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Saturday Night - Philly

We waited on a long line in chilly temperatures for about an hour before they started letting people in. Unfortunately, by the time I got upstairs all the good spots along the side balcony were gone so I snagged us two places in the back and a little to the other side, not far from the VIP area which was occupied with about five very large cameras and not many VIP's (except for the guy who keeps turning up in all the "making of" videos that Bam does).

¤ We didn't have too long to wait until Auf der Maur came on. She's not bad - I had already heard her at the Curiosa concert over the summer. I'm not a huge fan of female vocalists so I'm probably not the best judge. It was a highly choreographed performance though (something which was really brought home to me when I saw the same show and same moves the next night - even the banter with the crowd was the same!).

¤ Monster Magnet were just offensive this night. It was a young crowd (I'm talking eight year olds!) and they just didn't have a clue and the lead singer was being mean to them - and also rather lewd in the process. (Apparently I missed his bottle between the legs, "let's simulate ejaculation," move because by then I was bored and watching the lighting guy below me, or the crowd of clueless younguns' who hadn't quite figured out what to do when someone crowd surfed over them (several dropped people from what I could tell), or anything but the guys on stage.)

¤ So, not that I wasn't already hotly anticipating HIM, but having to endure Monster Magnet first only added piquancy to the moment when the lights finally went down and - wait for it - April and Phil came out onstage instead of Gas and Burton and Mige and Linde and Ville. Needless to say a Philly crowd was just fine with them being there to introduce the band and put in a plug for their boy's show the next night. (btw - Bam was not in evidence in Philly, or if he was, he was keeping a VERY low profile.)

¤ Finally HIM came on, looking happy! And bouncy! And glad to be there! Unlike their last visit here. They smiled! They joked with each other on stage. That alone was worth the price of admission.

¤ Stand out moments: Ville had to stop "The Sacrament" about halfway through the song (it was the third in the set) because a bunch of the clueless younguns' lost their balance during a crowd swaying moment and about twenty of them went down. It was amusing from where I stood to see their little heads popping back up one by one, but I'm sure it wasn't so amusing for them.

¤ When Ville saw what was happening, and that it looked like a few weren't getting back up, he stopped to find out if they were OK. Then he proceeded to tell everyone how he understood how it felt to be trapped in a place you can't get out of. Someone said something to him I couldn't hear, but he replied "I'm not talking about sex. I'm talking about falling asleep in a bunk on the tour bus and then having Gas come in and think it's his bunk. Believe me, it's not nice."

¤ At another point people were throwing things onstage (various bits of clothing, notes, etc. - Ville joked "If you hit me on the head, you win a teddy bear") Someone apparently threw a tampon which Ville picked up and, in another bit of crowd banter, proceeded to explain that just because Linde's nickname was Lily Lazer, he wasn't really a woman and he just wanted to clear up any misconceptions about the gender of the band members.

¤ Later in the show, and again between songs, Ville stuck the mic in his mouth (ahh, remember the days!!!) and strange high pitched noises came out. He then told us "You know, it's kind of sad, when you're far from home, with only your right hand for company . . . It's kind of sad when you're giving a microphone a blow job and all you get is negative feedback."

¤ About mid-way through the set they played "Join Me" and dedicated it to April and Phil. Sweet. Also about mid-way through the set, Ville announced that he was getting drunk, not that this was any surprise. He was drinking constantly during the set, beer, lots of beer, what seemed to be a pint of Jagermeister, and something in a red cup (Jack Daniels perhaps?). This may have accounted for some of the chattiness.

¤ When they played Solitary Man Ville stopped before the end of the song to announce that "in this age of political correctness and dvd's " (reference to the future dvd footage they were filming that night?) they were going to change it a bit. Lots of buildup and then when he got to the last two words he sang "solitary wo-man", the extra "wo" almost under his breath.

¤ He went on to announce that they were going to play one more song and then go do "the rock star thing" - which meant leaving the stage, looking at themselves in the mirror, and waiting for everyone to tell them how good they were so that they'd come back on. Which of course is exactly what encores are all about and much as I love them coming back out, I applaud Ville for not wanting to give in to the scripted nature of most concerts.

¤ But, they were filming this and they did indeed come back. During "And Love said No" Ville tried to get the crowd to chant with him - for the purposes of creating a gothic atmosphere?? - and they were completely clueless. He tried for a while and finally got them to do it a bit, but they never really got what he was asking of them. It seemed pretty straightforward to me. Perhaps they were all as drunk as Ville? Or worse - drunker than the insanely plastered guy sitting next to us who spilled a whole cup of beer on my coat, which was laying on Dave's stool while he was in the bathroom, and who also told us he was an amature skateboarder, that he had met Ville and that he (Ville) does coke all the time. Perhaps, but ummmm, consider the source.

¤ For the last song they did a kick ass "Soul on Fire" but once again Ville had to chat, saying how the band was getting on, settling down, that Mige was married and Linde had a kid back home, and so they wanted to do something they hadn't done before. They were going to play the last song shirtless.

¤ And then they all took off their shirts! All of them. Burton did a funny little he-man flex move when he took off his shirt. Ville was wearing a sparkly jacket for the whole night (must have been very hot indeed) and when he whipped it off he was not wearing anything else except that scarf he always wears around his neck which he took off too. So, I can now report that Ville is even skinnier than one might think, that Gas is as large as one might think (with a tattoo on his left front shoulder that we've never seen before).

All in all a amazing show!