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From: chris

Well, the first thing I did was take out my earplugs. Live Bob is simply 
meant to be full blast. The crowd was thick, but oddly immobile. 95% of 
everyone were simply standing with arms folded, frowning straight ahead. 
I not only found it weird, but utterly unnatural; Bob's electrified music 
animates every nerve in my body; I began jumping up and down at the first 
note and didn't stop for the duration. A few others were with me when I 
looked around, but I mean A FEW. It was nice that there wasn't any rough, 
invasive moshing: the few of us that danced were kindly given our space to 
groove by the tree-like figures around us. I wasn't able to get much arm
movement, but I'm sure my vertical vigour more than compensated. Of course, 
I placed myself directly in front of THE MAN (Bob). There were the two most
adorable children in front of me, clinging to Bob's monitors, a girl of 
perhaps 12 and a boy of maybe 9. Thank god they had earplugs!!! My ears are 
still ringing (the price you pay); I bet Bob is totally deaf after a show, 
with his bad tinitus and all. The sound was top notch, but alas, the mix did 
what? Yes, it drowned out the vocals as usual. Why does Bob insist on 
minimizing his incredible lyrics this way? As a long time fan, I was able 
to sing along with every song from memory, but I really felt bad for the
newer fans who could not possibly get any appreciation for the words 
(or even Bob's wonderful voice) through this mixing technique. Even when 
Bob let loose with impassioned screaming, there was no difference. He gives 
it everything he's got up there; he should allow himself to be heard. Anyway, 
the songs were top notch. Almost all the new album was played, 2 from Workbook 
in the main set, Anymore Time Between (spiritual), and others from Hubcap. 
Egoveride blew its recorded version totally away - the driving bass line and 
fluid guitar work gave it new and improved deffinition and brilliance. Bob 
did a kooky solo durring I Hate Alternative Rock: his eyes bugged out wide 
open, while his body stumbled about as if it would teeter over at any moment, 
like he was doing a jig on banana peels. While this spectacle was going on, 
his guitar fired off some terrific licks. He looked like Bugs Bunny when 
Bugs drinks a vile potion and then freaks out. The 2 encores were 
Classifieds/Dissapointed and Sweet Serene/See A Little Light. See A Little 
Light ROCKED! Again, blew the album version to smithereens. Who Was Around 
and Skintrade sounded extra fantastic, but the whole package was pure 
dynamite, so why pick favorites. The backing vocals were completely 
inaudible, but the band was on high octane. The second guitarist showed 
us he was built to rock with much animation (and I thought I spent alot of 
time in the gym). Bob shut his eyes for most of the time and only opened 
them to gaze up into the rafters durring the show, but as he left the stage 
he gave the warmest smile to the 2 kids at his feet; they'll never forget
this one. I was suprised to notice that Bob has very thin, sort of elegant 
long fingers, like he never did any hard work with them - quite strange 
for the hardest working stiff on the rock and roll stage! The way he can play, 
I guess I thought they'd be bleeding, knotty stumps. Hey, I had the best time; 
thanks so much to Bob and the band and all the great fans that came out to 
enjoy (but guys, its okay to dance and let your body go crazy - its a 
freedom that brings you that much closer to the freedom of the music).

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From: micro

Agreed that the show really turned a corner about halfway through. Bob 
didn't seem very inspired at first, as exemplified when he was tuning before 
one song and declared, "close enough" before playing the first chord. Crowd 
was a bunch of deadbeats at first; Toad's is a great place to see a big name 
-- low stage, modest crowds, but the flipside can be low energy. Fortunately, 
people either started responding to Bob's energy or vice-versa, and the energy 
was high by the end. When I approached Bob outside after the show and told 
him I thought he finished strong he just nodded his head and obliquely offered, 
"In a zone, in a zone." So I guess he was satisfied.

A couple of random thoughts/questions: 
1. He did some weirdo tuning before playing "See a Little Light." Apart from 
being electric, it looked and sounded quite different from the typical acoustic 
version -- more droning and power-chordy. Am I imagining this?
2. I thought alarming rumors about the volume were exagerrated. Maybe my ears 
are going numb, but when I saw him at Toad's in 1990 my ears rang for 36 hours. I 
brought earplugs last night but didn't end up using them, and I'm (almost) fine today.
3. The band is excellent. Michael's singing is a colossal improvement over David 
Barbe's, and his voice and guitar do a wonderful job of filling up sonic space that
always seemed glaringly empty during live Sugar shows.

Finally, I have now seen Bob perhaps a dozen times in the 1990s, and only ever got 
one acoustic version of Brasilia. Many of those "calls for Brasilia" mentioned in
the previous posting were mine, and I was absolutely elated to hear him play a really 
compelling version of it. No question that, followed quickly by a rocking "Lonely 
Afternoon" was the highlight of the night.