"if I had a song that could dissolve you like sleep..."

Well, ok, he tripped on the stairs coming up to the stage, but this wasn't a sign of things to come. Last time seemed like a warm up in comparison to last night's performance, which found him in fine form. He's not just a singer, this man's an entertainer, stopping halfway through a song to crack a joke, or to re-sing the same line a few times in different voices, for added humour value. Last time, he only made it about halfway through firefly. This time, he managed to finish, pausing halfway through to say "uh. sorry. I was thinking about something."

[ see all Mark Eitzel pictures. ]

Support was the Blackeyed Susans Duo - Rob Snarski's honeyed voice teamed up with Dan Luscombe's faraway lonely electric guitar. A bit of new material, plus one or two old things (only two Blackeyed Susans tracks, proving this isn't just some hobbled version of the main band). They also did that wonderful track from Pharmacy's The Thin Man Bordello compilation, Frank and Ava, which Rob introduced as "something I wrote for Frank Sinatra to sing, only too late..." And while the recorded version suffered from a squeaky chair (well, I must admit I wouldn't have noticed if they hadn't mentioned it in the liner notes), this time Dan's guitar (or the amp) played up. I'd hate to think this song's cursed - it doesn't deserve it.

[ see all Blackeyed Susans pictures. ]