Oct. 2, 2005 Wiltern Theater, Los Angeles, CA

Set List
Shine It All Around Remix
Tin Pan Valley
Shine It All Around
Black Dog
Freedom Fries
7 + 7 Is
Going to California
Girl From the North Country
Mighty Rearranger
Thank You
Hey Joe
Four Sticks
Gallows Pole
encore: What Is and What Should Never Be
The Enchanter
Whole Lotta Love

by The Enchanter
There was a fire in Los Angeles and it took place at the Wiltern. This show was amazing - even more energetic than last night. There’s not much more I can say. When Robert took the stage for Tin Pan Valley, he was all over the stage with a vengance - jumping and doing all these belly dance like moves. This carried on right into Shine It All Around. Robert so clearly loves what he was doing and the band was right in synch with him.

Robert tipped his hat off to the music he embraces from California circa late 1960s as they went into a blazing rendition of 7+7 Is. The original doesn’t hold a candle to the power Robert and the band puts behind this song. Girl From the North Country is just gorgeous. Once again, the solos were gorgeous. I’m really so pleased to have seen Robert sing this song. Again, in addition to the band making songs written by others their own by reinventing them, there’s also a real passion in Robert’s voice as he is singing - he truly is as much a fan as he is an artist.

Mighty Rearranger is just such a great song both studio version and live. I love when he sings the line “hey Robert, your dreams are only in your head” because he gets such a twinkle in his eye.

I know I have said this often, but it’s just really hard to adequately express the power of these concerts. He is truly like no other. The Mighty Rearranger indeed.

And LA ZepBoy added:
Well, I didn’t think it was possible but night #2 was even better than the first night! I think the Wiltern was even more packed than the previous night and thankfully the crowd was much nicer to Ernie Payne, one of the opening acts. Some of his music is very haunting, almost eerie. Neat old Mississippi Delta blues/gospel stuff. Back from where it all started from. Very cool.

You could tell that the mood was totally different this show. The first night Robert was more spiritual and deeply into his music, almost quiet in a way. This second show he was like a kid in a candy store, laughing, joking, waving at the crowd and just obviously having a great time. In fact, when he came out on stage he had to duck under the bass player in order to avoid getting hit, so he just crawled on his hands the rest of the way to the mike. It was pretty funny and pretty cool!

He also had problems when he was trying to kick over his mike stand with his rock star attitude (which he used all night to work the crowd into a frenzy!). His mike cord kept getting caught up on the mike stand and you could tell he was getting frustrated but in a humorous way. At the end of one song, he was trying to unravel the cord from the stand and finally just turned the whole thing upside down and had a laugh. At the end of the show, the drummer was teasing him about it. It was pretty damn funny.

Robert’s energy level was much, much higher than the first show. He was jumping all over the place and like I said earlier, really played with the crowd by waving and smiling at lots of them. It was cool to see him this relaxed. He also talked much more than he did the first night which was fun.

The set list was the same (except for What Is replacing No Quarter in the encore) and yet the songs sounded a little different. I think that’s evidence of the band being able to work together so well. As a music purist, there were two things that happened that bothered me a little. One is that Robert was reading lyrics from a couple of his songs. They were on the floor in front of his main monitors. You would think that he would remember the words to MR, FF and The Enchanter but I guess with all that music knowledge that’s in his head, it’s pretty remarkable that he remembers any lyrics at all!

The other thing that bothered me was that the final scream in WLL during the encore is either taped (Robert…”some fake the rebel yell?”) or was heavily doctored electronically. But then again, while his voice really does sound awesome, age does have some effects and maybe hitting those notes just doesn’t work like it used to. A little bothersome nonetheless.

On a happy note, the show totally rocked! Every song was played with high energy and passion from Robert and his enthusiasm really rubbed off on everyone. What a magical, magical night.