No. 716 – WoodBurning

Performer: Toad the Wet Sprocket

Songwriters: Todd Nichols, Glen Phillips

Original Release: Dulcinea

Year: 1994

Definitive Version: None

When I saw Toad with Debbie, Steve and Katie, I was excited to see them, because they were at about the peak of my love for them, same with Debbie. We’d never seen them before, but Steve had.

I mentioned Vets Memorial, where we saw Toad, and how for a long time it was the only venue in town. But that doesn’t mean it was a good venue to see a rock show.

Vets is pretty much like any 1950s-era concert hall, with a huge wide-open theater and a balcony that only seems like it’s a mile from the stage. The seats are hard wood with barely enough padding to make sitting in them for a long stretch uncomfortable. And the acoustics are meant for the playing of music that isn’t amplified, like classical.

So it’s a sedate setting, and it was particularly sedate the night we saw Toad. It became clear to me why I was able to get third-row seats on my own without any trickeration by Scott: Hardly no one went. I suppose because they had just played at the Newport, which is more like a bar with a standing-room-only open area down low, there wasn’t much of an audience for a quick repeat performance. Plenty of good seats were available when Toad hit the stage.

They gave it their best. They did this song early, and hearing it live was the thing that made me realize how much I liked it, and the rest of the setlist was solid. Glen Phillips was in good form, boogeying all over the place in his bare feet. It could have been a great show, but the atmosphere was, well, sedate.

Steve said later that the show at Newport had been excellent. A mosh pit was going, which is pretty hilarious when you think about it—moshing at Toad the Wet Sprocket? Really? Do I hear Fonzie speeding across the water? But more than anything, a mosh pit means the crowd is into the show, and even if the interest and energy had been there that nightit would be impossible to get anything like that going at Vets.

So it wasn’t the best of shows. (In fact, now that I think about it, I can’t say I’ve ever seen even a good concert—let alone great—at Vets.) But it was a good first double date between us, and there would be more to come. The good news was it would be easy for the next one to top the first.