how did you all like it? heres my opinion, however im going to break it down into two sections, bobby and the crowd.

bobby - well i mean what can i say the man played his heart out on stage. i was captivated. everything he played sounded like an angel singing to me. it was great. he looked a bit tired at some points, especially during the dual encore jailhouse rock/ box of rain but thats to be expected. all round a damn fine performance.

the crowd - i should start off by saying that im all for having fun at a show and doing what you want. if you want to sit, stand, dance, sing along, scream along, smoke, trip, get trashed then do it. doesnt matter to me. there is one thing, however, that really ticked me off about last nights crowd and that was the talking. why would you pay $60 to go see a concert and talk through the whole thing. It sounded like a school cafeteria in there. at points i could barely hear the song over people talking and i could never hear what bob was saying between songs. talking is fine and good but save it for the set break. maybe im just being a downer but the crowd really killed the show for me last night.

Apparently crowd noise has been an ongoing issue with this tour. Definitely a problem at the show I saw in Wilkes-Barre.

I listened to some of the stream last night and I agree with you on both points. Bobby really put his heart and soul into those songs. He showed that he understands the acoustic guitar as a very different animal than the electric. I mean, given the way Bob plays electric rhythm like no other guitar player on the planet, for him to play acoustic solo is to play in a completely different way, and he managed to do that and still be very unique in his approach. And his voice was as good as ever, pretty amazing after the thousands of gigs he has sung in his career.

On the other hand, I just don't get the crowd talking thing either. Is it a generational thing? Do the younger Heads just not have the respect they should have? Or it is Heads of all ages doing the chattering? I saw Jerry and John Kahn acoustic in the 80's and the place was quiet, really listening. At least I remember it that way, who knows maybe I've become a middle aged guy mumbling "these kids today......."

I'm 21 years old and will stay next to silent the entire time...from my observations the worst are the "reminiscers" the people with friends talking about that show they saw in 91 or their first show in 74 and what a great 'Eyes' they played. Lots of older people taking a stroll down memory lane talking about how its not the same now and such

well, a lot of people at furthur shows are just younger than you in general. i notice it from both, but normally older folks than me. i'm 24, so there is a semi large sector of people older than me. i find it to be the mid 30s-early 40's range, normally at least one alcoholic beverage if not two in their hands. what's really fucked up is a lot of the time it seems when you kind of look at them or politely ask t hem to quiet down it gets worse.

So it's my fellow old farts that can't keep their traps shut? Figures. You would think life had taught them some respect by now. I guess it's up to you youngsters to educate those that came before you about how to behave at a show. Good grief!!

Id say there are drunks, talkers, assholes and well behaved, kind folks in all age groups, genders and geographic regions. Trying to generalize is pointless and usually not reflective of reality, imho.

edheadwharfrat wrote:


well no, i said i see it from both. but maybe more so from one demographic category

what did you want to hear? it's only young people at shows? it's not.

i don't think anyone should have to educate anybody. it's a concert, you're there to listen to the music, not talk over the music. seems like common sense to me.

When I saw bob solo in Oakland, there wasn't that much talking going on. If there was it was the folks that were fucked up. But for the most part it was nice. Maybe it's the people who used to be into the dead and havnt seen much since the 80 or 90 and want to talk about how many shows they used to see. Some people want to be sure to talk about there past and clarify that there a head.

wlewis wrote:


I was responding to Doin That Rag, not you.