The Soundtrack of Our Lives laid it all out there last night at a packed
Bimbo's in SF. Awesome show---
They played with bravado and humor. TSOOL's part of the three band bill went
an hour and twenty minutes, but it felt like it flew by. At one point, during
"20th Century Rip-Off", the lead singer came down into the standing crowd and
played magician. Turning with one motion of his hand, everyone standing on the
dance floor fell to the floor, making it look like a reverse wave. The songs
sounded great live. TSOOL is one of the best band names and I think one of the
most appropriate names, too. They hit you with straight ahead rock and pop,
some proggy tilts and some punk styles, too---definitely maing up a good
portion of the soundtrack of my life, anyway. I think the PillBugs would be a
fine choice to open for them...
Another cool thing: at the merch table, they were selling the double-vinyl
"Welcome to the Infant Freebase", and I snagged it.

Does anyone know if TSOOL recently replaced its drummer? The first time I saw
these guys was on the Letterman show a few months ago--- and the drummer
looked like a young balding Bob Newhart.

The opening bands were:
* PALO ALTO. This LA based band sounded to me like a punched up Travis, with
some solid melodic songs and good playing. Maybe a little too dreamy for me in
the long run, but I bought the CD just the same.
* The CAESARS--- I think at one point they called themselves the TWELVE
CAESARS. In their flyers, the band is compared to the White Stripes. The
Caesars came out and must have done twice the number of songs as Palo Alto
with the same set length. Short, sharp songs---and a couple of killer hooks. I
didn't think I'd ever heard anything by them until they blistered into "I'm
Gonna Kick You Out (and Let the Sunshine In)" which was on a comp I got from
Mike Hodges recently (thanks again, Mike!).

Joe Field
Flying Colors Comics & Other Cool Stuff
Concord CA
http://FlyingColorsComics.com

Free Comic Book Day is May 3!
Bring all your friends!
http://FreeComicBookDay.com