** Excellent setlist + excellent musicians = excellent show. Minneapolis
+ November = sunny and 70+ degrees? Yup. I never would've guessed that I'd
see Ty, dUg, and Jerry hanging out at 2 in the morning in downtown Minneapolis
in November wearing short-sleeved shirts.. and enjoy it. Their show at First
Avenue was a totally memorable event. As soon as I pulled up to 1st Ave,
I noticed Chris the Hat and his Canadian buddies crossing the street. I
knew it would be a wild night.
I found a parking spot and made my way to the side door where the tour bus
was parked. I spotted Randy, and then Barry
G. Player and some of his bandmates. After a minute or two to catch
up on things, Ty strolls around the corner eating an ice cream cone. Ty
was smiling and seemed genuinely happy to see fans waiting some 6 hours
before King's X would take the stage. Fortunately for me, Ty invited me
in to watch the soundcheck. I grabbed my video camera, and headed in. The
first thing I noticed was no Splat, Dave, Bryan, or CC. Turned out that
Paul and Colby were up to the job. And Jay was there, doing what turned
out to be a masterful job of getting the sound tweaked. There were alot
of problems with the monitors during Believe and Sometime . After resolving
the problems, the boys finished the soundcheck by letting loose on Send
A Message .
I ran into a couple of other people from the King's
X Online messageboard while waiting for the doors to open. Luckily
for us, the only opening band was Moke . I've heard of horror stories with
up to 6 openers before King's X took the stage. Moke played a strong set,
with my personal highlight being the closer, My Degeneration .
The setlist on this tour is definitely
a pleasant surprise. There were several songs that I've never seen performed
live before, including Send A Message , What is This , and two excellent
songs from King's X (4)... Big Picture and The World Around Me . There were
also 5 songs from Manic Moonlight , with my favorites being The Other Side
and a scorching version of Vegetable ! Including
the encores, the band played 23 songs.. over 2 incredible hours of music.
The only complaint I have is that the second leg of the tour doesn't yet
include a visit to Minnesota. I might just have to fly down to Texas to
catch the post-Thanksgiving shows in Austin and Houston ;)
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