(TV) Tom live in Pittsburgh, 6/10/06

[Maurice Rickard <maurice@mac.com>]

In short, the best of Tom's shows I've ever seen personally, though 
this is admittedly a small sample set (last night, two film 
soundtracks shows--'99 and '02--and Chicago in '01 with Television).

The venue: a park at the confluence of two rivers (and the source of 
the Ohio).  The evening was cool and clear.  We showed up by 7:15, to 
hear the Eels stinking up the joint with their mediocre, annoying 
frat/bar rock.  Escaping this and going down to the fountain at the 
tip of the confluence, we met up with a friend and decided to walk 
back by which time surely the Eels would be over.  No such luck--they 
were in the process of butchering "That's Life," so we went as far 
away from that as we could, down to a walkway at the edge of the 
park.  And what's this?  It's a minivan driving along the walkway.  I 
kept looking at the driver to assess her mental state, and only at 
the last minute did I look over to see Tom in the front passenger 
seat.  Oh, so this is why the van was on a pedestrian walkway.  True 
to legend, Tom stared straight ahead--no eye contact, although none 
of us were waving or anything.

After this, there was a long setup delay, and even once they'd gotten 
on stage, they played pre-recorded strings + piano music from the 
classical repertoire for quite some time.  It struck me as the usual 
long tuning-setup thing, but without the audience hearing the 
process.  Finally, at 8:15, "Swells" started.

Staring-straight-ahead-itude aside, Tom seemed to be in a really good 
mood tonight.  Plenty of long, exploring solos, all of them really 
strong, and none broken off with the "well, I'm out of ideas" 
interruption we've witnessed a few times.  His tone was 
perfect--balanced on the edge of distortion, tipping over with harder 
playing, and just sparkly with lighter playing.  Late in the set, 
during "Persia," I walked around and heard Tom's glorious tone 
bouncing off the city's buildings, and occasionally the high bluff 
across the river.  Meanwhile, the full (marquee) moon rose.  A 
perfect setting, and a glorious show.

Instruments: Tom had the sanded-down Strat with the Jazzmaster neck 
and lipstick pickups, though broke a string during "Heavenly Charms" 
and switched to a blue hardtail Strat; later he got the Frankenstrat 
back.  He was going through a Vox amp, presumably an AC30.

Jimmy was playing a strat through a Fender DeVille, though he was 
also using a guitar synth or EH POG (or HOG) for some bits.

Fred had the old Kay bass, and sounded great.  I'm not a drummer, so 
I didn't really trainspot Louie's kit, but he sounded great as 
well--really meaty kick, and a powerful, tasteful hitter.

The set list:

Swells
Souvenir from a Dream
Heavenly Charms (great outro solo, followed by Tom saying "Sorry, I 
busted a string already.")
Orbit (two long solos, much better than the recorded version, which I 
generally don't listen to much)
The Earth Is in the Sky (my favorite tune from the new vocal record, 
which I like even with the monologue.  Actually this live version was 
not an improvement--Tom skipped some lyrics, and it was a bit 
perfunctory, though the first and second solos were really nice. 
Also, he kept saying, "_this_ earth" as opposed to "the earth," just 
as a random detail.)
Documentary (another nice solo, and occasionally a bit of a 
shuffle/reggae feel)
Someone from the audience said something I didn't hear--presumably a 
request for a Television song--at which Tom chuckled and said, 
"You've got the wrong band." At this point he got the Frankenstrat 
back.
Scientist Writes a Letter (very delicate organ tone from Jimmy, and a 
delicate outro as opposed to the _solo_ on the record, and a pleasure 
to hear this one)
Kingdom Come (This one seemed at times to be a bit obligatory for 
Tom, but when Louie picked things up toward the end, it seemed to 
really energize him and Jimmy, as Tom kept pumping his right hand on 
static notes for quite some time.)
Words from the Front (absolutely glorious, spellbinding.  I got 
chills.  Particularly on these solos, Tom revealed his physical 
strength as a guitar player, getting that satisfying vibrato from his 
hardtail Strat, just from string bending alone, as opposed to riding 
the vibrato arm as he used to with the Jazzmaster.)
Shingaling (featuring some insta-reverse on Tom's guitar via, 
presumably, the Line 6 DL4.  Really enjoyable in most places, though 
at times it seemed a bit overlong, followed by sections that redeemed 
the others; by this point one could see the bugs flying around under 
the stage lights, and one seemed to land on Tom's face during a 
verse, though that didn't stop him.)
Nice Actress (with Tom singing "screwed (up) actor"--after all, there 
were families there)
Pillow (a really tender version of my favorite tune from _The 
Wonder_, beautiful)
Clear It Away (very aggressive, great interplay between Tom and Jimmy)
band introductions
Persia (epic and mighty, with long, glorious solos from Tom.  Much 
stronger than the Fabrik version with Television, and our non-TV-fan 
friend we were with told me to let him know when this tune comes out 
on something. After this, "Marquee Moon" would have been superfluous.)

Encore: From Her Fingers

Yup, no "Marquee Moon," and I have to say I was glad--I'd much rather 
hear Tom wrap his brain around new stuff that interests him, as 
opposed to doing repertoire out of obligation.  He was engaged in a 
way that I'd always hoped to hear live, and that's the payoff.   A+.
--

Maurice Rickard
http://mauricerickard.com/   |   http://onezeromusic.com/
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