Will Wood/Shayfer James

Worth the 300$ resale fee and more.

Tragically, Will Wood allows absolutely no video or photography during the show. This is a rule he's had for a while, so we knew about it going in-my brother didn't even bring his phone in, in preparation for them to potentially take it. This means that we only got photos of the stage beforehand. I would have loved to catch some of it on video, but I understand the rule in place.

In the spirit of Will Wood, I also took shrooms just prior to the show. Totally worth doing-I almost wish I'd taken more.

This was a sit-down concert, which we weren't entirely expecting. We knew that it would be a more scripted-type show, but sitting down gave it a lot more of a theatrical feel. When we walked in, someone asked how many there were in our party, and if we wanted to be near the front. We ended up with good seats, off to the side, near the front.

I brought a few Kandi bracelets for trading, as I usually do for concerts now. Behind me, someone was saying that it was their first concert, and that they were very excited, because they had an OC based on a will wood song. I gave them a "bones" bracelet, and later found out that that was the song the character was based on. They were beyond excited.

Our opener was Shayfer James, who I was never the biggest fan of. He just doesn't make my type of music. He was a lot better live, though, I found myself liking his music a lot more. This was somewhat shortly after Trump's second election. He mentioned that one song was about his commitment to being himself, and stated that he would fight for everyone's right to do the same. It was really nice to hear. Between artists, I got a small signed poetry book from him, and a photo with him.

Will was slightly sick. Great start. He admitted that the setlist might be different, because he had to work around what his voice could do while sick-even now, I'm not sure how much of that was an act. He gave us a disclaimer that he tested negative for covid-it could be literally anything else they didn't test for, but it wasn't covid.

We opened with an explanation about why the tour was titled what it was-Slouching Towards Bethlehem, the title being from a book of essays by Joan Didion. There was a particular quote about writing and chaos that inspired the tour, and Will's return to touring and making music after a turbulent time online and taking a break.

He was absolutely hysterical. His partner brought him some water and he went into a rant about how he didn't need us to get too invested with his love life, because "look what good it did John Mulaney," with a John Mulaney impression along the lines of "I got famous for being a wife guy and then got cancelled for cheating on her and having a baby out of wedlock!"

There was a bit about RPF, and how Will has read it of himself, though I'm not sure what his comment was. He also stated that he voted blue, and then called us "easy" when the crowd went wild.

He got real caught up in his extended story about being in, what used to be, a huge entertainment town, going to timeshare presentations purely for the award with his partner.