From: EVB (evb@psychotica.net)

forgive me please if I ramble somewhat incoherantly but I'm running on about 30 hours with no sleep and just got home to Maryland from NYC but here it is while its fresh....

My roomie (Judy a/k/a "coyote@spookhouse.net") and I took Greyhound up to NYC, walked around a while, found a wonderful cheap Japanese restaurant and then met up with everybody beforehand at the Continental. Sadly we couldn't hang as late there as we wanted because we were scared the line would start without us. Gotta explain, I'm one of these crazies that absolutely cannot properly experience a concert unless I'm in the front row singing along and totally into it so I tend to line up hours beforehand to assure a spot right up front. Horror of horrors there were already folks in line (Gene Loves Jezebel fans) but we managed to hear the Mish do the soudncheck from the street (which included "Swoon" - be still my heart!!!) and when the doors opened managed to get right in the front up against the stage (no barrier - hurrah!!) right in between Wayne and Craig.

Enjoyed Mike Peters & Gene Loves Jezebel(who I haven't seen in WAY too long) but knew what I was waiting for & was delighted beyond belief when The Mish took the stage. They still look great - swear Wayne & Craig don't look any older tho its a little hard getting used to both of 'em with less hair than I'd seen 'em last. The set was I think the same as in Boston but for an encore Wayne first came out with just an acoustic guitar and did "Like A child Again" which was amazing (I'd always wondered how "the mish unplugged" would go) and then asked the crowd if they'd prefer "Wasteland" or "Like a Hurricane" How about both? Well they did Wasteland but from there it was into "1969" (no "Like a Hurricane")

As they started Wasteland I felt a tap on my shoulder - it was my friend Colleen I hadn't seen in many many years and with her was my friend Gregg Zubowicz. Gregg is one of my dearest longtime friends and I'd met both of them after the Mish show at the Trocader on Philly in 1988 but in the last few years I'd lost track of him after he'd married and moved and like a fool I'd lost his address. He knew if he'd find me anywhere tho it would be in the front row of the Mish show and he was right!

I felt like all was right with the world! Gregg is probably the biggest Mission fan I know and back on the "carved In Sand" tour when Simon left he'd sent them a demo trying to audition - they invited him to play with them onstage at the Glenside PA Kewsick theater show and that one will live forever in my memory. Ah the crazy stuff we'd do for the Mission! We also pulled a wild stunt in 1990 when we bluffed our way into Polygram's coporate offices in NYC when they were conducting college radio interviews with the mish & somehow convinced them we were with some radio station that may o may not exist and they let us (with a roomful of other folks) interview them for about an hour and served us refreshments & gave us advance promo tapes of Carved In sand which wasn't out for a few months yet!) (Still have the tape & pix I took then, one of these days I promise I *WILL* get all this stuff up on a web page!!!) So you can imagine the memories that came flooding back!

After the show Gregg grabbed us and said follow me and whisked us upstairs & got the OK to bring us backstage with them so we got to talk to the boys. Introduced myself to Mark and thanked him profusely for posting the photos from the warmup gig on his website & for being on the list (I still can't believe how lucky we are to have some of the band on here & to get the info straight from them!!) We hung out there until they threw EVERYBODY out of Irving Plaza & we all decided to relocate to the nearest bar which just so happened (is this weird or what??) to be called "Shades of Green" across the street. Spent the nest two hours or so hanging out with everybody - I think Gregg's friend Celeste was bonding with Wayne as she was lining up shots for him! He will drink first & ask questions later - you should have seen the look on his face after he downed Josh's Jaegermeister, you'd think he was poisoned and he was like "what the fuck is that??". Wayne said the acoutsic encore was totally spontaneous - he'd never done it before & just decided to do so on the spot but I thought it was great! He said the reason the sets are so short is that so far the clubs they've played have curfews and that in two shows they've already gone over the limit of when they should be done twice : ( Hopefully other clubs won't have such strict time limitations, if they can play longer they will, esp as they rehearse more songs in soundcheck (I am begging for "Swoon" myself) since they only had like 2 weeks of rehersal before the tour. Oh yeah, Wayne has EYES!!!! He was sitting backstage and in the bar without his glasses and that took some adjustment as I don't think I'd ever seen a photo of him without them ; )

Got to talk to Craig too as Wayne called him over to the bar - I think its the first time I've had a real conversation with him longer than "can you please sign this" - we have James Stephenson from GLJ to thank for his return the Mish as James had called him up a while back and asked if he'd be interested in getting together for something and then a little later said there would be a tour and would he be up for it. I'm sure glad he did, it would just feel wrong without Craig! He says that he's never been on bad terms with them & always kept in touch.

Anyway I am one hamppy camper all set to do it again tomorrow but gotta get some sleep now. If I get up the energey & $ I will crawl to the one hour photo lab tonight to get the roll of pictures I took last night developed.... heee almost got thrown out by security for taking them since I didn't have a pass (tho by then they wouldn't have gotten the cameras as I'd already passed that on to somebody else to hide) but I think I got some good shots!

I think I need sleep bad! Sorry for any spelling errors - I'm in such a state I can barely type!
--- Elizabeth

From: TowrOfStgh@xxx.xxx

Subject: 6 Hours after Showtime

Hail all -

Well I just got home from Irving Plaza. It was a good evening to say the least. I met a bunch of you from the listserv and I have to say...each and every one of you are a class act. I enjoyed spending time with you tonight and I thank you for making my evening that much more enjoyable. As far as the show...I have to be honest. Before I tell you all what I thought, please note that the views expressed in this post are strictly mine (Rich aka TowrOfStgh) and no one else's ok?

Alright, I'll get right to the point. The feeling I felt when they played their opening opus before entering the stage literally got me a bit misty. They went into "Beyond the Pale" and I felt my tear ducts going into high gear. That song came out absolutely awesome. Songs like "Raising Cain" and "Butterfly on a Wheel" didn't come out as good as I'd like them to be. I only think this happened because of the volume levels of the backround tracks playing; especially for Butterfly on a Wheel: It was drowing Wayne's vocals *pouts*. Songs like "Deliverance" and "Tower of Strength" came out really good. Wayne was trying to get the audience into TOS, but only a few really responded (guess which few? *smiles*) After the first set ended with Blood Brother and Deliverance, Wayne came out alone for the first song of the encore and did "Like A Child Again." I heard it sung this way before in the UK back in '95 and I must say, the way it came out tonight was the best I heard. They ended the show with "Wasteland" and "1969." The whole show in a whole to me was good consider- ing it was only their 2nd show of the tour. I'm positive they'll sound tighter as they tour on. I'm positive the audiences in the UK will have an amazing treat once they get there.

I must comment on the crowd. Talk about inconsiderate bastages! One guy was trying to steal Robin's leather jacket. Another gal was freaking out on Dave while this guy who's friends with the girl wanted to take it outside with him. Luckily I calmed those folks down. They were completely abnoxious constantly yelling to their friends when they could've easily just talked to them. No band was playing @ the time, so conversation could've been toned down a bit. The show in whole could've been better if there was more crowd participation. It really felt to me as if 5% of the crowd was really into it (mostly the people up front...hmmm, I wonder who was in that front part of the crowd? *smiles*) If the crowd was into it like the gigs I went to in the UK in '95, no doubt The Mish would've sounded alot better. Even Wayne when trying to talk with the crowd could tell in general, the audience wasn't "too" into it. That kinda sucks, but what can you say? It takes a real fan to truly understand how great it was that The Mish came back to New York after so many years.

I love The Mish and their music. I know that I will live the rest of my days knowing that I was fortunate enough to have been able to enjoy @ least 1 show with some of you on the list. Don't get me wrong, I loved tonight's perfomance. It's just that in my heart I believe that if the audience were into it more, I'm sure The Mish would've been. Take my opinions as you wish. I certainly hope I didn't offend anyone for it's truly not my intent. After meeting some of you guys, I have one opinion, and above class, I could tell each and every one of you that I met tonight from the listserv have as much love for The Mish as I do.

Bless you all (not from a really religious sense, but I thought it was appropri- ate) and I hope to hear from you as each show passes from one town to the next. I'm trying now to see if I can get to the Columbus gig this Saturday *crosses fingers*. I would just like to see what it would be like on another venue. Until then...good night and sweet dreams.

Cheers

- Rich

From: Nik Cap

Subject: Re: SPOILER: NYC, Irving Plaza

Okay, now that I've had a chance to come back to earth I can give a better report. So far, the posts on the show have pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm just going to hammer this out so forgive me if it incoherent.

I thought the crowd was charge up for the show. Unlike Boston, the actually floor space was directly in front of the stage and I think this got the crowd more into the show.Mike Peters took stage near 8PM. I was really impressed with his show. Craig and Scott came out for a great rocking version on Spirit of '76 and retired to the backstage.

Gene Love Jezebel were on around 9PM. Jay was very interactive with the crowd. "Uptown" was a great performance, it included a broken guitar and lots of comic relief. Josephine and desire were really nice additions from the Boston show.

In between sets the audience was treated to Clash music and a video of a Karate training tape and a collage of 3D landscape and objects.

The screen raised to "Jupiter"

The Mission were very tight. Scott is a madman drummer. I nearly laughed during the whole set. Be sure to check this cat out, I swear, it looks like he's going to rocket out from behind the kit with every snare hit. And the drum fills are amazing. "ToS" and the ending of "1969" are absolutely amazing. Imagine Animal from the muppets on the drums. (BTW ... anyone notice Mark's GF backpack?) As for Mark, the leads on Monday night were blazing. For me the highlight of the show was the acoustic gtr version of Like a Child. Crowd note, more goths were present then at the Boston show and no body passed a snake up on to the stage. (remember the last Mish show in NYC?) Also, Wayne didn't almost crack his skull open.

The set was the same as Boston except for Like a Child Again.

Intro
Beyond the Pale
Hands Across the Ocean
Into the Blue
Butterfly on a Wheel
Raising Cain
Severina
Tower of Strength
Blood Brothers
Deliverance
Like A Child Again
Wasteland
1969