Live in Minneapolis, MN, Cedar Cultural Center, 02.06.1999
Text written by Brandon Lambert
Photos taken by the official tour photographer
The intelligent fish (my girlfriend, Courtney) and I (the dumb one) arrived in town about three hours early with cigarettes and beer on our minds. Our first order of business was to park my freshly bandaged Neon in a place that would not require me to get up in the middle of the show to deposit quarters. Hoping for some sort of parking Oasis, I drove behind the venue.
There was no place to park, but Robbi was standing outside the tour bus jawing with some security guy. So I lose
my mind a little. I blurt out Oh my God, it's Robbi Robb!
Courtney, who came along
soley to be with me, says Is that the singer?
And with that I'm out of the car
telling Robbi how cool it is to meet him and how I've been waiting to see him sing for six years. Then Jeff Ament walks
by and I just go Hey, Jeff!
like we're long lost pals or something. And understand
this, Pearl Jam is my favorite band in the world. I'm talking to an intricate organ of the greatest rock band of all
time (I'm entitled to my opinion). Richard is nowhere to be seen, but I ask the guys if I can have a picture taken
with them. They both are all for it. So Courtney snapped off a photo and then Jeff went about doing whatever it is
I stopped him from doing. I ask Robbi of two more things: One, could he play Babalon tonight?
He kind of got this shy, apologetic look and shrugged like it was out of his hands. I told him I understood and he
seemed thankful. I then asked him to sign the new disc, which I had picked up only hours earlier. He wrote "To Brandon,
Shine on, Love Robbi." Really nice. So then Courtney and I left to drink and came back for showtime.
We sat dead center and right in front. And when I say in front, I mean a foot from the stage. Unreal. The mood was set with candles even between chairs in the audience. The opening act, David Garza, was pretty solid. If you've ever seen Lou Diamond Phillips portrayal of Ritchie Valens in "La Bamba", you have a pretty good idea of what this guy looks like. He and his band started off with quiet songs and ended with your more garden variety rock n roll songs. The crowd was into him.
When he was done, the Three Fish equipment began to be set up. Richard came out to help with the drums. His drumset
is the most amazing I've ever seen. The main pieces were made from hollowed out trees and wrapped with leather.
They were beautiful. Anyway, the band comes on and puts on an amzing show. I'll give some details, but here is the
setlist ('Shiva and the Astronaut', 'Transporting', 'Tremor Void', 'Song for a Dead Girl', 'Half Long', 'My Only Foe',
'Timeless', 'Laced', 'Myth of Abdou', 'Once in a Day', 'All Messed Up'. Then the encore was: 'Zagreb' and 'Resonate'.
Choices for the encore on the actual setlist that were not played were 'Silence at the Bottom', 'Found a Window', and
'Hummingbird'. Okay, I need to be fair here. I wasn't too familiar with the new album at the show. As I said, I just
got it hours earlier. It only came out the day before. And I guess it was hard to find because someone yelled out Best
Buy sucked because he couldn't find the album there. Jeff then agreed and said Maybe you need
to go to Let It Be.
This drew a huge applause from the audience because Let It Be is a local record store in
downtown Minneapolis. Anyway, I need to say this. Some of the crowd was probably there to see Jeff Ament up close. But
most were really Three Fish fans. When songs from the old album were announced the people applaused and whistled in
recognition. And while the old songs were great, the new ones were far better. Because I wasn't familiar with the new
album, I can't really differentiate the songs in my head. I didn't even realize that 'Half Long' wasn't on the disc.
I remember enjoying every song though so it must have been good. The band jammed out on a few songs and people went crazy.
Before 'Timeless', Robbi spoke of living each moment and he said Take time for laughs and
photographs.
That made me smile because he earlier practiced what he was preaching with me. Anyway, Richard is
an amazing drummer. He plays with a smile on his face and a love for music in his heart. All of them did. Even the
extra guy. I wondered if he was Cary Ecklund.
The coolest things for me were seeing the man and hearing the voice at the same time. Robbi is on a plain most of us
will never reach. I also loved that huge rockstar Jeff was out playing for 200 people simply because he has a love for
music. The band played off of and with each other incredibly. This is absolutely no side project. This is truly one of
the best bands in the world. At the end of the show Robbi said See you next time.
I hope so. If you're reading
this, thanks guys.
