What a great little venue the Manchester Deaf Institute is! Much smaller and far more intimate than the usual place Jonathan plays in Manchester (Manchester Academy just a couple of minutes away down the road).
The show had been sold out for weeks, so me and Jan got there early and positioned ourselves pretty near the front, at about 10 feet away from the stage. By the time Jonathan and Tommy came on, pretty soon after 8.45, the place was packed with maybe 300 people seeming to fill every space possible. I was glad we’d sorted out our places early on as there didn’t seem much ability to change position within the tightly packed crowd.
Jonathan did quite a few new songs, one of them 'Keith Richards' went down really well and seemed to be a highlight of the night, as was the 'Cellphone Song' which Jonathan did soon after someone had called out for it as a request. I'll post the set list below.
At one point, towards the end of the show, Jonathan broke off mid song to sing something like...
"Folks in the audience, this is Jonathan asking a question to you...
I use no watch or program on the stage, so I've no idea how long we've been playing... but if we're getting boring for being too long, just let us know, Please do..."
The response was an emphatic "NO - keep on going!” and Jonathan and Tommy carried on for something like another 20 minutes. The audience would have happily had them stay for long - much longer!
Among the encores was a excellent 'off the cuff' classical guitar piece that Jonathan performed solo, Tommy had left the stage thinking the show was completely over, but there was one more song that Jonathan had thought of as an afterthought that he really wanted to play to close the show, so a couple of minutes later after Tommy had been found, the show ended with another new one ‘Mr Sorrow’.
I really enjoyed the whole night and, judging by the overheard comments around us on the way out, many other people were also heading home extremely happy too! A great show and one of my favourites!
Set list: -
1) Celestial
2) I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar
3) Her Beauty Is Raw And Wild
4) No One Was Like Vermeer
5) When We Refuse To Suffer
6) Let Her Go Into The Darkness
7) This Romance Will Be Different For Me
8) The Dark Crypt Like Arcade
9) Take Me To The Plaza
10) Not So Much To Be Loved As To Love
11) Keith Richards
12) Egyptian Reggae
13) A Que Venimos Sino A Caer
14) A Hard Time Saying Goodbye
15) You Can Have A Cellphone, But Not Me
16) Fender Stratocaster
17) Nishi
18) Classical Guitar Piece (?)
19) Mr Sorrow
