As always, this show was completely amazing. The environment was a little different than at the other solo shows though. It was at the Sonoma Repertory Theatre, and the stage was in the center of the room with three rows of seats on each side. At first it seemed like it would be weird, but it gave the whole show a very comfortable feel. I was directly in front of where he was facing in the front row, so I was definitely pleased.My friend Dave and I got there just as the second band was finishing. They’re called Los Blockheads, and it was their last show. From the two songs that I saw, they seemed quite good. I sort of regretted missing the rest of their set, but I was glad that I wouldn’t have to wait very long for Frank to play. I think he played for almost an hour, which made the whole thing even better.
The first song he played was “Swallow Everything,” which is one of my favorites. Next he played “Sackcloth and Ashes” and “She Turned Out To Be Crazy.” The crowd was really into it, which was helpful later when Frank forgot some of the words. After this I don’t really remember the order of the songs, there were some memorable moments though. Probably the most exciting thing was that he played two brand new songs that I’ve never heard before. I don’t know the names of either of them, but they were both excellent. He had problems hitting the high notes on one of them, but the song was still really great. After he finished he said, “The bad thing about when you go from playing a song by yourself in your living room to playing it in front of a crowd of people is that you don’t realize how high it is.”
He also played a couple of other unreleased songs. One of them was “Coffee, Tea, or Me” which the Smugglers have begun playing. For those of you who haven’t heard it or read my other description, it’s basically a song about a letter that a guy writes to Penthouse about his involvement with an airline stewardess. Very funny and catchy. The other song is “Every Time You Go Away You Take A Little Piece of Meat with You.” As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really like this song. It has it’s good moments, but overall I don’t really like it. The crowd really enjoyed it though, so maybe I’m just missing something.
Another treat at this show was that Frank played two songs off Alcatraz. I was trying to get him to play “She’s My Alcatraz” (it’s probably my favorite song on the album, although it’s really hard to choose). He wasn’t able to do that, but he did play “I Feel For You” and “Two of Us.” I love both of those songs, and it was especially neat to hear “Two of Us” because I’d never heard it live before.
The more commonly heard songs were of course really great as well. He played “She All Right” which I think is a really entertaining song. He also played the audience participation number “Knock Knock (Please Let Me In)” which is always cool to see. Some people were requesting “Population: Us,” so he played it, but it didn’t come off as well as usual. There was one point in the very beginning where he needed to have the audience remind him of the line, and another point later in the song. Everyone makes mistakes though, and the crowd was quite understanding. The only other solo album song that he played was “Two Martinis From Now” which was really great.
He played some Mr. T favorites, along with a song that doesn’t get played very often. The staples included “You’re the Only One,” “Even Hitler Had A Girlfriend,” and “Our Love Will Last Forever and Ever.” The one that I was the most excited about was “I Believe in You.” I think he’s only played it one other time, so that was really cool. Someone was yelling for him to play “Martyr” and he said that he played it once but he didn’t think that he could remember the words this time. He then asked if anyone remembered the time that he played it, so I raised my hand and he said, “Yeah, she remembers it.”
To wrap up the set Frank played one of my favorite songs of all time, “Melodrama Mama.” I’ve described it a bunch of times, so I won’t do it again here, but trust me, it’s great. After that he played “Tonight I’m A Rock and Roll Star” by Oasis which always makes me laugh. Overall a wonderful night as always.
After he finished, I found Dave and we got ready to leave. Frank was talking to some people when I said goodbye to him, and when he said “Bye Rebekah!” I heard one of them say, “Is that the Rebekah?” He said yes, and when I looked back the woman was waving to me. I waved back, at which point Frank told me that it was his mom. I got a kick out of the fact that his mom referred to me as “the Rebekah.” The whole show was amazing, and was definitely worth getting up early and renting a car to be able to get there.