"She had to leave..."

Finally saw X last Tues. @ the Cradle after listening to their music on/off for 25 yrs. Can't remember who we taped it from then, but probably somebody's older sib. I do remember that my copy of Los Angeles had Judd's high school handwriting on the cassette case....

Not a sold out crowd, but plenty of people there, though still enough room to snake up towards the left front where I like to stand. Surprised by Exene's height (or lack of). Just read re: her being diagnosed w/ MS, but she sang great & seemed to be having a good time. John Doe's energy still strong & fun, moving around & sweating like a beast on bass. Billy Zoom played a gold-sequined gtr right up at stage front & made silly smiling faces to all the iPhone stalkers et al. He must be a great guitarist b/c the whole band was so tight, but he looked almost bored at times. Otherwise he seemed to be having good fun too.DJ Bonebrake was...solid, tight...though not as impressionableas the others. Wore an X tee & had jazz/vibraphone CDs for sale.

This was part of their "Total Request Live" tour where you can vote on what songs you wanna hear ahead of time & (maybe) they will play them. And looking at that list, it seems like they got most of them in there. Highlights: "We're Desperate," "In This House That I Call Home," "The New World" ("lately this song has taken on a whole new meaning...and we hope it keeps on meaning that..."), "Sex & Dying in High Society," "Devil Doll," "Adult Books" (inspired by this episode, according to J. Doe), an acoustic "See How We Are" plus some other encores and finally, "The World's A Mess, It's In My Kiss". Loud, fast, fun & somehow: relaxing. Afterwards I drove home through the rain.