Some fans -- mostly older people and parents with small children -- started to leave. If this were radio, they would probably already have changed stations. Most of the audience stuck around as Savage went into freefall, flailing wildly for something to catch his fans' attention. He read from the Bible, played with his new puppy, moaned about his "mother issues" and asked for more booze. The evening's low point came when he played the audiotape of Nicholas Berg's beheading over the P.A. system. Berg's pitiful, frenzied screaming filled the amphitheater. Having not heard or seen the gruesome tape before, I covered my ears in shock. I was not alone. If Savage was trying to incite the audience, it didn't work. Playing the tape only revealed his desperation for a reaction, any reaction.

"What made you come out on this night?" he asked. "You see the vultures circling this great nation. We feel the vultures flying over the Concord Pavilion." And perhaps they could smell Savage dying on the stage below.

In a last-ditch attempt to rouse the listless crowd, Savage tried to root out some closet liberals. "Is there any asshole here who hates me, who's gonna try and rush the stage?" he asked. It was a long way between the cheap seats and the stage, but I was getting tired and bored. Rushing the stage might have prolonged the evening by a few more minutes, so I stayed put. Hurrying off stage, Savage promised, "Wait till you see the close."

Luckily, the finale lasted all of 15 seconds. From the wings, Savage, obviously thinking he was off-mic, barked, "Play the Arab music!" A Middle Eastern tune blared as his red Cadillac lurched onto the stage. Savage was perched on the back seat, dressed in white robes and sunglasses, looking like a costume-party sheik. As the car disappeared off stage, he waved to the crowd, "Goodbye, infidels! I'll see you in hell!" And with that, "Savage Uncensored" slouched to its perplexing though somehow fitting conclusion.

The house lights came on, revealing a few thousand blinking and bewildered fans -- Savage had just resoundingly bombed on his home turf. "That's it?" wondered one woman behind me, with real disappointment in her voice. "He said he was going to do Dr. UnSavage," she said, referring to one of the jock's longtime on-air characters. A couple of young guys shook their heads. "He misread his audience," one said. His friend added, "He got into the champagne too much." Maybe some RockStar would have helped.

His poor performance was not entirely surprising. Unlike his compatriots Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Dr. Laura, Savage often comes off as a remarkably amateurish and lazy showman. None of his colleagues -- no matter how big their egos -- would dare adlib their way through a two-hour live performance.

Savage's unprofessionalism makes it easy for liberals to dismiss him as a crank. But that's an easy way to overlook his ever-more xenophobic, homophobic and authoritarian political message. Ultimately, his invective may be what keeps his listeners coming back for more. Savage says what many mainstream conservatives can't or won't. As frustration with the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq adventure and the war on terror grows, his message holds appeal for those who believe nothing but desperate measures will work against an increasingly hostile world. And so, Savage will keep calling for Iraqi prisoners to be sodomized with dynamite. If he's lucky, such antics may score him a public showdown with the FCC. Or perhaps he will finally rant his way into oblivion. Considering the recent developments in Iraq, even if Savage waits another three years to emerge from his veil of heavily armed privacy, there may be no shortage of fodder for his bizarre stage spectacle and the audience it attracts.

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