Bleed Like Me Tour
April 29, 2005
First Avenue
Minneapolis, MN

Wow! This was an amazing, amazing concert. I went with Liz, Sjon, and Heidi and we were all very impressed. Heidi and I got there fairly early so we were sitting on the ledge of the wheelchair access ramp to the left of the stage, which meant we were close to the stage and had an awsome view.

First out were the Dead 60s. None of us were really into their set. They were very much a "let's see how drunk we can get and how much noise we can make" type hipster band. In fact, to quote Heidi, "They're so hipster it hurts." What really annoyed me about their set is that the lead guitarist was playing a Telecaster and the rhythm guitarist was playing a Stratocaster. These are two awsome guitars, however, they sounded like crap because they did something goofy with the tone, which is all part of the hipster thing I guess, so both guitars sounded really nasal and blah. They were just a mediocre indie type band and did nothing to impress me...I was bored.

After suffering through the Dead 60s, we were all VERY ready for Garbage to come on stage. The band came out to Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt," which I thought was a bit odd, but whatever. Here is the set list:

Queer
Bad Boyfriend
Supervixen
Stupid Girl
Sex is Not the Enemy
Hammering in My Head
When I Grow Up
Vow
Bleed Like Me
I Think I'm Paranoid
Push It
Only Happy When it Rains
Why Do You Love Me

(encore)
Metal Heart
Run Baby Run
Right Between the Eyes

Hopefully I will be posting some pictures soon....I brought my camera AND my minidisc player, which means I've got my own little bootleg of the show. Please don't bug me about wanting a copy...I'm not sharing. It's for my own personal use to have forever and ever and ever. Anyway...back to the review....The band was very professional and very together. It was a well polished performance. The combination of the lights, the music, the video screens, and the crowd all helped make this an excellent performance. There were 5 video screens behind the band and also a grid of small Christmas tree type lights of multiple colors. During "Sex is not the Enemy," the video screens showed words with gender biased connotations (ex. stud / slut). The words were shown in pairs of positive and negative connotations. These words were also displayed in the little lights, which was a very cool effect. Ever since Friday I can't listen to anything else but Garbage. I really hope I get to see them play again some time.