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From: Michael Hall

Hi all.  Long review, but I have a lot to say.

I saw Bob in Sioux Falls last night.  Great set, great night.  I hung
around long enough afterwards to meet Bob.  He was really cordial, and
said that he thought the show had been good.  I'll have scans of my
signed ticket and my picture with Bob on my website shortly.  I also got
to meet Paul Hilcoff, which is kind of strange since I seldom meet
people that I only know through email.

VARNALINE plays what I could only call Attack Dog Pop, owing a heavy
debt to Bob and sounding very similar (I thought) to Grant Lee Buffalo.
It took me two or three songs to get into them, but they proved to be a
very competent trio.  They had a surprising amount of variation in their
set, switching seamlessly between fuzzed-out rockers and  acoustic-edged
country rock.  They switched off between acoustic and electric guitars,
electric and stand-up bass, and threw in a crappy-sounding but
well-placed synth on the last two songs.  If variation is what you were
looking for, they actually did a better job of it than Bob did.

Bob came on at roughly 9:15, sporting the typical Bob wardrobe: blue
jeans, baggy grey T-shirt, what looked like Airwalk shoes, and a haircut
so short I thought at first he'd taken after his other guitarman and
shaved it all off.  He seemed to be in a great mood, bouncing around,
smiling out into the crowd, laughing a couple times when he missed cues,
etc.  He only talked enough to introduce his band, and then with his
trademark smirk said, "and I...  Ahh, I suck."

THE SOUND was absolutely solid.  It was loud. While possibly not as loud
as I remember Sugar being, my speaker-side ear is still ringing slightly
16 hours later.  Bob played his usual Strats, and seemed to have the
same swarm-of-bees-stuck-inside-a-compressor guitar sound as on the new
record. His other guitar player had a large, fat sound (he was playing
what looked like Gibson SGs) that all too often buried Bob's more
delicate sound under a brutal mix.  This may have been a product of
where I was sitting, since nobody else I talked to complained.  The bass
was fat and loud, and the drummer did a spectacular job.  The Bob
tradition of taking acoustic album numbers and ripping the shit out of
them live was in full effect.  New #1, Fort Knox King Solomon,  and Deep
Karma Canyon were all incredible live.

The drawback was the crowd.  I knew probably 25 people who were among
the 200 or so present, and I know they were all blown away.
Unfortunately, when you put seats in a joint, people sit, and what was
actually awe-struck admiration probably looked to Bob like apathy.  The
setlist that a friend of mine retrieved listed an extra two-song encore
that wasn't played, probably because Bob thought he'd been playing to a
roomful of manequins.  When I talked to Bob afterwards, I apologized
that people weren't a bit more enthusiastic, and he said it hadn't
bothered him.

HIGHLIGHT of the evening:  Eternally Fried.  MY GOD!  He transformed
what I always thought  was a throw-away into a sprawling,
feedback-drenched soundscape, completely unlike anything I've ever heard
him play live.  This song absolutely blew a mind that was in no
condition to be blown any further.

Personally, I would have liked to hear more than one song from Workbook,
but I also wanted the Encore to be Black Sheets from beginning to end.
All in all it was a spectacular night.  Everyone who hasn't seen it yet
is in for a real treat.  Make sure you get there in time to see
Varnaline as well.  You won't be let down!