Setlist:
IF I ONLY HAD A HEART
“How are you all tonight?” “Me too.”
HONKY’S LADDER
“So, it’s 12:30am, kind of late isn’t it. This isn’t late, it’s early. Get comfortable because we’re going to be here a while.”
BLAME, ETC.
YOU MY FLOWER/ WAITING TO EXHALE (THE SHOOP SONG)
WHAT JAIL IS LIKE
CRIME SCENE, PART ONE
IF I WERE GOING
DEBONAIR
NIGHT BY CANDLELIGHT
GOING TO TOWN
TURN ON THE WATER/ GIMME SHELTER
MY ENEMY/ WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKEN HEARTED “I forgot the rest of the words.”/ “THE END” DOORS MONOLOGUE
WHEN WE TWO PARTED/ I WANT CANDY
FOUNTAIN AND FAIRFAX
BULLETPROOF/ WHERE DID OUR LOVE GO?
“We’ve got one more for you.”
FADED
“This is our good friend. She’s played on our last two albums. This time her husband finally let us out on tour with us. He’s in the audience to make sure we behave.”
TONIGHT
CREEP
MILEZ IZ DEAD

Review from MSU.edu

Afghan Whigs: 92
Howlin’ Maggie: 71

The Metro is a venue which seems to more the Afghan Whigs style than the cavernous State Theater in Detroit where they had played the previous night. I had never been to the Metro before this 18 and over show but I highly recommend the venue to anyone who wishes to see a band in an intimate atmosphere. The place is not as small as a bar or anything of that sort but the setup is interesting. Instead of having a stage and then having the hall extend back, the stage is extremely wide (it’s a stage bigger than a lot of larger clubs I have been to) and the crowd only extends back about 100 feet (if that). So, realistically there is not a “seat” (since it is general admission) in the house which is too far away to see the band as almost life-sized. There is also a 21 and over balcony which extends over the back of the crowd and appeared to give a good view (from the little time I spent up there). On the last two Afghan Whigs tour, the band decided to play two dates at this particular location and it is easy to see why. They seemed to love the crowd and the feeling was mutual.

Howlin’ Maggie was better without the pressure of having to perform to a crowd who know who they were. Although they were still barely listenable in the two songs for which I saw them. They seemed to be really into the spirit of the night however getting into both of the songs and turning them into high energy rockers. There was no flamboyancy from the lead singer this particular night but it added to the act rather than distract from it. Detroit and Chicago are both working class towns and his antics had not played the night before so he appeared to change it.

As for the Whigs set, Greg Dulli had overcome his nemesis from the night before, his drunkeness and appeared this time out in an incredibly dapper jacker instead of the t-shirt the night before. But, the jacket ended up being on microphone after the first song. The first sign that this was going to be a better show was he did not break into a sweat immediately upon entering the stage area. He was composed and collected and seemed to take in the ovation of the crowd as if he was a conquering hero. And, from the impression I got from the Chicago fans, he basically was one of their favorite out of town acts. The band began this night with a soulful rendition of “If I Only Had A Heart” which they had been doing early in the tour but had skipped in the Detroit date. The sound was better and brought out the soulfulness which Greg Dulli exhudes.

The crowd was respectful but quite placid for this show. There is a huge sign coming into the Metro which says that all moshing is strictly prohibited. On this night no one tempted fate with the bouncers. Still the crowd showed their excitement in other ways such as cheering louder than their numbers said they should have. Greg was impressed early and said, “settle in, this is going to be a long night”. The setlist was rather new but the crowd appreciated both the old and the new (although they were a little too excited about “Honky’s Ladder”.

The covers were very diverse this night as Greg Dulli seemed to try a lot of newer ones. He covered at times such diverse things as the beginning of “The Night Before Christmas” and the monologue from the Doors epic “The End” (the “mother…yes son” one). The 80s hit “I Want Candy” by Bow Wow Wow. The motown sound was continued with some Supremes covers. Amonst their own songs they played “My Enemy” especially well with the strings on their guest on the tour coming out especially well over the speakers and the rendition of “Faded” was almost flawless. The sound was enough to drag someone into another realm of thought. The Afghan Whigs were back almost to their old form on this night. Greg even played around with the audience. The experience was one to remember but there was still somewhat of an intensity which one used to feel at an Afghan Whigs show missing. They were by no means going through the motion but the spotaneity was somewhat lacking and the show seemed somewhat contrived. I don’t know how this could have been corrected. For the first timer this would have been an incredible show but for the hardened fan, it would have left them wanting a little more.

Setlist:
RETARDED
HONKY’S LADDER
BLAME, ETC.
YOU MY FLOWER/WAITING TO EXHALE (THE SHOOP SONG)
WHAT JAIL IS LIKE
CRIME SCENE, PART ONE
DEBONAIR
NIGHT BY CANDLELIGHT
GOING TO TOWN
TURN ON THE WATER/GIMME SHELTER
WHEN WE TWO PARTED
FOUNTAIN AND FAIRFAX
BULLETPROOF
FADED
TONIGHT
CREEP
MILEZ IZ DEAD

Review from MSU.edu:
Afghan Whigs: 88
Howlin’ Maggie: 65

While a lot of people are striving nowadays to have a sex symbol image in order to sell records, Greg Dulli has it built in naturally. A lot of people I know are in awe of the way he smokes a cigarette, talks to the crowd, and sings soul music like he lives it (a lot of people call him, and this is not a quote from me, “the blackest white man in the world”). Sometimes, however, Greg goes a little overboard on his pre-concert loosening up and the Detroit show on the Afghan Whigs’ “Black Love” world tour was one of these times. Greg has been known to sweat from putting so much emotion into songs but there was a good excuse why it happened so early. Greg Dulli was so drunk for the Detroit show that he stumbled around the stage instead of being his normal sophisticated self. While this didn’t end up detracting that much from the show, it also did not allow the show to live up to its potential.

I think that Greg has begun to like to piss off the crowd with his choice of opening acts. Howlin’ Maggie is his current crowd reiler of choice. In recent times, Howlin’ Maggie has been getting serious airplay on Detroit radio. So much airplay, in fact, that the sponsor of the show was a very unusual 101.1. For those outside of Detroit, 101.1 is a 23-year album rock station who would not play the Afghan Whigs if they decided to become a heavy metal band. This caused the show to sell out and it also brought the hard rockers out in force. However, you would never know that Howlin’ Maggie was what put the show’s attendance over the top because a good majority of the crowd was booing them. Their brand of straight ahead rock mixed with slight experimentation contrasted heavily with their flamboyent lead singer who has been accompanying the Whigs on the road as their keyboardist. Detroit does not take kindly to opening acts ordinarily, but these guys were practically booed off the stage when they asked if they could play another song.

The Afghan Whigs came on stage after a good half-an-hour of setup (which is when Greg was probably putting himself into overcrowding) and immediately kicked into “Retarded”. This was a pleasent surprise since by all accounts, up until this point in the tour they had not played it. In past Afghan Whigs shows, the crowd had chanted for it, but never gotten their way. At this show, the crowd did not even seem to know the older song (off their first Sub Pop release). This may not have been a bad thing since the ordinarily crazy State Theatre crowd remained placid even though this is one of the Whigs’ fastest songs.

But then came the explosion. As soon as the Afghan Whigs blasted into the current MTV-single “Honky’s Ladder” the entire crowd seemed to surge forward and a huge pit opened up. Before you could blink there were multiple people in the air crowd surfing and a lot of mayhem. There has been a lot of talk on the mailing list recently about the violence at Afghan Whigs show and this was no exception.

From there, there was no turning back, the audience would not calm down even when later in the show Greg reprimanded them for crowd surfing to nothing. This was after the somewhat slow, “Going To Town”. In the break inbetween this and “Turn On The Water” someone decided to surf. “What are you crowd surfing to, nothing?” Greg asked. He invited this person up onto the stage and asked, “Why are you doing that, do you do it because you like to or to express yourself?” “Yeah man,” was the idiot’s response. Greg asked him another question. “Yeah man,” was the response again. At this point a whole bunch of other people began to join in. As for myself, I longed for the days when the Afghan Whigs used to play St. Andrew’s Hall. “This is a pretty place,” Greg said early in the show, “but St. Andrew’s is really pretty too.” “How many of you saw us at St. Andrew’s?” he continued. I was deeply embarassed for my city that only about 100 people raised their hand in a huge theatre.

The show was consistently good but there were no real highlights. Ordinarily, the Whigs manage to generate highlights through well placed covers. In the past, these almost seemed as if they were to make fun of music today. The feeling I used to get was the covers were played as if to say, “look, you can play these stupid songs today to any music under the sun.” I get the feeling now that they are just playing them because they’re expected to. They seem to cover songs now out of reverence and now that it’s expected of them. The covers are still very good and certainly not ones which are expected but they lack some sort of punch now.

Another problem was the Afghan Whigs decided to bring along seven members this tour including a keyboardist (Harold of Howlin’ Maggie), a string (violin/viola/cello) player (possibly the only new member who added anything), and of all things, a bongo drummer (which made absolutely no sense). I don’t know why they’re wasting their “hard earned” major label money on all these extra useless players since they were a lot tighter and a lot more high-energy as a compact four piece. Even since the mini-tour last year, the Whigs have begun to drop off in quality. They used to know how to whip a crowd into a frenzy a different way, through grabbing them by the heart-strings and yanking through really good, lush sounding music. Now it seems they do it through cheap thrills. Still the effect was the same and throughout all of the unnecessaries, they still put on one of the best live shows around.

Notes: Warm up for European Tour

THE 39 LASHES (from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar)
HONKY’S LADDER
WHAT JAIL IS LIKE
HAPPY BIRTHDAY (to John Curley…Greg said he’s 53 today)
BLAME, ETC.
RETARDED
DEBONAIR
CRIME SCENE PART ONE
MY ENEMY
NIGHT BY CANDLELIGHT
GOING TO TOWN
TURN ON THE WATER
FOUNTAIN AND FAIRFAX
YOU MY FLOWER
BULLETPROOF
SUMMER’S KISS
FADED

Encore:
IN THE FLESH (Pink Floyd)
MILES IZ DED