under my umbrella i'm an accomplished exile

incubus concert at uc was last night. pretty sweet. opening band, whoever they were, was alright. your basic retro, post-grunge act. not that great, but they were a little better than my initial impression led me to believe they would be. they played from about 8 till a little after 8:30.

incubus came on around 9. i think they must have played for at least an hour and a half. obviously they played most of their new album, which i only listened to once or twice, so i know some of the songs too well. they played two from science, two from make yourself, and five from morning view. i know they played at least seven from a crow left of the murder that i recognized, but there were plenty others i didn't recognize that were probably also from that album. they opened with "pistola", one of the tracks from crow that i did like, so that was a good start.

they covered most of the hits: "stellar", "nice to know you", "wish you were here", "are you in?" "megalomaniac", "talk shows on mute" (which i can't stand). they played a different version of "drive" which was AWESOME. instead of playing the acoustic guitar the guitarist played the keyboard, and the bass player played a much more prominant part. it's kinda hard to explain, but it was sweet. i almost think i liked it better than the original. "idiot box" from science was good, but the version of "nebula" was just alright. a few other older songs would have been nice, especially something like "the warmth" or "new skin". "just a phase" was good as well, but i was kind of surprised they didn't play "warning". they had a long drum solo which was pretty cool, but nothing too awesome. what i did like a lot was a long, solo-filled version of "sick, sad little world" from crow. it was excellent. i decided i'd have to burn that cd and give it another listen. they closed out the regular set with "megalomaniac" which i wasn't too big on as a single, but it was an awesome closer.

of course they waited around for five minutes while everyone cheered and banged on chairs before they came back out for the expected three song encore. i think we were all expecting "pardon me", seeing as it was their first big hit and they hadn't played in their first set. they started with a song i didn't recognize from their new album which was pretty good. then a slower song from the new album which was alright, but not that great. i thought they should have stuck with the more fast-paced songs for the encore. brandon boyd finally had to blow it right before the last song. i'd been expecting all night to hear stupid anti-bush comments from him, and he made it all the way till the very end without saying anything. right before the end he told everyone to "go out and vote" and "make some change" and then something i couldn't hear, both because people started cheering and the guitar started playing, so it's probably better that i couldn't hear. then the final song, and we're all waiting for "pardon me". but to my surprise they launch in to "under my umbrella", which was both a disappointment because it meant no "pardon me" and a bonus because i completely forgot about the possibility of them playing it, and i LOVE that song. one of my favorite from morning view. the live version was awesome, i thought it was one of the best songs they played.

overall i thought it was a real good show. my only complaints would be a few more old songs, a few less new ones, and "pardon me". oh, and hearing "aqueous transmission" would have been sweet, but i figured that was a little unrealistic to expect.