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Walls Came Down Black Maria Open My eyes Lunatic Fringe I Saw The Light Mad Afraid Mercenary Gun Courage Weakness Strike Pissin Today Bardo Mountaintop Panic Manup
Couldn't I just Tell You 
Review by SueW:
I already had tickets to see the matinee performance of a play in Birmingham so it was perfect timing as it was only about a 100 mile drive to Manchester. Unfortunately this was during the rush hour so it took about 3 hours!
I found the venue okay as there was a queue of about 1,000 outside it! As I wasn't expecting that size crowd for a Todd gig and the guy in front of me had a massive blue Mohican hairstyle, I wondered if I was in the correct place! It turned out that there are 3 venues in the building and Mr Mohican was there to watch Flogging Molly (a band not a Thursday public activity in Manchester!).
Todd's gig was in the upper room and it was a fair size. When I arrived at about 8.00pm there were only about 40 people there so I could have got near the front quite easily but instead I opted to stand against the wall on the opposite side of the stage to Kasim so that I could see him on the keyboards. In retrospect this was a bit of a mistake as he was a fair way away and I didn't realise that he plays the guitar as much as he does in the set as he was only on the keyboards for about half the songs. (I'll know tonight!)
The opening act was a solo guy called Eugene Francis Jr who at first I didn't think much of but he really grew on me (and on the rest of the crowd). He played for about 30 minutes.
By the time Todd came on stage at 9.30pm, the room had really filled up. I'm no good at judging the size of crowds but there must have been 800-900 people there.
 Todd started off with some songs that most people knew (such as Love In Action and Open My Eyes) which went down really well. He then said that they were going to play his new album Arena and suggested that now was the time that we all turned on our mobile phones to record it rather than having to pay for the album! I must admit that I only bought Arena about a week ago and I've only had the time to listen to it a couple of times but I was hoping that, like Liars, the songs would come across better live. My favourite song on the album, Strike, really went down with the crowd tonight! Todd got the crowd to raise their arm up in a fist (he stressed upwards and not sideways!) when he sang the word strike so that looked really effective. (I did notice that Kasim only raised his arm to 45 degrees!) My other favourite song on the album is Mountaintop and that was another one that came across well live. Todd said that when he wrote Bang The Drum it was an accidental sporting song but that this one was written as a sporting song on purpose! Unfortunately from where I was standing I couldn't see Prairie Prince or Jesse Gress but I could see Todd and Kasim fine. Todd looked in good shape and his voice is amazing considering the stress he puts it under at each concert and considering he's the same age as Meat Loaf. It was my first chance to see Rachel on stage and she seems good enough on the bass (I could certainly feel it through the wall I was leaning against!) but she didn't interact as much with the crowd as Kasim does (but who does?!). Kasim was wearing all black and really smiled a lot on stage tonight. He wore his glasses for the first couple of songs and then put them on again sometimes when he was on the keyboards. He's obviously not totally relaxed at playing all the songs on the keyboards as often he looked down at the keys - even during JOV which is a song that he's played on the bass hundreds of times! Kasim appeared to be playing his green metal guitar (that he uses at his solo gigs) but I couldn't see too well as the lighting showed it as all different colours! The lighting at this gig was quite impressive as they varied it quite a bit to match the music (even using stobe lighting at some points) whereas often at Todd gigs they just put one light on him and leave it at that. Todd, Rachel and Kasim did the scissor kicking during Couldn't I Just Tell You so I really hope that Kasim is using a cordless guitar as I still remember him falling during that song on the Power Trio Tour in 2000! Just One Victory was beautiful tonight, especially as lots of people knew the clapping part. It's a magical way to end a concert.
Other websites:
Mike Smith has a review and photos of this gig here.
GetReadyToRock.com has a review and photos (although none of Kasim) of this gig here.
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