I went and saw "A Perfect Circle" at the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco this evening. I haven't been in the best of moods lately, but I have found that really, really, really loud rock music tends to improve my state of mind significantly. Either that, or it was the 2nd hand marijuana smoke -- I suppose that I have to concede that I don't have 100% certainty in this matter.

But still, the concert was pretty great. APC certainly knows how to put on a show. I was quite pleased with how "The Package", "Weak and Powerless", and "The Outsider" turned out life. Even the songs that I am done with and tired of (i.e. "Judith", "Magdalena") still went over pretty well with me. Plus, the opening act, "The Mars Volta", didn't totally stink.

There was a crazy line to get into the venue. So, by the time that Sara and I actually got inside (and I went to the bathroom -- I had a heroic amount of tea at the restaurant that we went to with Stan), Mars Volta was already a fair amount into their set. The song that they were playing when we arrived, was absolutely horrible, and I thought it was another "once again" with the opening act. But it was not to be -- they spent the next 30 minutes digging themselves out of a tremendous hole (at least, in my esteem for their music). The lead singer wasn't really doing it for me, though, so I don't think that I'm going to be rushing out to the CD store for this one.

Back to A Perfect Circle, the only negatives for me were that they didn't play two of my favorite songs -- "Brena" and "Gravity". Plus, there was absolutely no encore -- they took the stage, played for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, and that was it. But, I can't really complain -- they had to cancel the last several dates due to illness -- so, at least the show transpired. That is what's important.

I'm still undecided if I'm going to buy tickets for the June show in San Jose. Maybe I will, in hopes that they will at least play "Gravity".

-Andy.