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From: ThHighRoad

I was in the middle, and the place seemed pretty full to me, packed 
almost. Yes, Bob was in -very- good spirits. He joked about the Elian 
Gonzalez thing and the fisher man (he must have read the article the New York 
Post ran that morning on Donato, since he quoted parts of it verbatim). He 
also compared the wrestling industry to the HBO series "Oz" (someone had 
called out "How was the wrestling gig?").

    Bob had a few surprises, including "Needle Hits E," "Too Far Down," 
(surprising given the positive vibes) and "No Reservations" (!!!!!!!!!),  a 
lot more Sugar songs and less -Hubcap- songs than I would have expected, 
although, yes, he opened with "Wishing Well" (and no "Eternally Fried," 
unlike the last time I saw him at Irving Plaza. Oh well.). The three new 
songs were -excellent-, much better than most of LDAPS (I think), and I can't 
see why anyone would complain about them. "Sunset Safety Glass" had a great 
disco-ish backing (yes, disco, not MBV-esque, but it's great anyway), and a 
mirror ball dropped out of the ceiling for it. :)  "High Fidelity" was also 
great, and very poppy for acoustic Bob (I swear, it sounds like it could be a 
Magnetic Fields song, almost. And that's a good thing, BTW). He also played a 
third new song (don't know the title), which did have a noisy, vaguely 
MBV-ish drum machine backing to it; also good. Bob threatened to play at 
least half of the "new album," but only those three songs. 

    Some of the requests people called for were pretty surprising. Some 
called for "Whatever" (my fave HD tune, not that I expected Bob to play it) a 
few times, several "Chartered Trips," a "See a Little Light." For one request 
he joked "Yeah, that was a hit," and I think he said something about "You 
people must be real fans" (or something like that) at one point. 

    Great show over all. The two openers: Araby were horrible college-radio 
stuff. Martha Wainwright was much better, although a bit stereotypically 
"folk" for my taste. 

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From: Ken W

I was there.  Great show.  Loved the new stuff.  If what Bob said
about playing half the new album was true, I hope High Fidelity will
be on it.  I really like that song.  I've wondered about it since he
has been playing it live for a while now.  Nice to hear Needle Hits E.
I love that one too.  The disco song was cool, but I really liked the
other one with the drum machine sounding background.  I'd love to
hear it more.  Especially the disco one seemed to drown out Bob.  He
seemed to really have fun playing those two.  I hope to hear more new
stuff soon.  As much as I love all the songs, I need some more variety
in his live stuff.  I can only hear so much of some of those songs.  I
can do without See A Little Light though.  Hearing it with the band
did it for me for a lifetime. :)  Brasilia would have been nice
though.  Since he is working on a new album, anyone else think that
After All The Roads Have Lead to Nowhere should be on it?  Or at least
a studio b-side?

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From: Robert Gebeloff

Was it just me, or did Bob rip through Thumbtack in double-time?

It was a great show, and Bob was obviously in a great mood, but hearing him
clang through Thumbtack at what seemed to be the same pace as Celebrated
Summer was a bit odd..

Okay, the tempo wasn' t THAT quick, but it was faster than usual, and I
thought it rendered this usually super number to just ordinary... Too Far
Down was pretty good, but he had earlier bagged Sinners halfway through, so
maybe he just wasn't in the mood for his emotional songs...

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From: drew

Brilliant show. Here were all the songs I remember Bob playing (not in 
order):

New #1 (cut short after he forgot the lyrics)
Lonely Afternoon
Celebrated Summer
Sunset Safety Glass
Semper Fi
Surveyors and Cranes
Fade to Black
The Last Night
Needle Hits E
Your Favorite Thing
No Reservations
Hardly Getting over it
Too Far Down
If I Can't Change Your Mind
Wishing Well
Taking Everything
Thumbtack
Sinners and their Repentances

That's all I can remember. There's one song missing in there and I'm 
totally tortured, but that's life when you forget to bring and pad and 
pen to the show. It was really nice to hear Needle Hits E, Thumbtack, 
No Reservations, and Celebrated Summer because he hadn't performed them 
here in NYC since I've been here.

The crowd was good, and shouted for lots of stuff (I was the guy asking 
for eternally fried). Bob made some funny remarks about the Elian 
Gonzalez mess, and how a reporter at the Cincinnati show asked him about 
it. I asked him about the new album (screamed the question, actually). 
He just said it was going along. No real specific answer.

One thing I've noticed. The three new songs with the DAT backing are all 
awesome songs (and once they've been put to record, I can buy it and die 
in peace), but he always plays those songs in the same order at every 
show (likely due to the DAT order), with Fade to Black also thrown in 
there at certain parts. No other new songs? I guess time will tell.

But overall, it was a great show. Bob looked well, with some healthy 
beard stubble. So rugged! Played his heart out, which is what makes him 
so special. He could have played bible hymns and I'd still be at rapt 
attention.