Submitted to Guster.net by Greg Germ 08-16-2003 Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York What an excellet event. The show was nothing short of fantastic. The crowd was great, the venue was classy (as always), and the bands were on top of their games. Openers "The Thorns", with their slightly twangy rock/country roots, were excellent. My only problem with them is that now I feel conflicted as to my musichood - I normally cannot stand country music, but this was close to it and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Matthew Sweet, Shawn Mullins, and Pete Droge have assembled in themselves a trio of amazingly capable musicians and songwriters. Too bad their sound engineer sucked ass. I was kinda hoping they'd each get a song to do from their solo works, mainly because I hadn't heard Sweet's "Girlfriend" live in a long time. Their final song, "I Set the World on Fire" rocked hard. I was worried that this flat-out rock and roll song would upstage even the mighty Guster! Thankfully I was wrong. With Pasty and Gordon keeping the train on the tracks, Guster put the pedal to the metal and elevated the bar for "Best Guster Show Ever" a few big notches. Between the spot-on musicianship, vocals like they haven't sung in a while, the venue sound quality, the audience energy, and Pasty's lights - this concert was undoubtedly the best Guster performance ever. The setlist was good, the guest musicians were great. The crowd was pumped. Without getting into detail, this concert ranks among the top five concerts of my life - Guster now being put into the same category as Pink Floyd and Radiohead, among others. You missed a fantastic experience if you weren't able to attend this show. -Germ