After the sold out Grieves show, it was quite a shock to arrive at First Avenue to find no one standing outside and perhaps 75 people inside last night for the RNDM show. Tickets were relatively cheap, so I thought there would be way more Pearl Jam fans there to see bassist Jeff Ament. There was no attempt to hide who he was (aside from the rather funny hats), so the low turnout was really a surprise.

RNDM’s 12 song album Acts hasn’t been out long, and truth be told, I hadn’t heard a single song off of it before the concert. I thought they were a good live act – lead singer and guitarist Joseph Arthur didn’t say much of anything between songs, but drummer Richard Stuverud’s facial expressions were extremely entertaining. Also loved his “drummer for RNDM” T-shirt, with the arrow pointing to his face.

Jeff didn’t say much either the whole night and hardly smiled at all. The only time I can recall was during the encore, when they brought up a Minneapolis special guest to play on one song (Craig Johnson?). Didn’t get a set list and I’m pretty sure none of the music reporters were there.

It was just so weird how empty the place was. We stood about three feet from the stage (in front of Joe) and had plenty of space around us. His monitor was so loud, though, that it was hard to hear the other two. Such a different sonic experience from my usual front of soundboard spot.

Up next: Doomtree Blowout 8 on 12/16.