Few opening bands can count on as warm a welcome as Hootie received upon taking the stage; then again, few opening bands have a debut album that's number two in the country on the popular music charts. The Columbia, SC, quartet played most of their Cracked Rear View with vigor, showcasing their jangly blues/rock sound and singer Darius Rucker's gut-rumbling vocals. Not surprisingly, the new single "Let Her Cry" and radio staple "Hold My Hand" drew the loudest cheers from the crowd. Hard-working veterans of the Southeastern club-and-frat-party circuit, the band seemed to take to its newfound recognition like, well, a blowfish to water. Guitarist Mark Bryan played with an expression nearing pure glee, even going so far as to throw in a few stadium-rock windmill moves, while bassist Dean Felber and drummer Jim "Soni" Sonefeld tried to keep pace with straight faces. Members of Toad also played along during Hootie's set, with bassist Dean Dinning handling keyboards throughout and guitarists Glen Phillips and Todd Nichols appearing for several songs. Toad and their crew also contributed comic relief, trooping on-stage during "Time" for a YMCA-style dance number, and again at the finale of Hootie's set to gleefully smother Rucker with Silly String.
Toad launched into their own 90-minute set with the newest single from last year's Dulcinea, "Fly From Heaven." Although the Santa Barbara, CA, band has released four albums during the past five years, the song selection drew almost exclusively from Dulcinea and 1991's Fear. The setlist covered the entire spectrum, from radio favorites such as "All I Want," "Walk on the Ocean" and "Fall Down," to lesser-known gems like "Brother" and "Windmills." Even in a large auditorium, the power and emotion of the introspective lyrics came across beautifully, especially during the angry anti-rape song "Hold Her Down" and an utterly stunning version of "Stories I Tell."
At times, however, Toad seemed a bit ill-at-ease before the ebullient crowd, especially during the episodes of crowdsurfing that were hardly suitable for the material proffered by this soft-spoken group. "Not to sound like a wet blanket or a terrible person or anything like that," Phillips said during the second of three warnings to overzealous fans, "but compassionate behavior is key if you are going to live in a civilized society, and compassion means not jumping on the people next to you and kicking them in the head."
Toad wasn't all business though, good-humoredly poking fun at their opening band with a Sesame Street version of Hootie's "Let Her Cry" called "The Letter Y," and surprising the crowd by playing David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust" and a portion of U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Members of Hootie also accompanied Toad on several songs, including lead singer Rucker, who lent his rich, strong vocals to Toad's "Crowing," bringing new meaning to Phillips' delicate lyrics and to the song itself. "This song is gonna get really depressing for me on the next leg of the tour because I'm going to have all of these incredibly fond memories of Darius singing it every night," Phillips confessed.
Finally, at the end of Toad's second encore, all eight members of both bands took the stage for an extended version of Toad's wistful "I Will Not Take These Things For Granted," with Phillips and Rucker sharing singing duties. There couldn't have been a more fitting finale to an evening during which neither band could say enough about the other. "This has been the finest tour I think any of us have ever been on," Phillips said as the emotional night drew to a close. "We've had so much fun playing on Hootie's stuff, they've had fun playing with us. This has been everything a tour should be, and I like it!"