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May 4, 2003 - Music Midtown - Atlanta, GA, US Concert review by TC (WBCreek at Hotmail dot com) Siva - Zwan : Concert Reviews Music Midtown was the fourth time I had seen Zwan in a month -- I would love to maintain that pace, as Zwan is my best band! Unquestionably they put on a wonderful live show. I am an Atlanta stagehand and I worked the 99X stage at Music Midtown specifically so I could work the Zwan show -- I watched the entire set from stage left wing, sitting about fifteen feet away from Paho and Paz, behind the audio monitor board. Watching the band members communicate with each other on stage via smiles, looks and chatter offers fascinating insight as to how the band works as a whole. I don't have time right now to comment extensively on their set -- I have to leave to go work a Willie Nelson gig -- but after reading "Ron's" review, I wanted to comment specifically on one point -- the crowd. Ron stated that Zwan did not do an encore because it was festival policy not to. Headliners on Music Midtown Stages have always done encores. This was my fifth Music Midtown as a stagehand and Zwan was the first band that did NOT do an encore, much to my huge, huge disappointment. I saw several different copies of the setlist for this show taped at various places around the stage and know that the band was intending to do two songs as an encore -- "Spilled Milk" (one of my personal concert favorites)and I forget what the other one was. When the band left the stage after Billy Sr's appearance, there was actually a bit of confusion among the stagehands as to whether we should go on stage and start tearing down Zwan's equipment. We all held back and expected them to go back on stage for the encore, but the band hesitated and mingled for a few seconds, then headed for their bus parked behind the stage. Much of the reason -- maybe all of it -- had to do with the crowd's reaction. There was virtually no cheering for an encore. I could not believe it when I looked out from the stage to the crowd and saw nearly every one dispersing!! Relatively speaking, the crowd was small to begin with. Last year on the same night of Music Midtown at the same stage, No Doubt had what was commonly estimated to be 100,000 people; for Zwan, there was perhaps a fifth of that, maybe a fourth. Not a bad-sized crowd at all, but much smaller for what it should have been. From my vantage on stage, I thought from the begining of the set that the crowd, except for a very small core right in front of the stage, just wasn't into it like the three previous Zwan shows I'd seen. Perhaps the crown was worn out -- many had been standing on the pavement in the heat a good part of the day, and that can be pretty draining. My personal theory is that the appearance of Billy Sr. for the last song of the basic set totally killed Zwan's momentum. Yes, he was very, very good, but what he played was musically so un-Zwan-like that it took away from the band's momentum going into the encore that never happened. It would have been much better if they had brought him out way earlier in the set. I do agree with Ron in that for those who truly love Zwan, it was a typically great performance. I'm looking forward to seeing them again.....and again......and again........ |
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