This was my first (and only) Travis show ever! Sigh, only so often they can hop over to the less cool side of the Atlantic, I suppose ;) Anyways, since the lads can only come every so often, I made sure I woke up bright and early before classes so I could be first on Ticketmaster.com...now although Ticketmaster (hereafter to be referred to as Ticketbastard) had listed the online presale as Sept. 8, mysteriously no tickets were available on the 8th. In fact, the show wasn't listed at all, leading to mass hysteria on my part and on the part of Boston fans throughout the city and on the message board. Fortunately, Ticketbastard later listed the presale for Boston as the 12th. Phew. However, unannounced and to my shock, I happened to visit Ticketbastard on the 10th, and the tickets were ON SALE. Fortunately, I managed to get a pair of tickets in row OO, then activated the emergency Travis phonelink and notified other Boston fans that the tickets were indeed on sale, proceeded to try again on a whim and got bumped up to row JJ, sold my OO tickets to a fan from BU, and nearly had an aneurism from all the excitement.

Now for the actual show: Rooney was the opening act - a bit of an odd choice for a Travis show, but they put me in an O.C. or WB kind of mood whatever that means. They did a good job considering the Orpheum was mostly empty when they played (Haz would probably beg to differ!). Met some boardies during the intermission, and found out from amandabug that the lads were looking at costumes at a Halloween store in the morning. Travis exploded on stage with Happy to Hang Around, and in spite of Fran's sore throat, he sounded great! The crowd was particularly supportive of Neil since it had been quite a while since the band came to the States because of his pool accident. It was great to see him in good health!

Setlist:
Happy to Hang Around - a blast!
Re-Offender - Got chills from Fran's emotion
Writing to Reach You - Extra loud guitar from Andy, awesome!
The Line is Fine - A surprise!
Quicksand - even better live!
Love Will Come Through - Fran's sore throat acted up a bit on this one, but still beautiful
The Fear - the loud rock version!
Beautiful Occupation - felt myself getting pissed off at Bush while simultaneously cheering on the band
Side - great, especially with the lighting!
How Many Hearts - to Nora who Fran summed up as "She's patient!"
As You Are - Fran dedicated this to Haz (Harry Potter) who didn't hear the dedication despite being in the front row :)
Driftwood - the 12 string guitar!!!
Somewhere Else - Have to agree w/ Fran, my favorite song on the album!
Humpty Dumpty Love Song - VERY moving live
Turn - I'm always wary of this song cuz Fran's gotta strain his voice on this one when he's sick, but it sounded great and the audience helped out
Coming Around - Another bonus!
Sing - One word - "STANDJO!"
Peace the Fuck Out - Fran was diplomatic, criticizing Tony Blair, but the crowd was clearly booing at Bush and hoping Fran would condemn him too, incredible live!
WDIAROM - Perfect closer! Perfect pitch audience too :)

Other highlights: Andy's leap from the speakers, Dougie's bop which really got the audience moving along up front lol, Fran letting an audience member strum his guitar, and just seeing Neil in great form!

Lads, you gotta come back to the U.S. soon!!

Third time seeing Travis. Loved it. Also enjoyed the opening band, Rooney. I had never heard of them before then. Had decent seats and arrived early in hopes of catching a glimpse of the band outside of the Orpheum (no such luck. once met alan white of oasis outisde of the orpheum, thought maybe we'd get lucky again). Loved the show! Always a good time at Travis concerts. Spectacular live band. Can't wait to see you guys play again!:)

I had a front row seat, almost right in front of Dougie. Fran had me strum his guitar during "All I Wanna Do Is Rock," which was unbelievable. Dougie gave me his bass pick. Incredible show.