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From: Paul Hilcoff

I'm too tired to try to review the Tramps show, but it was a strange one.
Bob couldn't read the audience--an audience that didn't really react very
much to *anything* he did or said.  Consequently, the show had a rather
experimental feel to it.  But it was a tremendous performance nonetheless,
with an electric "Hanging Tree" that came from an unknown planet.  Holy
shit!

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From: Mark Weygandt

Jiminy christmas.  What a helluva show last night.  Started off with the
basics (Hoover Dam, Favorite Thing, Needle Hits E, etc) but took a 180 soon
after Change Your Mind.  It was great to hear Can't Fight It again.  Stand
Guard was shouted out during a cigarette break, and Bob pointed right at the
requester and said he had been thinking about doing that one somehow, soon
(yeah, he said this way back in Rochester last year too).  Never thought he
would actually attempt it though right after.  Sounded really good, but
there were a couple lost lines here and there.  After the song, Bob remarked
something like "didn't think this one would turn out to be a hootenanny
show, but I guess it is."  Waited a few minutes to listen to requests, but
eased into "Hardly Getting Over It" instead.

At some point after that I think, I guess Bob was thorougly perplexed where
the audience was coming from so he took a show of hands - "Who came in on
Copper Blue?"  Applause.  "Who came in with workbook?"  More applause and
shouting.  "Who came in with New Day Rising?"  Absolute roar.

It was odd this show took such a good turn, I remember the Birch Hill show
last October that had similar crowd problems and that one went south real
fast.  I guess the crowd last night egged Bob on, because Poison Years was a
real scorcher, and that led to the...

Electric encore.  Holy shit.  Bob was a man possessed.  With the first few
notes of Hanging Tree my jaw dropped and I think this is where I wet myself.
The performance of this one was simply otherworldly.  After seeing the set
from Friday (and thinking Bob played Gift twice, Paul why didn't you correct
me?) I was hoping he'd pull out Gift again and right after Hanging Tree Bob
went to dropped D tuning and I knew it was coming.  What a sonic onslaught.
Never thought I'd see the day he'd play that in an electric encore.  Damn,
that was impressive.  After I Apologize he absolutely BLASTED thought the
next two, IHAR and Running Out of Time.  Really belting them out and playing
at light speed.  I thought for sure Makes No Sense was it (he was up to 6
songs already) but a really great version of Man on the moon ensued.  I've
always thought Bob should do two sets, one electric and one acoustic, and I
think last night might be as close as we might get to that.  WOW.

Probably would have gotten a 2nd encore, but almost as soon as Bob stood up
someone came on the PA and started clearing out the house.  Damn.  I would
have loved to have heard Too Far Down after all of that.  Who knows though,
he might not have come back out.  I certainly couldnt have asked for more.
I'm still in awe.

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From: "Todd Schwarz"

The only other opportunity I had to see Bob was early in the BSOR tour in 
Pittsburgh so Saturday's show was my first acoustic Bob experience (with the 
exception of a boot) and boy was it ever a pleasure.  It absolutely reminded 
me what makes Bob so unique.

Since this was a first acoustic show for me, and a first post to this list 
after reading for awhile, a few questions popped into my head that folks may 
be able to answer for me:
	First-How does Bob typically respond to people yelling song titles at him.  
Other than a quip about "jamming on an open D tuning for ten minutes" (a 
reference to a story I've heard about occasional early Husker-era jams?) it 
really didn't seem to bother him much, though the variety of requests may have 
been a bit befuddling.  If he does dislike it I apologize for having hurled 
'Hanging Tree' into the mix, but after hearing the way it came off, I'm not 
too sorry somehow. 
	Second- Could 'Stand Guard' really be unrehearsed?  Though some words were 
dropped the guitar playing was furious and precise-perfect!
	Third- I was surprised at how little he played form the self-titled album.  
Lots of folks yelled for Fort Knox, and I know I've read Egoverride and 
Thumbtack in other setlists recently.  Is this typical?  Is there a *typical* 
acoustic show?  I'm particularly interested in this since there were (I think) 
4 BSOR and 4 Workbook songs played!

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From: Benjamin Gary Diehl

	Seeing as how I've only seen Paul's and Mark's posts (though I am 
in digest land and may have missed a few), I'll add my own thoughts 
about last night's show.
	In my mind, it started very off very oddly.  While he was playing 
the standards, something seemed a little bit off, like it wasn't quite 
gelling.  As Mark and Paul noted, this might have been due to the fact 
that the audience was itself difficult to read.  Rather than giving up on 
the crowd, as happened at Old Bridge, I think Bob decided that this meant 
he could just sit back, have fun, and do whatever the hell he wanted. 
Which really seemed to be what he did.  He experimented with the opening 
to "Can't Fight It," opening the song with a very restrained voice (this 
was the one quiet point of the night!), and really belted the hell out of 
"Panama City Motel." 
	Then, he took the request for "Stand Guard," which, seemed like 
it might be the end of the oddities for the evening.  "Hardly" and 
"Eternally Fried" were very good, but Bob didn't take any risks.  "Roll 
Over and Die" and "Poison Years" were great.  That ended the main set, 
which lasted 80 minutes.  
	I would have been happy with that, but then Bob came out with 
electric.  I've never heard anyone ever do anything like the Hanging Tree 
that Bob dropped like a bomb on the audience (with a volume level that 
made me think that I was at a Beaster show).  Man.  
	I'm almost sad that that wasn't the closer.  It would have been a 
hell of a way to go out.  All of his belting and screaming from the 
acoustic part of the set were just a warmup for that.  Bob was all smiles 
afterward as well; he knew he'd nailed it.  The rest of the electric 
encore was great as well, but after "Hanging Tree" was almost anticlimactic.
	As if an overview is necessary, this was an amazing show.  After 
the first few songs, Bob's carefree attitude led to a great night.  It 
wasthe kind of set that just makes me want to see more, but, at the same 
time, it stands so well by itself that I don't want to have to compare it 
to anything.
	Man.  
	Sorry about the length of the post, but what a night!