Twilight Circus Dub Sound System / The Legendary Pink Dots
Thursday 11/5/98, The Bottleneck Lawrence, KS
Friday 11/6/98, Cain's Ballroom Tulsa, OK
review written - 11/8/98Lawrence, KS
After a hearty Mexican meal with fellow Cloud Zero friends, we made our way to the Bottleneck. I was a little suprised by the turnout, the place was darn near full by the time the Dots went on. Ryan went on at 10:00 in his "FREAK" shirt and did his usual whacky dub thang, which included running around the club jumping up on the wooden railing inside with a lighted "magical relaxation wand" touching people with it. The Dots went on somewhere between 10:30 and 10:45 and ended at 12:45 ...
Set list:
Spike
As Long as it's Purple and Green
Princess Coldheart
Arzhklahh Olgevezh (?) (lots of latin? lyrics)
Dissonance
Green Gang
Cheating the Shadow
Zoo
Blacklist
The Saucers are Coming
Fate's Faithful Punchline
? (new song ... Pain Bubbles?)
The Grain Kings
Casting the Runes
Hellsville
Andromeda Suite (Tulsa)The more I see and hear the Dots ... the more I love them! I am completely head over heels in love with LPD now, there's no turning back! They sound and look better than ever and the setlist was imo better this year than last. The 2 big highlights of the set for me were: Green Gang (they've completely ruined this song for me, the live version is just SO amazing: the wonderful extended guitar solo by Edwin at the beginning, the "freakout" section, the trance inducing Floyd-like section ... I hope this eventually ends up on the future live cd!) and Blacklist (I've never heard this song prior to the shows, but live it *rocks*!) The improv story for "The Saucers are Coming" this night was a tale of "cigar-shaped saucers" floating down over the White House. It's hard to decide who to keep your eyes on during the show, I like to watch all of them in action ... everyone is talented. As usual, Neils was all over the stage and in the crowd, Atwyn/Edwin (looking really buff this year with his new shorn look, might I add) doing damn fine, effortless psychedelic guitar and bass, Ryan being a FREAK, always being a goof but always in time, Silverman going absolutely nuts on his Korg Poly and, of course, Edward, who becomes completely possessed during Hellsville attacking his keyboard. I dropped $80 on misc stuff (the new TC is awesome and the shirts are really nice this year!), hung out with CZ folk for a bit, said bye, then hit the road for the 2 hr drive home ...
Tulsa, OK
I only caught about the last 5-10 minutes of the TC set. Cain's has a smoke machine, so whenever they turned it on Ryan would make faces then bend over and suck up smoke in his mouth and blow it back out. The Dots played the same set as the night before in Lawrence, with an incredible encore addition: Andromeda Suite, which made for about a 2 and 1/2 hour show. The improv story for "The Saucers are Coming" this night was hilarious: a tale of a man named George who's eating tootsie rolls. He eats 13 of them, then when he's about to eat the 14th, it talks to him and says it's name is Gladys ("even though it was an obviously male voice"). I lost track of the story as the song continued to build, but the gist of it was that George and Gladys fell in love and the Saucers came to take them to a place "where man and tootsie roll could be one!" There were 4 or 5 drunken rock and roll redneck biker types, with 1 in particular who was really wasted, at this show. Welcome to OK. They actually got into the Dots though! They loved the "tootsie roll" story and Neils' hornplaying in the crowd. The Dots got a good laugh out of drunken biker guy flipping them off during the more noisier sections. The Tulsa crowd wasn't as big as I'd thought it would be (being a Friday night), I think there were more at the Lawrence show though it may have just seemed that way because the Bottleneck is much smaller than Cain's. I dropped another $40 that night (couldn't resist the "Blue Room" vinyl, so beautiful!) Said bye to Eric and Ray, who were also returning to Wichita that night then on to St. Louis for the next show. I returned to my car a half block away from Cain's to find my passenger window busted out, but nothing was stolen other than handfulls of change. Sigh ... welcome to OK. Another guy and I filled out police reports, unfortunately he lost a bag of clothes and a cell phone from his car. The police officer couldn't understand why someone would drive "all the way from Wichita" for a show ... some people just don't understand! The other guy had a 2 hr drive home to Norman, OK with 2 passengers without a window, and I had a 2 and 1/2 hr drive home to Wichita, KS withoug a window ... in the rain ... below 40 F. Oh well, it was worth it ...
Thanks to: fellow Cloud Zero folk Eric, Michael, Ray and Renee for keeping me company in Lawrence, Eric and Ray again in Tulsa, and of course ... Ryan, Edwin, Neils, Frank, Edward and the Silverman for the great shows ...!
No thanks to: the drunken rock 'n roll biker guy and whomever busted the passenger side window of my car out in Tulsa ...
Stuff for sale (most $15-$20):
LPD cds: Curse, Tower, Faces in the Fire, Brighter Now, Nemesis Online (vinyl too), Pre-Millenial Single, Hallway of the Gods, 4 Days, It's Raining in Heaven, and more ...
LPD shirts: Nemesis Online (not the album art ... a black hand crushing a pink dot), Pink Box cover, 2 or 3 other premoniton type shirts ...
Ka-spel cds: Down in the City of Heartbreak and Needles, Tanith and the Lion Tree (Polish), The Scriptures of Illumina, the Blue Room (vinyl too), The Man Who Never Was 7" ($5)
Silverman cds: Silvermandellas, Dream Cell
TC stuff: Horsie cd (individualized artwork, $10!), TC shirt
Misc: a few compilation cds with contributions by Edward, Blue Room and Nemesis stickers ...
Recommendation: Go see the shows!!!
Twilight Circus homepage
Legendary Pink Dots at Brainwashed