Anyway, once inside, I met up with a few friends and secured a spot about 10
feet in front of the pa.  At 10:00, the lights went down and Fitter, Happier
began to play. (Just like Opera House, I assume?)  The band came onstage to an
enormous amount of applause.  I wondered who the listees were amongst the crowd.
I had no way of finding out though, but I'm sure they were somewhere near the
front.

The band played for about an hour.  Then came back with an encore.  Left again,
then Thom came back solo with an acoustic.  He attempted to do Thinking About
You but about 30 seconds into it he just stopped.  I think he said 'shit' or
something, and everybody laughed.  Obviously he was having trouble remembering
the lyrics.  He tried it again.  Lasted about half a verse.  'Fuck!', he said as
he knocked his forehead against the mic.  He felt really embarrassed and we all
laughed with him.  I didn't find out until after the show that there were so
many celebrities in the balcony, but Thom must have known, and he must have felt
foolish in front of his peers.  Oh well, he's human and we all know that.  It
was actually kind of cool to see someone you look up to make a mistake.

Anyway, he motioned to the band offstage, asking them to come back on.  Going by
his expressions and hand gestures, I could tell that they were trying to tell
him to give it another shot.  But, Thom just didn't want to, so eventually the
rest of the guys came on to a big round of applause.  I don't know if they had
planned on doing another song.  Going by Toronto's setlist, I would assume not.
They all talked to each other for a moment, then launched in Black Star.  So
that was really cool.   At some point either after or before the song Thom
mentioned that they would be coming back to New York soon, perhaps July.  Of
course, the venue will be a little bigger but hey, you take em any way you can.

During the show, people in the audience kept looking up at the balcony, pointing
and taking photos.  After the show I looked up to see what the fuss was and
there, looking over the balcony was Michael Stipe along with Mike Mills and
Marilyn Manson.  I was told afterwards that Bono, Courtney Love and the
Gallagher brothers were in attendance as well, but I cannot confirm this.

The show was a total success.  The new songs went over quite well with the
audience.  I think it's safe to assume that most of them hadn't heard the new
stuff before, so their reactions to it were very assuring that the new album
will be a success.  During songs like Exit Music and Karma Police, everybody
just kept quiet and listened.  It was really something special to witness.  I
think maybe one guy went "Woooohoooo" during Exit Music but then somebody yelled
at him to shut up.  I've read people's reports on this gig and some of them have
mentioned moshers.  Let me tell you, the amount of moshing done at this show was
nothing to complain about.  It was very tame and controlled.  Nobody got hurt,
nobody got too agressive.  In my opinion, this was as perfect an audience as you
can get.

So there you go.  I wish I could see the band at the Troubador next week but it
really wouldn't matter.  I saw a perfect show.  There's nothing more I can ask
of.  Try and stop me from seeing them when they come around again though!

-Tony