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Live at the Roseland Ballroom, NYC, Nov. 28, 1997 - Part II

© Wendy Starr

After the Wallflowers finished "Tracks of My Tears," Jakob said to the crowd: "Thanks everyone for coming out to see us. You all know the video to this song, now don't be shy," and then began singing "The Difference." When the song finished, The Wallflowers thanked the audience and left the stage. The crowd, instead of yelling for more, became unusually quiet. I feared that the Wallflowers wouldn't return for an encore. (The crowd might have been overly tired, a product of standing for almost 5½ hours.) A few minutes later, The Wallflowers walked slowly back to the stage, and Jakob looked bewildered. "You guys were awfully quiet there," he noted. Then he said something to the effect of: "We were offstage wondering, `Should we go back on?' Maybe it's some kind of New York thing . . . instead of making a lot noise, you were all just thinking about what the next songs were gonna be." Finally, the crowd started screaming. The Wallflowers played "Invisible City" and Jakob again thanked the audience and said, "I'll probably see some of you tomorrow night." The band ended their set with an electrifying version of "Brand New Cadillac." As the band walked off the stage, Mike threw a shirt into the crowd, Rami threw out a towel, and Mario tossed out his drumsticks.

For the most part, The Wallflowers seemed to be in a happy mood. Jakob often grinned and smiled at the crowd. I had heard that many of their family members flew to New York to celebrate Thanksgiving with the band and were sitting in the V.I.P. area at the side of the Ballroom. Maybe their presence added to the cheerful environment. Jakob and Michael bounced and bumped into each other a couple of times during the concert and seemed to be having fun. Jakob threw lots of guitar picks into the audience, as did Michael Ward. One girl threw a watercolor of Jakob on the stage. "I'll keep this," Jakob commented, and then he joked as he looked at the picture: "I don't know who he is, but I'll definitely keep this." Another girl desperately wanted to give Jakob a bouquet of roses. Jakob stopped playing and tried to reach the bouquet, but his arms weren't long enough to reach across the security guards in front. So, one guard came to the rescue and passed up the bouquet to Jakob. One very annoying male audience member shined a pen-laser at Jakob during the show. Jakob became upset and ordered the person with the laser to shine it on the ceiling. The person obeyed, and Jakob quickly pleaded to whomever was sitting next to the "asshole" with the pen-laser to please take it away from him.

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