Rubbing Elbows With Ian Anderson 2002
What a weird show (But at least it was in the 21st century !).
First off, the Music Hall Ballroom is a really nice room. Anderson wanted to do a low key tour where he noodled about on guitar & singing, told stories & jokes, took questions from the audience and then played a more structured set of music with some unknown musicians. He enlisted a host/MC from each locale, generally getting local radio announcers.
Questions from the audience were mostly stupid. At the beginning Anderson played with the accompaniment of a boom box (scary). I don't listen to radio so I had no ideA who the radio personality was. Most of those guys come off like assholes & this guy did, too. Anderson seemed kind of contemptuous of the guy, but what the hell did he expect ? He's heard American radio before. If only he had lassoed Dan Hurley or, hell, Brian Patrick, an ex-DJ, probably could have done better.
Some of the stories were ok. When he brought out a band for the second part of the show it turned into a normal concert setting & Anderson's large presence filled the small room that wasn't too loud. That was pretty good.
It was a balmy Saturday night so it was nice outside afterward. Metro service, as usual, crapped out early. Yuppies stole my cab. With a bit of yelling, I finally got a cab home.
Metro needs to expand it's weekend service. There is a market there to be captured.