9 December, 1998 - Seattle, WA - Key Arena

WKNDD's Deck The Hall Ball - acoustic runway

 

review by Neil

I originally didn't plan on going to this show. It was one of those radio station things with lots of bands I don't care about playing to a huge crowd of mostly teenagers, and the tickets were expensive (nearly $40, including service charges). But I couldn't stand the thought of missing a Lanegan acoustic performance, so I broke down and bought a ticket. Mark's was the second of three "acoustic stage" performances sandwiched in between the main stage acts. The acoustic stage was really just a narrow strip at the front of the main stage, in front of a curtain. Mark stood at the back, up against the curtain. Mike Johnson, Ben Shepherd, and Dave Krueger sat in front of him. They only played four songs. The first and the last of these must have been new ones; I had never heard them before. The other two were Stay and Hotel. I don't remember much about the new songs, except that they were really beautiful; I thought that they were even more impressive than the ones I knew. Mark sounded better than ever, and because he didn't have to compete with a loud band, his vocals really stood out. It was cool to hear his voice coming out of the huge speakers and echoing through the arena. Most of the crowd had come to see the likes of Hole and Garbage and didn't really care about the acoustic stuff, but a lot of people watched -- and they didn't yell and throw stuff like they did at Ken Stringfellow. So as strange as the idea sounded, it actually went quite well, and it was definitely worth the $40.

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