by Amanda

Photos | Videos | Date: August 27, 2009

I'm in the Denver airport now, waiting for my flight to Dallas. Last night's show was in a truly unique venue, beautiful.. The crowd, however left a bit to be desired. Pretty casual for the most part and took a few songs to warm up, which is expected, but there was A LOT of pot smoke (legal to carry 1oz in Colorado) and people were coming and going for beer the whole show. There were no aisles, so people kept having to walk past us in our row, which was rather annoying.

This wasn't just during Mart's solos, either. I had and excellent view right of stage, nearly no obstructions other than the occassional hand. I hadn't seen the full stage in it's entrirety yet because I've only been to GA gigs so far. It was great to be able to have a clear and close view of all the lads in one scene and the stage atmosphere.

The show was very enjoyable, the band was having a lot of fun, especially toward the end when Dave spotted some sort of bug or frog on stage and started fussing over it like a 10 year old boy - too cute. Inbetween songs, He even got the crowd in by saying "Hey, we've got this little guy here, and he's like this *Dave imitates mantis/frog-like pose.* hope somebody got video! Fletch and Peter were even donning bug spray in the breaks of the first few songs.

I was excited to get a varied setlist, hearing "Somebody" and "Behind the Wheel" for the first time this tour. "Somebody" was moving and beautiful. It's not really my favorite of Martin's solos, but he gave and amazing delivery. I loved the conviction of the nonlyrical vocals at the end. I enjoyed the racing patterns on the screens for BtW - teal/blue-green is fitting for that song (dunno why). I was also happy to hear Home for a second time as it's one of my favorites of Martin's. Dave was full of praise for Martin all night, calling him Marty Fresh once again.

"Waiting for the Night" moved me to tears again, not only for the simple beauty of it, but because I felt almost as if I was saying goodbye for now. This show was my second to last for this tour, and the last I'll be up close and personal. My seats in Dallas are up in the second tier since I'm taking some friends to the show (couldn't pull any better for four people). I couldn't really get good pics but I took a few nice videos, including one of Mart and Dave headbanging during IFY. Also, there was a long, dramatic pause in WFTN that I didn't notice at other gigs. It's neat to hear how songs are evolving through the tour, namely the chilling echos added to IYR, the crazy breakdown in ETS, and now the new lights and pause WFTN.

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