Chapter 1: Before The Show

I got to the Showbox a little before 5pm. As I drove up I saw a pay lot beside the venue and decided it would be a good spot to park... As I pull in I see two big tour busses and I'm thinking "hell yeh, this is a good sign".

So I walk to the front of the venue and I see that the doors are open so I decide to go inside and scope out the place. After I go in the door, I notice someone came in the door after me and was quickly walking past me on my right, I look over and its Remy heading to the green room. And I briefly watched the Stir techs setting up their equipment. Anyway after that a venue guy told me to wait outside for the doors to officially open. So there's like 4 other people bumming around outside which eventually becomes a make-shift line. After a half hour outside the line had gone from 5 people to a whapping 9. I wasn't to worried about not getting a good spot at that point. Sometime during the time we were waiting outside, Jeff comes outside and makes a cell phone call on the sidewalk, while he's engrossed in his conversation, I guy on a bicycle comes flying down the hill and sideswipes Jeff almost knocking him over. All the people in line got a good chuckle out of the sight.

So at 6pm the doors open, they check bags for cameras, I wasn't carrying anything so I went in got my ticket ripped and I went straight to the front center.

Now the last and first Tonic show I went to, they opened for Third Eye Blind and was in a theater venue. The stage was higher and there was a barricade and security guards between the fans and the stage. Here however, it was a club venue, no barricade, just the fans against the stage and I was FRONT CENTER, close enough to grab Em's mic stand if I wanted to. Since we had an hour to kill before Stir started the people in the front row could just sit on the stage until show time which was at least better than on the floor...

Chapter 2: Stir

So at 7pm Stir hops up on stage, Andy the lead singer apologizes because they had planned on some kind of dramatic entrance where the stage is dark and they appear but he said "fuck it" and they start in by playing a long instrumental rock jam that leads into "Superstation". About half way through the set, they come their latest single "Climbing The Walls" which he said was written about a friend that was in and out of drug rehab, and it has been getting a lot of air play nation wide... but NOT in Seattle. (The exact same could be said for Tonic.) The crowd knew exactly what he meant and were yelling "Seattle radio sucks" but the lead singer wouldn't go as far as to say that but of course he meant it. And when it came time for their last song, a Pink Floyd cover called "Comfortably Numb", Dan Lavery comes on stage and gets behind the drums. And then after the first verse, Jeff comes on stage with his guitar and starts playing and singing right along with them. It made for an amazing and more importantly... memorable ending.

Chapter 3: Tonic

After a half hour stage change, Tonic takes the stage at 8:15. They once again open the show with "FUTURE SAYS RUN". It was filled with energy and really got the crowd going!
"TOP FALLS DOWN" came next.
Then "SUGAR" started and the crowd was singing along with actually surprised me a little because Seattle radio gave it no help.
Then came "OPEN UP YOUR EYES" which blows me away every time!
Unfortunately Emerson did not intro this song like he did before but in my opinion its one of the more emotional songs in the set, "MOUNTAIN".
After that, Jeff began playing (what I think was KDW), and Emerson's looking at him like, what the hell are you doing. And Jeff is like "whoops" when he realizes its the wrong song and Emerson says "dude, you gotta lay off the pot!" And they begin playing "BIGOT SUNSHINE". Next came "WALTZ WITH ME" which was beautifully done and then they cranked it up with "KNOCK DOWN WALLS".
Then was "SOLDIER'S DAUGHTER" after which Emerson threw his guitar pick right to me! I'd made eye contact a number of times earlier in the show, hard to miss a 6'3" guy in the front row when everyone else around was about 5'6" tops.
Then they sang "MR. GOLDEN DEAL" which was incredible!
And then came "CASUAL AFFAIR" which rocked the whole place. In the middle they had a cool rockin' instrumental part and then Emerson had the crowd all yell at the top of their lungs.
After which Emerson took a moment to thank everyone for coming out and said he was sorry that we were getting force-fed a lot of shitty music these days, and thanked us for supporting real music from people that write their own lyrics; and proceeded to play "MEAN TO ME".
And lastly Emerson gave his usual little speech about when he was younger and got married and his mother refused to support him. And these words he told her over the phone... "IF YOU COULD ONLY SEE". During the last verse he had the whole crowd sing the chorus and said "thank you and goodnight" and they left the stage.

The crowd then started chanting "We want more" over and over.

And so they come back out for the encore and sound like their trying to decide what song to play, the crowd is wanting either "Lemon Parade" or "You Wanted More" but I was yelling for "Irish" even though I knew they would never play it. Instead of the crowd's suggestions, they played "LOVE A DIAMOND".
And then they finished off the show with "YOU WANTED MORE" which I personally think would have been better as part of the main set but I'm still glad I got to hear it. And then the show was over.

Chapter 4: Afterwards

So once the lights come up the crowd slowly disperses and I make my way outside. I head back to my truck and grab my camera in hope of a picture with one of them. While waiting outside the place it starts drizzling, then straight out raining, and the lyric running through my head was from Eminem's Stan "I waited outside in the blistering cold for you" HAHA. Emerson was first to come out but he made a beeline for the bus and I didn't want to bother him even though I did want to talk to him. Next out came Remy who went to the bus but then he came back out and talked to some of the fans outside for a couple minutes. Jeff came out and went to the bus, signed an autograph for one girl along the way I think. Then lastly Dan came out, he was who I was waiting for most, I already sort of knew him through emails and so I talked to him for 5-10 minutes and got a picture with him.

Then I headed home.

Dan Lavery, Kevin
September 30, 2000