June 26, 2005 Beacon Theater, New York

Set List
Shine It All Around Remix
Heartbreaker
Shine It All Around
Black Dog
Freedom Fries
Morning Dew
That’s The Way
Takamba
Tin Pan Valley
Mighty Rearranger
Tangerine
Gallow’s Pole
When the Levee Breaks
Encore:
The Enchanter
Whole Lotta Love

by The Enchanter
You would not have ever known Robert was sick enough to cancel a show 2 days ago other than the cuppa that he nursed throughout the show. He had more energy tonight than I think i’ve ever seen him. From the moment he took the stage, clad in brick red pants and a black button down tuxedo style shirt, he was on fire dancing and jumping and spinning like crazy! I almost feel no matter what I write, it will not do this show justice. Absolutely phenomenal.

Shine It All Around is even more powerful and hautingly gorgeous live. Robert and Justin do some lovely belly dance-like moves and Robert’s voice really sounds amazing. He introduced Freedom Fries dedicating it to Tony Blair. If you think the song rocks on the album, it explodes live. At one point Robert looked over at Skin and gave him the signal as if to say “hurt it, hurt that guitar”! It was incredible. I’m glad Skin is on the tour.

Morning Dew is just beautiful. As a Grateful Dead fan who thought no one could ever do the song justice, I dare say Robert blows the Dead clear out of the water. He just turns the song from a more trippy, laid back feel a la the Dead to this gorgeous and emtional ballad, incidentally, much more reflective of the lyrical meaning of the song.

I think I just about screamed with delight when he did Takamba. It’s one of my favorites from the album and sounded even better on stage. The handclapping patterns the band and Robert do are quite intense. Even the crowd was clapping along!

Talk about a song exploding, the whole beginning to Tin Pan Valley, Robert is pretty quiet as he’s singing and you keep waiting for the “like this” to happen. It was maddening in a most wonderful way and when he finally says it, the crowd went crazy. Robert really captures so perfectly the light and heaviness of the song onstage. As an aside, during the song when there was an instrumental jam, the microphone must have been in the wrong place because there was suddenly feedback and Robert, who was over near the drum kit literally jumped clear to the microphone to move it

And yes, I finally saw him play harmonica during Mighty Rearranger. Another one of my faves on the album. I love it when he says, “hey Robert” and you can almost see that little impy grin he has. It was incredible. He just kept jamming on it. Pretty intense.

The Enchanter was great. I love the whole trippy, spooky feeling and Robert was really doing some belly dance moves! I also like the dumbek solo by Justin at the end.

Sigh…I just cannot adequately express what an amazing and wonderful experience it was. This is the third show since March and he keeps getting better if that’s even possible. The energy and talent he has not only as a performer, but the energy he has with the band is not like any other musician I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been to hundreds of shows. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, he’s found a good home with Strange Sensation. You feel it the entire time. I think it’s the best group of musicians Robert has worked with. They just have it. Plain and simple. Mighty Robert indeed…sigh sigh sigh…

Forgot to add - the only merchandise I saw was lots of different t-shirts, the cd and posters of the album cover. Not that large maybe 10×17 or so. No programs it seems