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Submitted to Guster.net by Dan Bowen

04-28-2004
Calvin College Fine Arts Auditorium, Grand Rapids, Michigan


Well ladies and gentlemen, I am back! Last year if any of you remember (probably none of you do) I wrote about the concert at Comerica Tastefest in Detroit. Well needless to say it was not exactly a pleseant trip with the flat tire and all. However I still did get to see the show. This time I am back with, I am happy to say, a much more pleseant expearience with a Guster concert. Mainly because they were playing right in the town I live in, instead of HALF ACROSS THE STATE! Here goes:

They open the doors at about 8:20pm to let us into the auditorium. Of course all the fans like us (we were like right in the front of the line) go screaming down to the front of the stage. The Bee's come on first and play a few songs. They weren't too bad at all. However we were all there to see GUSTER. As soon as they came on stage I could feel the energy. Ryan was in his witty, funny, and lazy mood as ever and started out with "We're Guster and were here to play a few songs for you, but you already knew that."
The energy was really there. They were happy, they were just having a blast. Joe went nuts on the banjo at the end of I think it was Backyard. I mean he was flipping out on that thing and it still sounded GREAT. Brian of course was in perfect form with the percussion and drums. Exspecially when he was playing the drum set. You could see he was into it but he was hurting too. He kept wincing alot during Belle. That's got to say alot. Brian taking pain for his fans to hear some kickass drumming. I shouted right after I think Ramona, "YOU ROCK THUNDERGOD!"
But they were all into it. Adam just had the charasmatic smile on the whole time and you could tell he was enjoying it. Ryan even got the fans involved with the clapping during Belle, betting us we couldn't clap for the whole thing. Which of course triggered the fans to prove him wrong. Of course getting the fans to feel like they are involved is a key to a successful show if you ask me. He commented on a group to the left of us that had I believe big letters on their t-shirt that spelled out Guster. And I loved the story about the loud music playing Calvin student that was playing Guster.
On top of the great ammount of energy and enthusiasm that the band showed was of course the normal cool stuff you have come to expect from a Guster concert. Ryan's funny yet sometimes cheesy humor. Like after Demons he said "We're going to play one more song, and then we're going to play some more songs." Of course the changing up the intros of some songs and making them sound different from the actual song their leading up to play. Like they did for Two Points for Honesty.
So the show was absoletely a blast and of course my friends are saying the whole time on our way from our side of town to Calvin how we could get broken down again and stuff because the gods don't want you to see Guster. But HAHA they did. So I HAD to come back here and write a review. At the last minute my friend Matt gave me a marker that of course ended up dying like 25% into the show. I wrote on the back of a little Guster flyer that was all around the Calvin Campus. I wrote the setlist as the show was being played. Stupid me didn't remember that the Guster website releases the setlist after the concert is over. So as the songs are going by the marker starts going out and I am forced to like write very little as far as the words go. Below is actually the words I used in the setlist writing:

What you Wish For
Ramona
Careful
Airport
? - I didn't know this song (on the website it says Belle)
Downstairs
I Spy
Together
Amsterdam
Happier
Backyard
Points
HK
Demons
Fa
Mona
Long Way
Barrel
Jesus

After the concert we go around back to where the tour bus is and we wait for Guster to come out. Alas we had very little time left to stay there because friends parents were going to be rather upset if we didn't get home soon. Joe comes out and we chat with him. I give Joe a copy of my techno album for Guster and the crew to listen to. And him and I talk about Reason and Rebirth (both techno making machines).