Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, April 03, 2004.

Meant to write this up earlier, but with deadlines approaching for my history thesis, I’ve been a little busy. This was my break from research for the weekend.

First of all, I must thank Linh for the free tickets. She won them off the radio, but couldn’t go because she had to hang out with all kinds of DJs in LA. Score for me. My friend Ryan and I took BART to the show, it was real easy. The line to get in was insane, it went around two blocks. We caught about the last 15 minutes of the opening band, which from what we did hear, was fortunate for us.

We then slowly squeezed our way up to the front as much as possible. I think the closest we got was about 5 or so rows of very tightly packed people from the front. Very close. Even before the band came out it was hard to breathe and stand up if the crowd started pushing. Most of the people in the crowd seemed like high school kids. I’m really surprised how all the short girls can survive being squished like that up towards the front.

Anyway, when the band came out, things went nuts. Especially after the second song started, “Pet”. Then the pushing and crowd surfing got a little out of hand and it was becoming unenjoyable up there. When it takes more concentration to stand up and breathe than to listen to the music, it’s time to get out. We pushed our way through the crowd heading towards the back, which was more difficult than it should have been. Once we got out and were able to breathe, it was a much better experience. I was so worn out by being up there for only 2 1/2 songs, I think I’m getting old. But throughout the show I saw people that had been up front too coming out towards the back. I think it’s almost too much for anyone.

Highlights for the evening included a reworked version of “The Nurse Who Loved Me,” James Iha playing the Velvet Underground’s “Afterhours” (I think I was the only person in the crowd who knew the song), really great performances of “Thomas” and “Thinking of You” from the first album, and “The Noose” which was just awesome to hear. They actually played almost every song from the newest record with the exception of the intrumentals and the last song, “Gravity”.

The stage setup was really cool. There were these white tree-like structures with branches and no leaves, but they had lights on them and lit up and changed colors themselves. Maynard spent the whole first song surrounded by walls of sheets up on his own little mini-stage, where he remained the entire show, the sheets came down though… The show was over at close to 11pm with no encore, but it was really good. I’m glad I got to go, no matter how much it wore me out.