**the part about me (skimmable)** first of all, a scream of excitement! my first time seeing b&s live...i wish i could've made it to the sini-picnic, but i was sunning in astoria park with Best Friend jessica, with whom i saw the concert. after dawdling far too long, we finally got over to the hammerstein ballroom. 5:30ish and the faithful were already on line. hunger won out, though, and we grabbed dinner at the cute tick-tock diner on the corner. i urge you to frequent it on the chance that you might get the young and charming waiter. back on line: we were let in at ~6:30 and managed to secure spots three-deep in the crowd, in front of what would be stevie's mike. (wow!) the floor was still pretty empty, even after 7. (perhaps people didn't know when the doors were supposed to open, or perhaps, as the kid in front of us opined, they were too cool to show up until one hour after the show started.) we marveled at our prime positions. apologies to anyone who was standing beside us and bored by our conversation (which was dominated by the statement "this is so cool!" etc...). **it begins** in any case, the aislers set were soon on and played a short but sweet set...as jess said, "i love it when the opening act doesn't suck." the crowd wasn't super-enthusiastic (e.g. with the hand-claps), but got into it at times, like when amy grabbed a trumpet with one hand and a guitar with the other and proceeded to play! the band took pictures of the crowd and each other...it was adorable. our heroes were on soon after 9. the setlist was definitely a crowd-pleaser (see below). apologies if it is incorrect, since i was writing on my hand in the dark, while dancing. **setlist (which apparently differed drastically from the plan)** 1 sleep the clock around 2 there's too much love 3 magic of a kind word 4 i'm waking up to us 5 if you're feeling sinister 6 mayfly 7 consuela leaving 8 scooby driver (i think) 9 don't leave the lights on baby 10 the model 11 the loneliness of a middle-distance runner 12 stayin' alive 13 simple things 14 tbwtas 15 you made me forget my dreams (abortive; stuart kept trying!) 16 fox in the snow 17 family tree 18 dog on wheels 19 the state i am in 20 happy birthday to a large assortment of people 21 wrong girl 22 dirty dream #2 23 legal man encore: get me away from here, i'm dying **impressions** at first, i was a little afraid they weren't going to talk to the crowd at all...there was a lack of general banter for the first few songs. later, they were more jokey and talking directly to us. the audience itself was a little strange (and not just because of the inordinate number of ironic t-shirts and black-rimmed fake glasses). not strange in a bad way, but i expected more screaming and pushing and dancing. we were very "well-behaved," as stuart (or struan, or sturan, if you will) told us, especially for a group of several thousand. it was rather a young crowd--lots of college kids, but lots of high-schoolers as well. (i lamented the fact that b&s were barely around when i was in high school.) i loved the show. maybe it could've used a little more spark (with some help from the audience), but it was still great. isobel directed the full force of her pout at us (i agree--it seemed more shyness than a hissy-fit). to her credit, she was as interested in the shaky egg thing as one could expect. sarah and mick looked a bit "off" at times, too--i just wanted to grab them and start dancing. at least they had a sense of humor about it, as when bobby and isobel appeared twice during a song just to shake a tambourine and shaky egg thing, respectively. (is there an official name for the shaky egg thing?) i had no idea that stevie was so adorable! with his suit and glasses and funny little guitar-playing dances and arm motions. i fell in love, briefly. i mean, yes, stuart's arms, but stevie was very much the conductor. and funny. i'm glad he looked at ease with us. he also bore a striking resemblance to a young elvis costello, so i wondered if, as jenny said, they'd play 'oliver's army.' but no such luck. **memorable moments and the end** this email's rather long, so i'll leave detailed musical reviews to others. i must, however, agree that 'stayin' alive' was fab, esp. struan's falsetto (and his false start, which stevie laughingly corrected). audience volunteer amanda got onstage during dirty dream #2 and bounced about suitably. oh, and to the girls who lifted their shirts during the "showing her chest" bit in 'the model'--shame on you! :) (i was directly behind.) but the band didn't react. stuart claimed that todd solondz was in the audience (and would be interested in hearing the new stuff). verification, anyone? and we got an encore! i felt favored. we saw no signs of beans' post-gig dj stunt, alas, so that was it for the night. was there anything going on? stuart claimed the band was still recovering from the previous night, so i think you boston kids tired them out. :) i hope those of you who were there were equally wowed by the show. (i was on the lookout for upside-down b&s badges, but saw none. i'm the girl who was dancing up front with a bandanna in her hair and her arms in the air.) i thought it would be hard for the show to meet my obsessed-fan expectations, but it was without a doubt worth a plane ride from north carolina and missing two days of classes. as jess said this morning on the train to her job interview, "i should be nervous about the interview, but i just keep thinking about how great the show was. i'm going to have a smile on my face all week." "boo to the business world," i replied. one little hole in my heart is filled. love, aruni ps things i wanted to shout 1 play 'the state i am in' (after 'dog on wheels.' i didn't say it, but stuart started into it right then! i think it speaks to our profound psychic bond.) 2 freebird (but thought the crowd might be too young and hip to find it funny) 3 that song should've been 3 times as long (after simple things) 4 i love you, stevie (was he cute, or was he cute?) _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+