Gomez - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues - February 10, 2004

Anaheim is famous for one thing, Disneyland. Sure the local baseball team, The Anaheim Angels, won the world series a few years back but that's nothing compared to the evil mouse. The House of Blues is located in "Downtown Disney" which is like a really really overpriced outdoor mall. There's a movie theatre, some expensive restaurants an ESPN Zone and of course, the House of Blues. It was all kinda weird because it felt like you were inside Disneyland the whole time.

The House of Blues (and I'm sure this goes for any HoB's across the country) is really nice and clean, but it lacks the attitude of a real Los Angeles club like the El Rey, Roxy, or Troubadour. Everything from the cheap artwork to the lame, "No Fightin' In Here" signs. It all just feels like everything has been filtered through a focus group to make it "look" like a real club with history without actually being one. Enough bitching about the venue, onto Gomez.

Gomez came on around 9:20pm and opened with "Get Miles", "Shot Shot", and "Love Is Better Then A Warm Trombone" before getting into the new songs. I really appreciated that because you know they wanted to play all new stuff but they understand that we want to see them play the songs we already like. I know that sounds cheap, like I just want to see them do the "hits", but something has to be said for having one of your favorite bands play your favorite songs.

Gomez are one of the few bands that I'll never get tired of seeing live. They always seem to enjoy playing live and they always rework the songs. I liked that they didn't do the same extended versions of "Whippin' Piccadilly", "Here Comes The Breeze", and "Get Myself Arrested". Instead they played those pretty much normal, and threw out "We Haven't Turned Around (X-Ray)", a more rockin' version of "Fill My Cup" and an amazing extended version of "Revolutionary Kind". This was the first time I heard it live and was totally blown away. If all you've ever heard were their albums then you really need to go out and witness a show because the songs are much more powerful live.

They played about four or five new songs including their first single, "Catch Me Up". Most of them sounded pretty good, but I know that they're going to be toned down for the record. To close out the show in honor of their playing next to Disneyland they all inhaled some helium and sang "The Bear Necessities". It was rather bizarre to hear Ben's voice a few octaves higher, he even belted out a "Tijuana Lady let's take it slow..." but unfortunately they didn't play it. Their setlist from what I remember and in no particular order:

Get Miles
Shot Shot
Love Is Better then A Warm Trombone
Bring Your Lovin' Back Here
Catch Me Up
Whippin' Piccaddilly
Here Comes The Breeze
Love Is Better Then A Warm Trombone
Get Myself Arrested
Free To Run
Detroit Swing 66
In Our Gun
Revolutionary Kind
Bring It On
We Haven't Turned Around (X-Ray)
Fill My Cup

Their set was about two hours long and they said they'll be back in June.