MSG at House Of Blues, Chicago, USA

26th November 2001

Went to opening night at HOB Chicago monday, and although my wife and I thorougly enjoyed ourselves, I was a bit disapointed.

First of all, Pete was hammered and sang in a slurred cockney, but he did play well and the tunes sounded good. Most of the audience in my proximity were apaulled with his performance.

Micheal was quite good and technically proficient, which is surprizing for an opening night for any musician.

I personally did not care for the vocalist, as he was not well polished, nor was he entirely ready, or perhaps right for the role.

The drummer and guitar/keys players (I apologize for their names slipping my mind) were good, but actually the bass player stuck in our minds as a bit more outstanding (although he probably should have worn a shirt). I believe the lad on bass was "Reverend Jones" (probably for tax purposes).

Enough grousing though! Over all I enjoyed the performance (alot more than the crappy brew that they serve there.....Uh....Could you write them and perhaps explain in cold/hard numbers why they should serve Bass or New Castle?.....Thanks man....).

The crowed around me kept chanting UFO..UFO...Now since there was a ceiling above us, I can only assume that they were refering to the two fifths of UFO that were present. This should give you some indication of the fan base about here (tickets were obviously not read carefully).

I met a guy by the name of Frank who was hawking "The Plot" shirts and apologizing profusely for Pete's last fan club quagmire. He explained what happened, who to blame, were they lived, and how to avoid the three day cooling-off period for the purchase of handguns...Nice fella....

To sum stuff up....Well, I'm kinda luke warm about the new tour...In all fairness though...Opening night....New hired guns...Pete....The whole business of making $$$ and off to the next town....

William Hemphill