It was a cold December night. I ended up missing my train into NYC and had to drive to Hoboken, park, and take the PATH in.

This was the last night of the 2000 leg of the tour, and Joe's hometown gig. The Beacon Theatre was packed. I was right up in front, off to the stage right side.

The band was Joe on keyboards, vocal, and miscellaneous percussion, Graham Maby on bass and vocals, Sue Hadjopulous on percussion, Allison Cornell on violin, keyboard, and vocal, Andy Ezrin on keyboards, Robert Rodriguez on drums, and Catherine Bent on cello. Note no electric guitar, but that didn't stop this band from rocking very hard.

There was no opening act. Joe comes out with the band to the first tracks of Night and Day II, his current album. The first set is 45 minutes long, without interruptions:

Then a fifteen minute intermission, and Joe comes out for some solo songs, just him on electric piano: Then the band comes back out and takes us home: They really brought the house down--this was one of the most high-energy Joe Jackson shows I had seen. Then they came out for an encore, after the house lights came on, which fooled some people into leaving: The show ended with Graham repeating the bass riff from A Slow Song over and over, to cheering and applause.

A brilliant show, even worth the hell of getting into the city near Christmas. Afterwards, on the mailing list, I found out that one of the fellow attendees was Debbie Harry. Joe's always been a musician's musician, so this is not surprising.

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