Toronto Encore CD

[Shepherdsbush@xxxxxxx]

"Toronto.  It is their finest performance.  The sound quality is the best.  
Their spirits are up.  Pete does a new interlude at the end of MG before 
launching into the pogo jam and WGFA is top notch.  Every song is high energy 

with no lulls at all.  This is my go to cd. It starts very loud and ends very 

loud.  I can turn it up two more notches on my stereo too!  The others start 
to fade and distort a bit at 24.  This one makes it to 26 and is louder to 
start with. You will get CHILLS when you hear Pete let the guitar roar on 
LROM. I love this cd.  Low point: TKAA not as touching as usual, mainly 
history.  Echo on Sparks"

This is what Jon in Mi. wrote in his review of the Encore CD's he has. I 
ordered this show based mainly on this review, and it is a great show, but I 
have got to disagree with one thing mainly, WGFA is not top notch. Roger 
comes in too early on the second verse, then doesn't sing the second half of 
it until Pete jumps in and starts singing it, but he is singing the wrong 
verse! To make matters worse, because Rog came in too early, the rest of the 
band has to keep playing for four measures past the point you are expecting 
to hear "...We won't get fooled again!" (which Pete sings by the way, since 
Rog must be lost at this point) because they have to catch up to the backing 
tape! It reminded me of LiveAid when Roger forgot to sing the "..Move myself 
and my family aside.." section.

I felt the main strengths of this CD were Pete's guitar playing, which
 was much more reminiscent of the old days than the other times I have heard 
him since he started playing electric again in '99 (and loud too! Way, way 
louder than everything else in the mix), plus he seemed to improvise very 
freely, and the harmonies were usually spot on. Also Roger's voice was very 
good, and Pino was more "John-like" than I heard him at the shows I attended, 
MSG 2 and Columbus.

The weaknesses were the overall sloppiness (of course there is sometimes a 
fine line between sloppiness and inspired improvisation), and the very low 
mix for the vocals. There must be something wrong with me, because I still 
really like Columbus (of course I was there). THAT WGFA was stellar, and the 
mix was very good overall. Anyway, I will continue to listen to Toronto and 
perhaps I will find the magic that Jon heard in it.

Sorry to sound like a grouch on such a great day, where it looks like Pete is 
finally on his way to the exoneration we all knew was inevitable, but I 
thought I should hurry and throw my two cents in while fans are still trying 
to decide which of the tour CD's to get. Did anyone get the special 
collectors case containing all of them? I am really jealous of you, whoever 
you are!

Chris in Cleveland