Hope you enjoy this. It's rather long and wordy, but I had alot to talk about. It took me all friggen day at work to compose.
Friday Night - Pittsburgh
Pre-set Ed solo: Throw Your Arms Around Me (by Hunters And Collectors)
Set List: Release, Life Wasted, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Do The Evolution, Dissident, Even Flow, Marker In The Sand, In Hiding, Better Man, Daughter/(With My Own Two Hands by Ben Harper), Garden, I Got ####, State Of Love And Trust, Inside Job, World Wide Suicide, Porch
1st encore: Wasted Reprise, Man Of The Hour, Waiting On A Friend (by The Rolling Stones), Small Town, Black, Alive
2nd encore: Go, Why Go, Comatose, Smile, Rockin' in the Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)
Let me start this one off with a few personal achievements
:
-- FINALLY, I have heard Garden, it only took 14 shows. The only song off of Ten now that I have yet to hear is Deep. When I went to pick up my tickets preshow, they were soundchecking inside and they were actually playing Garden. So obviously that got me pretty fired up because I knew I'd hear it one of these two nights.
-- This show also gave me my first live tastes of Man Of The Hour, Marker In The Sand, obviously Waiting On a Friend by the Stones, and Mike's SSBanner.
So just based on that I could say this show was fantastic, however it really was. The setting, 14th row....Stone's side (I rarely end up on Mike's side for some reason).
It's really hard to start a show off better than Release (more on that below in the Cincy writeup), so right off the bat things are going great. The band then fires through ever improving renditions of Life Wasted and Severed Hand (yes, SH is sounding WAY better than what I've heard from the first leg). Also, if my memory serves me correct, they played the intro of SH both nights (not pre recorded).
Then the guys rip through live favorites Corduroy and DTE. Dissident is not a song I care to hear, but you get those from time to time. In Hiding was just awesome, I'm loving that song live these days. Better Man had another good Pitt singalong, although nothing will most likely ever top '03 in Pitt. Daughter was great as usual, I think the crowd really wanted a call/response by the chanting during the outro, but I was very pleased with the Harper tag.
Of course we go into Garden at that point, as I start to go apeshat. I Got S h i t and SOLAT are truely songs that I clamor (is that a word?) to hear, so this three song run will be relived many a time on the booter. I must say, Inside Job is just freaking sweet live. The band really nails it and I think they really enjoy to play this tune. I might sound like a broken record, but the same goes for WWS. Honestly, WWS is one of my least favorite songs on the disc, but it is one of my favorite live off the disc. For some reason it just has a totally different feel live for me. Rounding out the first set was another great Porch with some Eddie guitar shining to the crowd.
Knowing that we'd be headed into a slowed down 1st encore, as they have been doing much of this tour, me and my buddy calm down and mentally prep. The quick Reprise leads nicely into MOTH. It was cool to hear MOTH live for the first time, it really is a good tune. Then I think this is the point where Ed says Pittsburgh was not one of PJ's favorite cities, of course leading into may boos. I was cheering though, as I am from Cleveland. I was yelling "Bernie, Bernie" to my one buddy that was sitting in the third row on Stone's side in his Kosar jersey. Ed then said something like "if you would have let me finish, Pitt is one of our favorite places to play", and the crowd enjoys that. Then he mentioned the next song has to do with last time they were in Pitt (so I started racking my brain for the '03 show and all I could think of was maybe some Footsteps). I was way off because I forgot about them opening for the Stones. WOAF was cool to here.
During Black, Ed was very emotional it seemed. He sorta did an improv at the end, I have to hear it again to know exactly what he said or how it sounded, but it might be another best (or at least one of them). It was We Belong Together but it just seemed different. RM has a post that says ""we belong together..... we'll be apart forever... but its ok, I still love you anway". He hugged Stone after the song. I'm suprised he even went into Alive.
They cranked out GO--Why Go--Comatose (no megaphone at either show). I'm really digging Why Go this tour, it sounds top notch once again. Gotta love Smile again for the 2nd time this year, probably a cleaner version than Cleveland. Jeff nailed the guitar IIRC. At some point during the show, Ed introduced Jeff as the Foundation. Then they close shop with RITFW and YL, with the great SSB. Awesome show, it sounded like they never stopped for a few weeks, and probably was tighter than most leg 1 shows.
Saturday Night - Cincinnati
Pre-set Ed solo: The Kids Are Alright
Set List: Long Road, Save You, Hail Hail, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Unemployable, Even Flow, Love Boat Captain, Gone, Green Disease, Not For You/(Modern Girl by Sleater Kinney), Present Tense, Lukin, Whipping, Do The Evolution, Life Wasted
1st encore: Wishlist/(Love Is Stronger Than Witch Craft by Robert Pollard), Better Man/(Save It For Later), Inside Job, Crazy Mary, Rearviewmirror
2nd encore: Comatose, Leash, Alive, Baba O'Riley with Robert Pollard
The setting, 15th row....dead center. No major personal achievements here, although for just two shows, I heard a great amount of tags. I did hear a few songs for the 2nd time ever here, so that is cool.
Long Road. OK, this was only the 2nd time I've heard this song live, the only other time was Toledo's VFC show (the one Neil dominated at the end). I've always ranked it right up there with Release, Long Road being my 2nd favorite opener, but after hearing them play it Saturday night I now will say it IS my favorite opener, even over Release. This version may even go down as the best Long Road of all time, but we'll have to wait for the gurus to label that one. That is how good it sounded, I can't wait to hear it again this week.
I've been to shows where the band fires right out of the gates and rawkes hard for 5 or 6 tunes.....but just think if you hear possibly the greatest Long Road of all time and THEN rip almost ALL night long....holy crap, that is what happened this night. This show is no doubt top 5 on my personal list and might be one of those shows that sticks out at the end of the tour. The played only (haha, only) 26 songs, but they played them over 2 1/2 hours, so obviously you're gonna hear about some major league jams.
Save You, ahhh took me back and reminded me of all the great 2003 shows. Hail Hail, common #2 song for a long time, good to hear after Save You. Then we get another money version of WWS and SH followed by a superb Corduroy. I'm out of breath just thinking about this. Unemployable is another one of those new album songs that just kicks butt live. I have a knack for listening to Matt on this song.
So, just another Even Flow at this point, right? Yawn yawn. WRONG. Not only did Mike have one his better Even Flow solos of late (imo of course), he led into a killer Matt drum solo. Talk about totally unexpected. It seemed like it lasted 30-60 seconds, maybe split up into two parts, but I won't know for sure until I hear the booter. Then I'm pretty sure Mike jammed out some more, but I was floored at that point, and working on another brewskie.
This is where I will mention the crowd for the first time. This Cincy crowd was probably the best that I've ever been a part of. The energy in the building was so astronomical I can't even describe it. From the moment the band stepped on stage, actually before that, until the very end, it was like no other. Isn't that what people say about that Randall Island show? It was not usually regarded as the best show of the tour, but always was mentioned because of the crowd on the boots. That's how this show will be, except we'll not know for sure how Saturday night stacks up against the rest of the leg until it's over. I think this whole show was awesome, great set, and full of energy...it might go down as one of the best. The band just raged through seven songs after an epic Long Road, and now the wonderful intro of LBC (after the mentioning of the Who tragedy and PJ's tragedy).
LBC is just a great song to get everyone back down to Earth, with a great LBC buildup, then into Gone. Another song that builds up and gets people going at the end. At this point I think Ed gave another little talk and then strummed into Green Disease. Not one of my favs off of Riot Act, but they played it so that it smoothly transitioned (ala Lukin) into Not For You. Now we're ####### talking again, as Vitalogy is my top album. Awesome song that got the energy going hard again in the arena. It was very raw and hard sounding, great version. Present Tense is just beautiful as always, another build up song that they jammed nicely at the end.
So much for the change of pace, because it was quite clear where we were headed next. Lukin -- Whipping -- DTE!!! Like I said, this show rawked! End the set with Life Wasted and I'm already thoroughly spent. I'm thinking at this point how I have not passed out either from going crazy or from how hot it was in the building. As I throw in a nice hog of skoal mint, I try to relax and get ready for another mellow 1st encore.
Wishlist was dedicated to Brian Shaeffer, a dude that went missing, and Ed had the flyer on stage. Ed really got into this song, it should sound great on the booter. Better Man was again started off by the crowd, cool as ever. Save It For Later tag is always welcomed. Inside Job builds up awesome again. So this isn't as mellow as some other 1st encores, these guys kinda kick in at the end.
Crazy Mary. Oh, boy....I will say this IS the definitive Crazy Mary. I've seen the song 6 times live (everytime it seems awesome with Boom) and heard it from other shows, and I'm very confident in saying this IS the one. Ed passes a bottle of wine to the crowd during the song, he never asks for it back, but whatever I'm sure it's been done before. Boom was absolutely crazy during his initial solo, more than ever, but it gets better. Ed sorta leans on Mike during his jam and Mike then runs towards Boom's side of the stage. Boom and Mike start going back and forth every 5 or 10 seconds jamming, totally insane. I'm not sure if they've ever done the song quite like that, but if not then this is a monster keeper. Can't wait to hear it again. Great way to lead into an intense Rearviewmirror to end the set, great jam at the end here. Again, I'm drenched and out of breath from that CM jam and Rearview.
They don't stop, minutes later the rip through Comatose. Then Ed gives a nice little intro to Leash, saying that the band decided to play it again, they were not forced into it, based on govt wire tapping or whatever. I saw Leash live back in '94, and I really don't remember it, so it was so cool to hear it again. The crowd was still going crazy. The band has another great jam on Alive. They were full of jams this night, can't wait to hear it all again. Ed then brings out Robert Pollard, the opening act, to sing along on Baba. Let's just say this, Pollard is a gray-haired older dude, I'd say he has to be in his 50's. He was absolutely smashed out of his mind, no kidding, it was obvious. We were roaring at this guy. Anyways, Baba was sweet, classic Baba jamming.
The lights were on for Baba, so it seemed either the night was over or we'd hear YL to finish up. After Baba, the band leaves the stage. The mic guys come out and fix the mic's and Jeff's black standup bass was brought out and put against his speaker. I look up at the crowd and some people are filing out. It seems many were unsure of what was going on. Probably 20 seconds later, you see Ed's mic guy behind the speaker give the throat cut sign and say something like its over. Teardown begins and background music begins to play in the arena. Now, initially I blamed the crowd, and sorta still do, but we'll never really know what happened. As someone mentioned on another board, Pollard may have puked all over the band. Who knows. But, never leave until you hear the arena music, NEVER. When I saw the bass I thought Indifference and then YL, that would have been awesome. They also tuned up Ed's ukelalei (sp?) before the show and place it back by Matt, so maybe he would have played a solo first too. Sorta was a letdown to an otherwise fantastic night. The only other thing I wish happened was maybe some Army Reserve, Comeback (which they soundchecked in Cincy), Parachutes (one of the shows people were throwing parachutes all around and some landed on stage, Ed basically said no chance), and Big Wave (never played). I'll go into my offseason yet to hear those songs.
One other thing to mention, at some point during this Cincy show (I think 1st encore?) someone real close threw the Rolling Stone onstage and supposedly gave Ed a sharpie as well to sign it. Well, that didn't happen. I don't remember exactly what was said, Ed kinda went on and on, but he said he has 50 copies and he does this everyday....then he starts wiping is backside with the cover. The cover was supposed to be the picture of the band and Rolling Stone apparently asked him more than once if they could just use him on the cover. He told them to F-off each time, stating they have been a BAND for over 16 years. He was pretty fired up and the band was laughing it up. Then, on the back was written, "play the kids are alright" to which Ed said... "I played it at 7:30, #####". The mag was pretty roughed up when he threw it back into the crowd. LOL.
Don't think so. Europe next...South Pacific after that. If anything was added after all this (and last year in Canada/US), it would have to be to close it out at home.
I really think they need to come back to the Northeast. They have hardly played here over the last two years 
We've got two new songs so far not played on Leg 1... Interstellar Overdrive and Waiting for a Friend
