Auckland 13/10/02

Rock 101, St James Theatre

Set-list: Naked, Long Way Down, Slide, Big Machine, Tucked Away, Truth Is A Whisper, Dizzy, Here Is Gone, Smash, Black Balloon, Think About Me, Name, What A Scene, Broadway, Sympathy, Iris, Just The Way You Are, All Eyes One Me.

This show was 6 bands at 2 theatres. The Regent had Elemeno P, Simple Plan, & Default, and at the St James were Augustino, Lifehouse, & The Goos. General admission tickets meant you could go to both. The doors were supposed to be opened at 7 - but the queue didn't start moving until about 10 past, huge queue around the block so by the time I got in @ 7:40-ish, Augustino (an NZ band) had started their set. Never heard of them before but they were pretty good, they watched the Goos later on from a box seat. 30min break while the stage was setup for Lifehouse. They started at 8:30 and played for an hour. Did a good job and the crowd were into them. The Goos stage setup took a bit longer so they started approx 15mins late @ 10:15. Robbie's energy fed the crowd who started rocking out down the front. John's hair was annoying him, said he couldn't see the crowd so he put on his hat - looked more like a bandana, "Now I'm ready for work". The crowd went crazy when Slide started. John was hysterical when he stopped What a Scene to see who someone was talking to on a cell phone. He coaxed the cell phone off the person and had a conversation with them, asking why were they too cheap to buy a ticket to the show! She even asked if Lifehouse had been on yet! They started the song again after we'd yelled out a loud HI to the caller. He was desperate for a smoke before the band intros, so he blagged one from a roadie. Not sure if the set was cut short due to the delay, they played just over 1:15. Cool story before Name about how it will probably be on some lame 90s compilation tv ad in 20 years time, and how he'll receive a phone call from MTV asking "where are you now?"... the answer "none of your f***in' business"!!!!!! Near the end some girl yelled out that she'd travelled all the way from the South Island to see them. John said thanks, and he'd like to buy her a drink or something, then added "I came all the way from Buffalo to see you"! The band really seemed to be enjoying themselves. They exited after Iris but returned after about 20 seconds to finish off with Just The Way You Are (most of the crowd didn't recognize it) and All Eyes On Me.