Highlights and Lowlights of the 2012 Tour - Part One

2012 Tour - Part I


Highlights:
1) Rare tunes!!! The additions of "Vincent", "Stages" and "Houston" are fantastic! Excellent to hear these rarely played gems and in the case of "Houston", a brand new and most obscure chestnut.
2) Elimination of tired tunes!!! No "Sunglasses", no "Nationwide, no "Pressure"! Finally, a band that has been together over 40 years has learned that they have written more than these three songs.
3) New video. Brand new footage shot for the vast majority of songs, with an extensive opening sequence properly setting the mood for the good time to follow.
4) Billy's vocals. They have continued to deepen and increase in raspy tones that it now sounds almost perfect, like they finally moved down a full octave back into proper key. His singing is bluesy and fitting of each tune, both live and on Texicali.
5) No trilogy sequence. Moving "Gimme" to a spot earlier in the set list is a simple, yet extremely refreshing and exciting change.

Lowlights:
1) No Texicali songs. So far. All signs point to yes when asking the question "will they play some new tunes in Europe this summer?" The rare tunes made up for this glaring omission, but upon their return to North America in the fall and the scheduled impending release date of the new album, to not play any of the new stuff would be criminally insane.
2) Dusty's vocals. This is a touchy subject. Dusty is giving it is all, like he always has, and his bass playing continues to be tone, taste and tenacious. But the sound crew is mishandling his singing - he either needs to be brought up in the mix, or needs to accept the aging of his voice and sing in a lower register.
3) Encores. They broke up the trilogy, now break up Grange>Tush. Close the main set with "Grange" - then play:  new song > "Viva" > "Tush". Or something like that. Just make the encore more unpredictable. Maybe mix it up amongst three or four songs from night to night. Keep it exciting, both for the band and the audience.