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 Shell (solo)
Curtains
Wendy and the Lost Boy
Touch and Go
Amnesiac
Driven
Like Veronica
Primo on the Parapet
I Will Find You (rest with DJ)
Out of my Book
Central Hotel
Four Pails
Autumn
Labour of Love
Refugees
Traintime (encore)
Thanks to SG for the setlist!
*Note: Hugh is I Will Find You, the You sung like a very drunk english
singer...
Hammill Yahoo! Group review
Well Peter appeared alone on stage but explained that when he wrote the
setlist, the first song he chose is in the absolute worst key for violin. So
Peter would have a go at it solo.
Shell
A bit of a false start. Again for this concert Peter needed his notes, and
just as he started singing a great gust of wind came and blew all his sheets
away. To everyone's amusement, he stopped and replaced the sheets using bits
of tape prepared for him on his keyboard. He continued where he left off,
and managed very well. Afterwards he invited Stuart on stage.
Curtains
Wendy and the Lost Boy
Touch and Go
Curtains was great and very strong vocally. Cracking, as some would say.
Wendy, a fine choice in my mind, but further illustrated his lack of
preparation for these Japanese concerts. He started playing the intro but
starting singing the verse and so made a mess of it. Once realizing this, he
stopped and said `oh, I get it, there is an INTRO to this song` and
proceeded to played it while looking at the crowd as if to say `See! This is
how it goes!' Once he started singing, he didn't know the words at all and
his notes were just too far to read. He would lean and squint before singing
but this head movement would in turn make all the beginning of his words
inaudible and then get louder as he got closer to the microphone. Before
starting Touch and Go, he actually taped his sheets to the keyboard so they
would be In View!
Amnesiac
Driven
Like Veronica
Primo on the Parapet
A shorter piano start led to a longer guitar set. Amnesiac was good, but I
think was used as a warm up. Driven was good too, but i'll go against the
grain here and say it's overrated ;-) I think that was the song he almost
played yesterday before playing If I Could. Like Veronica was just surreal.
At the end of Driven he hung on to an A minor chord and the lights dimmed
and side lights lit up making this really eerie effect, just intense. Primo
was also very good, even on acoustic guitar. Peter managed very well with
his playing and really seemed familiar with this guitar set (no notes). He
then invited David Jackson onstage. Before the start of the gig I was told
it was a possibility as his equipment finally arrived in Japan and was set
up. Once in the hall I saw the 2 microphones set up on the right by the
keyboard, one sax height and one flute height. David arrived with 3 saxes
and a flute in hand. He doesn't know much Japanese and so yelled out Yamaha!
to the cheering crowd.
I Will Find You
Out of my Book
Central Hotel
At first I thought DJ's mic was turned off, and that Stuart didn't leave
much room for him cause Stuart was just a wall of sound filling up every
available space. Turns out, as DJ passed Stuart he muttered that he couldn't
remember this song (I Will Find You) at all! Finally DJ was confident enough
to blow his soprano sax loud enough for us to hear, but not without cutting
Peter off as he started a verse. DJ cursed himself. Out of my Book was
beautiful, Stuart stood back for the start of this one. However great this
song is, for the full effect, it really needs the flute. Central Hotel had
quite a heavy groove to it, with DJ doing some double sax 'stonks'. Peter
got up and went to the piano, has DJ took his hat off and proceeded to fan
Peter, in appreciation.
Four Pails
Autumn
Labour of Love
Four Pails was good, maybe not as intense as the QEH gig, cause for one, DJ
is quite the clown onstage, with a wide range of non-verbal looks that
really make light of what's going on. Autumn in my opinion a great choice as
with LOL. Stuart and DJ were really getting used to each other and were less
stepping on each others toes, although DJ tended to follow Peter`s singing
while Stuart stuck to the song. the last one of the set had to be:
Refugees
A grandiose version! Just fantastic. Even Peter looked floored by it, saying
'yeah' as it ended, meaning that was great! They all packed up and left the
stage, but obviously returned for an encore. A little disappointingly they
chose to play (as a trio):
Traintime
Gave new meaning to the word encore, as they did this one as an encore the
first night. Peter apologized but said this was the start of them repeating
songs... I was hoping for another encore but think they ran out of DJ songs.
Peter said it would be different, and it was. He started with very quick
pace, and actually playing around with that. Stuart was sure it was a
deliberate attempt to screw him up... `Peter, he's playing chess!`
Charles and I agreed that Peter`s singing was great tonight. Very strong.
DJ's flute play was just great, even Stuart looked impressed at a few times.
DJ in turn looked impressed with Stuart during Central Hotel. Great fun to
see these guys enjoying themselves onstage together.
We had to leave the Hall while they set it up for the party. During the 3
concerts there has been a very strict rule that no photos be taken,
reserving them all for the hired photographer, which is unfortunate for the
fans. However an exception was made for the party. Unlike other years Peter
& Stuart (DJ was there too) weren't stuck seated at a table but instead were
able to mingle in the hall. Peter came out but the other two stayed
backstage, leaving Peter alone with all these fans clapping around him...
unbearably awkward, he looked back to get the other two out and divert a
little of the attention from him. So eventually you had 3 line-ups to get
things signed and photos taken. A cake was brought out to Peter followed by
everyone singing Happy Birthday. Peter said 'I knew there`d be a curve to
this, there's always a curve somewhere..' in good fun. I tried to get David
to hum part of Agamemnon Agnostic (a lost Pawn Hearts session song) which he
does still remember, but there was a background CD playing (Batteries
Included) and he really couldn't do it... During a break in the CD he did
hum a few bars.. Everyone was in a great mood and a totally enjoyable
experience. As parting gifts, the organizer had little shell shaped cookies
with a monogram sticker on them for everyone.
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