Order

Song

Notes

The Santa Barbara County Bowl is a 4,500 capacity amphitheatre that sits up a hill in town. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed and the Throwing Muses played their opening set to little fanfare. Hooky was hanging out in the crowd and by the soundboard before New Orders' set, and chatted with the few of us that actually recognized him. I asked if they would be playing Dreams Never End but he replied "Not tonight, mate."

New Orders' set opened with a somewhat shaky Touched by the Hand of God (Bernard appeared to have trouble hearing the moniters) but they found their footing on the next song, a powerful version of True Faith. The audience was on their feet for the entire gig with the majority dancing and singing along. Unfortunately, my memory doesn't serve me well enough to be able to give you the entire setlist. I do remember Bizarre Love Triangle, Round & Round, Vanishing Point, Run, Dream Attack and an extended version of Mr. Disco with additional sound effects, vocal samples and lots of herky-jerky dancing courtesy of Stephen.

When they returned for the encore, Bernard sat behind the drum kit. Hooky announced "As you can see, Bernard plays drums on this one." Within seconds, the opening of Blue Monday pumped out of the P.A. while Barney just sat there with a silly grin on his face! The final song was Fine Time which sounded incredible but definitely left us wanting more.

I wish I could recall the entire setlist but I can say assuredly that it didn't include Dreams Never End.