The Beautiful South - Act I

I'm still reeling from last night's Beautiful South accoustic show at Cake Shop. It was one of the best live shows I've ever seen. The setting was basically the record store from Pretty In Pink meets the cafe from Eastenders, only WAY smaller. I read on the fan site this morning that the official audience count was 38, excluding the band. The stage was so small that only 2 vocalists and the guitarist could fit at one time (Paul was on stage the whole time - Alison and Dave had to switch off). The set list was unbelieveable for old school fans. They played for about an hour, opening with "Especially For You" and closing with "Don't Marry Her". In the middle (in no particular order) was "Manchester", "Rotterdam", "Prettiest Eyes", "The River", "Old Red Eyes"and my favorite "Let Love Speak Up Itself". There might have been a couple of others, but that's all I can remember as it was SO overwhelming for me. A couple other highlights were when Tony Robinson broke out his trumpet to join in on "One Last Love Song" and when all the guys in the band who were standing in the band sang the counterpoint on "Pretty". Another crazy thing was that Paul broke out his personal notebook and read the lyrics to a song that didn't make the cut for their recent release "Superbi". This was one of those rare occasions that make me so thankful I live in NY. I mean come on, the band can sell out 5 nights at Wembley! Full review of tonight's show tomorrow (and yes there are still tickets so get your bad self over there to see it!) And once again a big shout out to the band for such a special show!