At 8:25 p.m., on Tuesday, October 3rd, the Wallflowers took the stage at the Garden. It was their first night opening for The Who, and they seemed very tense. They started with "Sleepwalker" and then played "Some Flowers Bloom Dead." They sounded good, but the audience responded with only a moderate showing of appreciation. Nevertheless Jakob said to the audience, "Thank you. That's nice. Thank you. I know many of you haven't heard of us. We're going to be playing some new songs for the people who have heard of us." The band then played "Letters from the Wasteland," "Sixth Avenue Heartache," and "Three Marlenas." Jakob then spoke a second time, saying, "Thank you. We're extremely happy to be here tonight. You're very nice. This one is off our last album. It's called `One Headlight.'" After that song, the band proceeded to play "Heroes" and then, almost apologetically, Jakob said, "The main event is on its way. You've all been very patient. We're going to do one more. It's called `The Difference.'" Before the band left the stage, Jakob called out: "Thank you, guys!"
Their clothes were more casual than during their last tour. While Armani suited them up in the past, it seemed like the Gap dressed them for this tour. But the jeans and tops seemed more fitting for a rock group. And it was nice to see the guys in clothes that weren't all black!
The set--lasting only 40 minutes--went by too fast. And by the sparse comments from Jakob, it was evident that the band members weren't comfortable on-stage (except for Rami Jaffee, who danced around his keyboards), and they seemed like they wanted to leave as quickly as possible. Perhaps that discomfort was due to the audience not being a "Wallflowers crowd" (they were predominantly in their 30's, 40's, and 50's and there to see The Who) and the arena is much bigger (it's a 20,000 seater) than their typical venues. The Wallflowers perform best in smaller venues. Indeed, the last time they headlined in New York, they played at the Roseland Ballroom, which accommodates only a few thousand people. I was disappointed by "Letters from the Wasteland." The song seemed to fall apart during the chorus--it sounded like half of the band played one song while the other half played a different song. The other songs were performed better and the more successful songs--"One Headlight," "Sixth Avenue Heartache," and "Heroes"--not surprisingly, got the best reception from the audience.
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