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Encores
COMMENTS/FURTHER
INFORMATION
Submitted
by Victoria
Bouffard, and Blair Frodelius who says:
Bruce played to a mostly full house Friday night at the State St Theatre in Ithaca, NY. Although he had four guitars on stage, he only used the Manzer, the Dobro and the Guild 12-string. The whole first set was done with very little talking. The second set included stories about his reasons for moving from Toronto to Montreal; crossing the border into the US on 9/11; his trip to Bagdad this past January; and why he prefers to use a bicycle: "It keeps you very much in the moment." Political comments were generalized to his songs, and his language was toned down from what I've heard in the past regarding Falwell and Robertson.
Best moments of the night included hearing One Day I Walk live for the first time and having the whole audience sing along on the chorus to Wondering Where The Lions Are. Bruce seemed relaxed and into his guitar playing, which may have explained why he forgot several snippets of lyrics throughout the night. The audience was very understanding though and brought Bruce back out for two encores which included Peggy's Kitchen Wall and the lovely new piece Mystery.
Plus more anonymous comments submitted by Ramcey:
Wow, couldn't have come up with a better birthday present if I'd designed it myself! What a great show. First a little on the venue. Ithaca, NY is a very left-leaning town in the middle of rural/red-neck upstate NY. Ithaca also has 2 great colleges and thus many educated and forward thinking residents. It's a great little city with lots and lots of contrast. For example the State Theater. The State is a 110 year old theater that came within days of being torn down. It's beautiful inside and has lots of unique stuff to look at including the stars on the ceiling. I've been going there for years and have seen BC there several times. Usually he's there solo and in-between tours/CD's. That allows him to try out any new tunes that he's working on and throw in some older gems along the way.
This show was exactly that. We got 4 new tunes and each one was better than the previous. His playing and vocals were spot on and the sound couldn't have been better IMHO. The new tunes were all fairly good but Tell The Universe and Mystery were by far the best IMHO. Bruce says that Tell The Universe came from a jam session with Ben, Steve and Julie and makes serious reference to our world leaders. Mystery is hopeful, optimistic and just a lot of fun to hear live. Lots of repeat lines and it ends with "all you stumblers who believe that love rules, stand up and let it shine". The crowd just loved the show and there was lots of respectful interaction including a woman asking him to take off his coat and stay awhile! We sat in the fourth row on the very left side once again proving my theory on location, location, location! Great sound and totally unobstructed views. Couldn't have asked for a better show and we both drove home with big smiles.