It was a tremendous show, despite some technical difficulties with Mike's guitar on "River Valley" (bad connection in the chain? He had to switch guitars to get any sound out of the amp). Jian and Murray covered with a song I don't know, while Dave and Mike sorted out the guitar gear; Jian played 6-string acoustic & Murray did drums. Jian commented, "We only know about a billion songs that don't have electric guitar, but apparently we _have_ to do one with electric guitar..." The song they sang went something like "the stupidest thing I ever did was love you.."
The Fine Line is a much better venue IMHO than the 7th St. Entry they played here in September. Lots of space, but pricier drinks.
Kudos to Jian, who did the whole gig despite his strep throat/fever! I got to meet the other 3 at a bookstore appearance on Tuesday night, they were definitely great company! The complete opposite of Prince in every way... My friend reminded them of their tasteless jab during last June's St. Louis show (following the death of Robertson Davies), so Dave repeated it last night:
"Who needs a grave? he's Robertson Davies!" The man has no shame!
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
Back to the tour dates 1997 page