat.

Buy Me A Condo is a timely political song, with immigration being such a news story but Al was about 30 year early with this one. First time seeing live, and it's an INCREDIBLE arrangement. I was truly impressed with what they did with it. This is one where the live version is gonna become the staple on my playlists.

I know I saw Let Me Be Your Hog at some point in the past, but Al got a huge laugh from the crowd when he introduced it as a song that neither his critics OR his fans ever really cared for, and was THE song that inspired him to do this whole tour, in order to give everyone a new appreciation for some of his most overlooked stuff (Al, you certainly sold me on some of your stuff tonight!). He went right into CNR, which was the first repeat for me this tour.

So One More Minute was a song I've seen hundreds of times live, but Al had a pretty interesting story for it. He said that the woman who broke up with him, left him for another man, actually did happen (and for those who don't know, that's actually her photo in the video). He later got back in touch with her, and asked what this other guy had that he didn't, and she said that this other guy actually made her laugh. Then Al with the most sinister look ever on his face, said "well I bet she didn't laugh at this song either!"

Al introduces the next song as one he wrote for the Police back in the 80s. My mind first went to King of Suede, but wait, that's a parody? It has no place on this tour! Then there was some booooming bass and synth and it took me a second to make the connection. Velvet Elvis was always one of my least favorite Al songs, and I usually skipped it over. But man on man does the live version of this rock. Like I did with Twine in 1996, I may be a newly reborn Velvet Elvis fan!

Why Does This Always Happen To Me got some huge laughs tonight. First time seeing it since 2007....although it did kind of bum me out for a while because that verse about people dying and him being late for work reminded me of an incident that happened where I work earlier this week. We had a track worker fall to his death while working on the subway and commuters were complaining left and right about how the investigation into this was going to make THEM late for work. This took me out of the moment for a while...

But Al made it up to me by playing my personal bucket list to-see-live song next - When I Was Your Age!!!!!!!!! They did this song in a different key, Al was using this really raspy singing voice on it, and he was playing the MIDI accordion although I couldn't pin point what sound it was on. I've ALWAYS thought this would be a great live song (even in the traditional touring format) and they did not disappoint. Some really great guitar work on this one, Jim took it up to 11.

Don't Download This Song was the 2nd repeat for this tour. I was still overwhelmed from just seeing WIWYA that I barely remember it this time.

Mr. Frump was another repeat. Al admitted he was never proud of this song, but he couldn't resist playing what was possibly the only ever recorded song to use the accordion air release button.

Next they were hyping up one of the two Christmas songs they've recorded. I was really hoping for Christmas At Ground Zero, but I couldn't imagine him actually playing that in NYC, where Ground Zero has a whole different meaning....nope, it was the sorta gory version of Santa. Which still got some big laughs from the crowd. To think it's been almost 20 years since that was a part of their live act! Feels like just yesterday....then again, exactly half of my shows were on the Running With Scissors tour!

The next song was another highlight of the night for me - first time ever seeing Midnight Star live. When I was listening to In 3D in preparation for this tour, I said I would CRY if they performed Midnight Star live. And it was so beautiful that I had a hard time holding back some tears. I really think Al should have gone with his gut and made that his first single instead of Eat It!

Next was a song collaboration from James Taylor and Charles Manson recorded back in the 70s. The 4th repeat for this tour.

So as they were getting ready for the parody medley, Al called for a drum solo, and Bermuda played the opening to My Sharona...no, that's a parody, it has no place here! But instead of My Sharona, Bermuda said "My Drumsolo". Ah, so that explains that joke.

I felt a bit jipped with the cover song of the night. I already saw them play Close To You, it seems to be one of Al's favorite straight covers to do, and they did it at the Orange County Fair tour back in 2002. Still, it caught most of the audience off guard, and it's a pretty bizarre cover to see Al's band do.

I can't possibly rank this show as high as the Tarrytown show, since I really had NO IDEA what to expect going into that one (honestly, at that point I don't think AL even knew what to expect yet!) and that show had sooo much anticipation and every one of my expectations blown apart, and tonight even though I couldn't predict the setlist, I still had a good idea of the formatting now. And I must say, Al and the band have gotten the show MUCH tighter. They look like they actually know what they're doing, as opposed to the first week where they were making it up as they were going along.

I'll be back tomorrow night for more. With only 4 repeats (not counting the formula), it was quite a different show and I can only imagine what we'll be getting tomorrow night. The one song I am hoping and praying for is Good Enough For Now, as my fiancee Heather will be in attendance with me, and we are using this song as our first wedding dance in October. Between her tweeting him on Instagram and my posts here, I hope he got the message :please:

Oh and one thing I WON'T be doing tomorrow is live-updating the setlist again. It was more of a distraction to myself than I realized it would be tonight, and you're on your own for tomorrow.
8/23/94 5/28/96 8/3/99 2/3/00 5/11/00 5/12/00 7/7/00 10/29/00x2 11/2/00 11/3/00 11/4/00 7/25/02 7/10/03 7/18/03 9/20/07 9/3/10 5/14/15 3/1/18 3/22/18 3/23/18 7/20/19 4/26/22 5/10/22 5/13/22 10/29/22
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TMBJon
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by TMBJon »

Great review, thanks Rich!
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by crazygurl14 »

I had never known the full story behind One More Minute. I knew it was her in the video but i didnt know the rest. Inreallt hope he plays that, Twine, and Midnight Star when i see him on Monday. I keep thinking i should get a twitter just to tweet at him haha
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by OneWAY »

I'm tired, but it was an excellent show! Sorry I didn't get to stick around or find anyone, but with my sister in tow, I decided it would be better to cut out when the show ended. More details will be in my actual review, which I'll be working on when I get home! Very happy with the set list we got.

Now, I just need to get all squared away for next month's Texas shows.
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by hungerfan »

OneWAY wrote:Now, I just need to get all squared away for next month's Texas shows.
OH MY!!! Is that next month?! I had not noticed it was so close/far away still! :P No travel for me so it is just the Dallas show but that should be enough and made a big enough dent in the wallet that I could have traveled TX for a few days with what we spent and will spend at the show. :)
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by TMBJon »

As cool as it is that Al is playing the Apollo Theater, I really hope that he takes advantage of it by covering James Brown, the Supremes, Aretha Franklin, or one of the other acts that made this venue what it is. It would be such a missed opportunity not to do so.
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Re: 03/22/2018 Apollo Theater, New York, NY

Post by Yankomaniac »

Yeah Jim nails some killer sweeps and whammy bar dives on Velvet Elvis, it is so cool. Glad you caught that Rich!
What a racket they're makin', Jack, they keep me up at night playin' their electric guitars!!
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