Live Show: 6/8/99

6/8/99

Los Angeles, CA

Reviewed by: Nat Gertler


The Details

Well, some tickets got freed up for tonight's concert, and I managed to snag one (and ran into the boys while walking away from the box office). I headed out, got some dinner, and got in while the warm-up comedian was peppering the audience with humor that depended largely on racial stereotyping of Indians and Latinas. Oh, he did build up the courage to take potshots at In Sync. What's next, Milli Vanilli?

There were hundreds of folks there, mainly to see the main act, G Love & Special Sauce. There were probably a couple dozen Fruvosians there, though, which is considerable considering how unknown they are in this neck of the hollywoods. But the joy of the movie did seem to effect some of them, even the lady wearing the t-shirt that said Happy Music Sucks.

There was a short female Fruvousite next to me, and she soon found herself suffering from an apparently-drunk guy who was dancing wide behind her, bumping into her at regular intervals. I made some space in front of me, which she slid into, only to have dancin' fool move into her old space, so he was beside her and still quite as dangerous. I did my good deed for the day by sliding slowly between them--it meant that I was getting bopped (and my foot stepped on) by this guy, but I had more mass to absorb it. Eventually, he faded off to some other corner.

The band played two songs from the new album (Half As Much and something else) They opened with Sahara. I won't try to reconstruct the order of everything, but they did play Horshoes, Jockey Full of Bourbon, King of Spain, Johnny Saucepan, Green Eggs, You Will Go To The Moon, and Love Potion #9 (including 12 Dead In Ohio, Staying Alive, that recent song with the Thank You India, Thank You Whoever stuff in it, and more.)

The accousitcs seemed good for instruments but not good for voice. This is partly why I don't get much out of hearing new music in concert; I always have some problem interpreting the words.

At the end of their set (which ran 40-50 minutes, I'd say), I moved off of the main floor back to one of the large fringe areas. There were hundreds of people at this sell-out show; I'd say the main floor held more people than were at the SF MF concert I went to earlier this year, and the fringes held several times that. By moving out of the main area, I assured myself a much easier exit if I chose not to stick for the full set of the headline artist, and left that much more room for the people who were really his fans. It was more than a half hour's wait between groups, and I kept thinking I should leave before the wait gets any longer. It might not have been such an aggrevating wait if I had been there with someone, but no, I was alone. I gotta stop going to concerts that way.

I stayed for the first couple songs of G.Love, but he's basically a rapper (with a rockabilly backup), and the problem with understanding the words left me unable to really get into it. (I'm a lyric puppy by nature.) So I scooted and skeedaddled.


The Music

Opened with The Set Closed with Encore 1 Encore 2

Misc. Info

Some other tidbits from the performance include:




Back to the tour dates 1999 page