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From: Andrew D. Boyko

Jeepers.  What a show that was - my third time seeing Bob solo in
DC, and a curious show indeed. I'd be distraught about the absence
of the Strat, but he belted out "Running Out Of Time", "I Apologize",
"Chartered Trips", and "Celebrated Summer" (not in a row, mind you)
with such vigor that I think I might get over it.  

I guess this is DC's second exposure to "New #1".  I really love that
song.  "High Fidelity" is pleasant enough; "Vaporub" is... um...
missing something.  I think.  He gave us the pop hits again ("See
A Little Light", "IICCYM", "YFT") as well as a surprising number
of real downers ("Explode", "Too Far Down", "Roll Over & Die",
2nd encore "Thumbtack") and a tragically aborted version of "Brasilia",
which I never appreciated before hearing it live in '95, but now love
dearly; no "Poison Years" at all.

---------------------------

From: Ruum101

Once again, I guess I am going to post a review, although this time, I didn't
get a chance to meet up with Bob, so I will only have notes from the show.

The openers were again Orbit.  And once again, they were loud, very animated,
and not very fitting with the evening.  I could have done without Orbit this
evening.  There was only one opener, but at least they sounded better than
last night.

Bob went on stage around 10 after 10.  He sat down quickly and said that he
had just walked in the door 8 minutes ago and that he was kind of all over
the place, so we were to bear with it.  He opened with Wishing Well, not like
I need to say that, but it was very good, the P.A. at the 9:30 was better
than the one at Bohager's.  Bob commented that he was "really into" the way
his voice was sounding off the back wall.  He felt as if he wasn't projecting
enough, but he knew that he was singing rather than screaming.  Bob again
sounded good tonight as he stepped into Hear Me Calling for the second song.
  Hoover Dam was next, one of my favorites, and a staple of the first quarter
of  the evening.  He stopped for a while to have a cigarette, and he started
once again receiving requests, questions, and general unintelligible screams
from the audience.  When things quieted down he started talking about Costa
Rica again, his comment being "I think road paving in Costa Rica was a one
time deal", he also talked about how talking during a performance was so out
of style for a "performer", and was he really a performer, he was very
rhetorical this evening.  He also spoke about how he was trying to change his
image of being dour, he said people saw him as being down, he said maybe they
got it from the albums.  Then he put out his cigarette, and played See A
Little Light again, but with a much quicker tempo than usual, pretty cool.
 Then he slipped a little Huskers our way with No Reservation, a really good
No Reservations, then right into Your Favorite Thing.  He played I Apologize
acoustic tonight, very nice, I so seldom hear it that way lately.  It too,
seemed slightly faster than usual.  Then he plunged into the new block, New
#1, Vapo Rub, IICCYM stuck in there just to keep the newbies from leaving,
and then High Fidelity, all the new songs kicked ass tonight, they all seemed
much more comfortable to Bob tonight.  He played Last Night again, and then
came Eternally Fried, which I love(should have been on the new album), it
sounded sooooooo good live, well tailored to the 12 string!   Bob attempted
Brasilia but it didn't seem to sound right for him so he abandoned it after
the first verse, the guy next to me almost cried!
<<Sorry Man>>
He quickly recovered after some muttering and played Explode And Make Up
straight through for the first time in a while.  Sinners came next, man I
love Sinners, then Roll Over and Die which always sounds great. The last song
in the first set was Celebrated Summer, with all the bells and whistles,
everybody kept clapping and hooting after every verse, I love it when he
milks those pauses!   
He came out for the first encore exactly 3 minutes after stepping offstage.
 He picked  up the 12 string and asked for some suggestions, new stuff, old
stuff, he was trying to think of something he hadn't played in a while.  He
put out the butt and flew into Chartered Trips, with all the na na na's and
everything, awesome.  He played Running Out Of Time on the acoustic?  That's
right, he did, and it was really cool, I never would have picked it, never,
but out it came, and of course it sounded good on the acoustic.   Then he
pulled out all the stops and gave us Too Far Down, WOW.
WOW.
He left again and was gone for almost 4 minutes this time, and came back on,
picked up the acoustic again and played the ender of enders, Thumbtack,
pretty much the standard now it seems, Wishing Well...Thumbtack, I like it.
 Bob didn't seem as outwardly happy this evening, but he was easy going and
when asked about his mood he said nothing was wrong, everything was good.
 The show was great, I mean, it's Bob, but aside from that, the P.A. was very
good, it sounded very crisp and the mix was just about right.   The house was
full, and the crowd was singing with all their might.

----------------------

From: R M Bernstein

Just a few comments on the DC show last night.  It started a little
strangely, [although that crowd was great] seemed that Bob was in the same
kind of mood as last night.  He did a nice 'no reservations' and 'I
apologise'.  the  soundman was having obvious problems, maybe his first
night on the job?  the poor orbit back-up guys seemed to be opening their
mouths at awkward angles the whole night [)]

Bob then stopped. He talked 15 minutes, sometimes about his apparent lack of
projecting and screaming for the audience, sometimes about the 'heavens
gate' people. He suggested that if it is a slow new-week, the media will
probably suggest that the airplane/bomber in Arizona that has gone missing
will be said to be taken along w/ Hale-Bopp.

it was like it was a little stress break for him.  

he then went on to really project and scream for over an hour more.  i mean,
in how many shows does Bob do 'too far down'?  the show got pretty intense;
e.g., one of the little-jumpy-guys up front was crying during TFD.  [there's
always a couple'a little-jumpy-guys at Bob shows].  

all in all, over 130 minutes.  last night boded well for the upcoming shows:
if Bobs selection of materiel continues its logarithmic increase [as
compared to the Baltimore show] he will be playing Longleys rarities album
top-to-bottom in Chapel Hill.  [heard a rumour that J Helms hisself is going
[!]]

i was struck again by what i kind of take for granted at a Bob show:  one of
the people with me asked me after the show "who else was playing along with
Bob?  it wasnt just him and a guitar, was it?"  i told him that that box
next to Bob on the table was one of those old Hammond organ tempo makers
[latin beat # 2]. 

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From: Joe.Novotny

Everyone did a great job of summing up the D.C. show, but I just wanted
to add a couple of side notes.

After the show, Bob said that he was really pleased with the show,
although he was self-conscious of the fact that he was singing instead
of screaming, and that was why he wasn't sure if he was projecting.  The
reason why he didn't play electric was because that he was enjoying the
fact that the show was more "musical" than other shows, and playing
electric "would have opened a whole new can of worms."  Also, he said
that last night's show was very similar to the Minneapolis show in
February.

Other good news: he said that he has written about 12 new songs total,
and that they are all in various stages.  He hasn't started to record
any of them yet.  A really funny part was when we were talking about
different music, and he said that he met Diamanda Galas at a party in
New York once and she just "dove right into the bean dip", and then we
were talking about how skinny she is.  Bob is a great story-teller,
though, and he had me in hysterics.  Thanks for letting me indulge...and
sorry if I've repeated anything that anyone has already said before.

-----------------------------------

From: JMS1076

Bob was in a self-described, "weird" mood. I didn't copy the setlist, but it
was a lot of Workbook and Black Sheets material. Three new songs already
heard on the tour this spring, (New #1/Vaporub/High Fidelity). Bob paused in
mid show to describe his mood. He was spacing out, he knew we were there, but
things were definitely different wherever he was. He smoked his cigarette and
did a Q&A with the crowd. Talked about the daily show, all ages clubs, the
heaven's gate/hale-  bopp fiasco, skipped the politics this time, and about
his adventures in Costa Rica. Crowd banter during throughout the show was
more than I have ever heard Bob say. Much to my pleasure he did play
Celebrated Summer with premature applause and all. Also pleasing to me was
the first time hearing Explode and Make Up live. Overall, Bob was a wonder
and left me reeling for the second time.