Wow, what a night with This Will Destroy You! I’d seen them once before, just a few years ago, and the experience was mostly the same, but they had more songs from their most recent album (which are somewhat different from the rest of their canon and add a nice flair to their setlist). They aren’t a theatrical or energetic live show, but if you are invested in their music, it is very, VERY emotional. I’ve included tonight’s setlist, every song is a link to the studio version of that song for any people who are interested in this band. And the concert might seem short, but bear in mind the live versions of some of these songs go past the 15 minute mark:
I had big plans to write my first big concert blog in a long time after last night’s Arcade Fire show. I long ago ceased writing lengthy concert reviews when I realized nobody really cared (not your fault!). But last night’s show was SO different than any rock concert I’ve been to, I had big plans. But the need to go to work in between the concert and the blog has taken the wind out of my sails, so allow me to make a long story somewhat short.
So the music media has made a big fuss over this tour. Arcade Fire has, in the past year or two, become an immensely popular band, but not in the usual way. They don’t have any radio songs. Their music doesn’t necessarily appeal to the average music consumer. And yet millions and millions of people like them. They are a band with “indie” or “hipster” appeal, and when a band such as that decided to play arenas, a lot of people cry foul. I understand this argument. To make music from a distinctly artful, non-populist place and then play immense buildings whose construction was underwritten by public tax dollars and then named after banks and beer companies, well, it’s weird, but also: that’s life. What ya gonna do? They’d have to play ten times as many club dates to allow this many of their fans to see them. And I have no problem with talented artists getting rich. So anyway. There was also the thing I mentioned earlier in my blog about them requesting formal wear and costume. So yeah. A lot has been said and written about this tour (known as the Reflektor tour).
The band obviously has done all it can to silence these critics. From the moment I entered the building I never once thought about the fact that I was at an arena rock concert. Not once. Not everyone was in costume or formal wear, but well over 50% (my guess would be 70%) were in one or the other. Enough so that I never once felt self-conscious about my mask. There were many and various interesting things set up and taking place throughout the concourses that added to the effect of being somewhere other than a rock show–I don’t have time or space to detail them. The house lights were kept off for the entire duration of the audience being in the building. This is actually unheard-of. What this means is, once we left the concourse area where you buy your beer and t-shirts and went into find our actual seats, the lights were off. Like, even before the opening act. The lights stayed down during the opening act. Of course there were the lights from the stage, etc, but the big lights, the “house lights”, stayed off. This added a major effect of otherworldliness (although admittedly also was in many ways a pain in the ass). The lights stayed off when the opener was done playing, in the wait period before Arcade Fire came out (the house lights always come up between acts!). but most surprisingly, the lights still stayed off even after Arcade Fire was done. This almost seems like a safety concern! But it was worth it. It was the first thing, aside from our own costumes, that immediately changed our expectations of this event.
The modern-day rock concert is very predictable. It moves with a certain pace and certain things always happen on cue. Nothing was to be like that at this show. I swear I’m trying to hurry this story up.
The opening act: Dan Deacon. This man is an electronic musician (he makes music by himself using, well…electronics). Again, right off the bat, just not what this audience is expecting. But I must say, his music does compliment Arcade Fire’s rather well. The big deal here is that Dan didn’t play from the stage Arcade Fire was going to. He was on a stage at the other end of the arena. This was genius. See, the folks in the first 20 or 30 rows against the stage (they are not in assigned seats like me but are General Admission) are not going to do any dancing or moving, because they are concerned with their placement by the stage. But Dan’s position at the other end brings the General Admission folks who were too late to get a good spot at the main stage over to HIS stage, and he proceeds to do amazingly interactive things with them; dance contests, “high five walls”, all kinds of neat stuff that probably is pretty run-of-the-mill at electronica shows but is all-but unheard of at a rock show. The audience was interacting. On a large scale! AND, on top of all this, this unique and terrific activity made those of us in the stands rapt with what was happening. Let me break that down: a bunch of hipster rock fans were rapt with attention at an electronic musician opening act.
So that was kind of neat.
So Dan Deacon got done and we waited for the main act. The lights stayed down which was creepy and awesome and annoying. The wait wasn’t as long as normal. After about 20 minutes, with very close to no warning, the main stage throbs with sound and light, the curtain gets yanked up, and suddenly Arcade Fire is playing “Reflektor”, the title track from their new album. I was really far away but this is what it looked like from closer. It happened with so little warning, I can’t find a video on YouTube that actually caught the beginning:
So then they rocked our faces off for awhile, which I won’t bore you about. There were tremendous things throughout to really set the show apart: confetti and lots of it from the rafters, lots of glow in the dark things, incredible stage presence with jumping and dancing and twirling of strings and people wearing many different masks and just all kinds of oddities. But mostly just really incredible, intelligent, emotionally-charge artistic rock music that can’t be beat.
I regret there is not yet quality video of their performance of “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, a song that is constructed like a swelling rock anthem, but is a story about two children whose town gets completely buried in snow, but they climb out their chimneys and survive, eventually reverting to more bestial ways and forgetting much of their past civilized lives, while also falling in love with one another. It exists as a wholly unique song in the pantheon of rock. It has always moved me with its sideways and unexpected approach to deep human themes such as fear of loss, longing for love, and desire for the unexpected. And yet, as unconventional as it is, as the song began to play, 20,000 people sang, quite loudly, along with me, lines such as
“Then we tried to name our babies,
but we forgot all the names that,
the names we used to know.
But sometimes, we remember our bedrooms,
and our parent’s bedrooms,
and the bedrooms of our friends.”
We were singing these unconventional lines like it meant something to us, like it was important. Like they were secrets.
On their most recent album, they have a song called “We Exist”, which is about the pain of teenage gays “coming out” (so far as I know, everyone in the band is straight). A great moment for me was Win’s introduction of this song, which can be seen in the video below, and then the absolutely terrifyingly gnarly version of the song they proceed to play. What isn’t visible in this video is that during this song, the “reflektor man” came out and stood on Dan Deacon’s stage, as spotlights
“Reflektor Man” on the opener’s stage during “We Exist”
bounced beams onto all of us, as Win sang, from the vantage point of teen gays, We exist! It added yet another layer to the complicated, thrilling, and admittedly academic theme of reflection, twinning, and identity that is explored on the new album.
So the band ended it’s “main set”. Here is one of those conventions of the modern concert industry I was speaking about. The main act plays for about an hour and a half and walks off the stage, pretending the show is over. We all know the show is not going to be over, that there will be an “encore”, regardless of whether it is asked for. It is expected (one way we usually know this? The house lights stay off, which of course means nothing to us now). Well, literally the SECOND Arcade Fire walks off the stage, the openers stage again (which is closest to me) rises up in the air, and there are “The Reflektors”…this is an “alter ego” band that Arcade Fire has used throughout promotion leading up to this album. This alter ego band looks like this:
The Reflektors are normally Arcade Fire wearing exaggerated masks of their own heads (get the exploration of identity and reflection????) but clearly this group that just popped up on the second stage was not them. After claiming to be the true “great band here tonight” and trying to get us to chant “Arcade Fire Sucks”, a recording of Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” started playing and The Reflektors pretended to be playing it. About halfway through the song, Arcade Fire came back out on the main stage (never a moment of us having to cheer really loud for under some guise we were “trying to get them back out”, no long moments of interminable waiting…just straight-through unexpected oddity).
So. The encore. They played a four song encore. The second was a cover of BoyzIIMen’s “Motown Philly”. They’ve been playing geographic-specific covers at every show so far, but I honestly was not prepared for this! Watch this amazement by clicking here.
The next-to-last song was the Haitian-music inspired “Here Comes the Night Time”, which featured by far the largest blast of confetti I’ve ever seen. Click here to see it. Start watching around 3:30 to be in good shape for the confetti blast.
They closed, of course, with their raucous heartwrencher “Wake Up”. If you watch only one video on this page, you should make it this one. Look at and listen to the crowd in the great video this person took. This rivals the best crowd moments I ever had at a Pearl Jam concert. Here are 20,000 grown people have an absolute, without-a-doubt, joyful cathartic moment together. I should have expected that moment when they let us do the singing but it took me by surprise and shook me up. Watch how, after the drastic tempo change about 3/4 of the way through the song, the entire arena turns into a huge dance party. And seeing the big frat-boy-esque lugs beside me just belting out lines like “I guess we’ll just have to adjust!” was a perfect illustration of what makes this band so great, and also so unconventional.
Setlist:
1. Reflektor
2. Flashbulb Eyes
3. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
4. Rebellion (Lies)
5. Joan of Arc
6. Rococo (with snippet of Lady Gaga’s “Do What U Want”)
7. The Suburbs
8. The Suburbs (continued)
9. Ready to Start
10. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
11. We Exist
12. No Cars Go
13. Haiti
14. Afterlife
15. It’s Never Over (O Orpheus)
16. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
Encore:
1. Normal Person
2. Motownphilly (Boyz II men)
3. Here Comes the Night Time
4. Wake Up
Notice they only played six songs. Well, that took three hours. I thought they were going to play all night!
Here is the video of their set-closing, bone-crushing barnburner, “Behemoth”, from the show I was at Wednesday night. Even if this kind of music isn’t your thing, I implore you to just watch a minute or two to get an idea of just what in the world this band is all about:
You may or may not know that one of the unstated goals I had when moving to New Jersey and hence ending the “living-alone-very-far-away-from-everyone-I-know” experiment, was to try to be less of an asshole. Living so solitary, as I did for two years in Erie, hastened an already alarming trend within me that caused me to be cynical, unkind, and judgmental. And nowhere was this more evident than when I went to concerts.
I was alone, and everyone around me wasn’t. Generally speaking, the type of people who go to concerts are nice, gregarious, outgoing folks who want to make friends. I hated them, I ignored them, I went as far as to be mean to them. I hated strangers, but I hated strangers at concerts the most.
So it was with great pleasure and not just a little surprise that I realized, as Band of Horses was about to start playing tonight, that I had made friends at this concert; I was first in line (that’s right, first), and I never gave a second thought to striking up good-natured temporary kinships with my front-of-the-line-mates. I ended up on the railing next to two of them (a married couple from Wisconsin who are following the band) and we talked Band of Horses while we waited for the show to start. They saved my spot for me when I needed to pee—one of the more complicated and worrisome aspects of attending General Admission concerts by yourself. When the show was over we hung out together to try to get setlists (we didn’t) and it was just very pleasant. I ran into some other line-mates after the show as we stood in line at the merchandise booth and we talked like we were old pals. It felt nice not to be an asshole.
Here is a picture of the line (from my vantage point at the very front!!) just before doors opened:
Band of Horses speak to my soul, whatever the fuck that means. This band continues to evolve into a force in my life hitherto unfelt. Tonight was my fourth time seeing them (still haven’t seen my Band of Horses white whale) and my emotional reaction keeps evolving (meaning I come close to crying like a baby a whole lot). Ben Bridwell’s lyrics, coupled with the band’s live show–which is 100% exactly the kind of live show I want from a band–hit me in some secret place that even I can’t locate.
Here is tonight’s setlist:
01 Monsters >
02 Neighbors reprise
03 Compliments
04 Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
05 Laredo
06 The Great Salt Lake
07 Islands On the Coast
08 Northwest Apartment
09 Is There A Ghost?
10 Slow Cruel Hands of Time
11 Older
12 Electric Music
13 Dilly
14 Window Blues
15 Everything’s Gonna be Undone
16 Weed Party
17 Knock Knock
18 Ode to LRC
19 The Funeral
encore break
20 No One’s Gonna Love You More Than I Do (Ben & Tyler only)
21 A Song for You (Gram Parsons cover)
22 The General Specific
The concert last night was AMAZING. Partly because it featured two bands that I’m pretty much at the apex of liking right now, and it’s been a long time since my concert-going career was so in tune with what I’m currently digging (which is why you may have noticed a significantly higher rate of commentary about this concert on social media than I normally indulge in), and partly because I really have slowed my concert going frequency in the past year, so now when I do go to a concert, the experience is starting to have some of that oomph that it had in the beginning, oh-so-many years ago.
The Band of Horses show destroyed me emotionally, while the My Morning Jacket show ripped my face off, in the good way. I won’t bother you with specifics, but it was wholly satisfying. Although, one specific: I finally got a “Steam Engine” from My Morning Jacket, after seeing them 7 times now. “Steam Engine” is my white whale with this band. I’ve just thought up that term for this purpose, but it’s perfect. I seem to have a “white whale”” with just about every band I see frequently. My sister and I shared one with LIVE (it was “White, Discussion”) and we finally got it on their farewell tour. With Pearl Jam it was “Hard to Imagine”, which at one point seemed unthinkable I’d ever hear…and by the end of the 2008 tour, I was actually annoyed when they kept opening with it! haha. Anyway. Aside from those two, I think I have yet to see any of my other “white whales”. Oh, and of course, I got “Steam Engine” last night, and I definitely fucking cried.
Of my opener/ closer predictions, I got one out of four correct (“The Funeral” to close BoH’s set)…which was by far the easiest guess, but was no gimme! I got one from each band’s wishlist that I had made. Not too shabby.
The inside of the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, before the crowd arrived. I had a seat in the balcony.
Band of Horses during “Infinite Arms”.
Band of Horses setlist
1. For Annabelle
2. NW Apartment
3. Knock Knock
4. No One’s Gonna Love You More Than I Do
5. Detlef Schrempf
6. Infinite Arms
7. The Great Salt Lake
8. Cigarettes, Wedding Bands
9. Older
10. Ode to LRC
11. The First Song
12. Laredo
13. The General Specific
14. Is There a Ghost?
15. The Funeral
My Morning Jacket during “It Makes No Difference”
My Morning Jacket setlist
1. X-Mas Curtain <—this is an incredibly abnormal opener
2. First Light
3. Outta My System
4. Holdin’ On To Black Metal
5. Tyrone (Erykah Badu cover)
6. Mahgeetah
7. Into The Woods
8. Evelyn Is Not Real
9. Gideon
10. Rocket Man (Elton John cover)
11. The Bear
12. Strangulation
13. It Beats 4 U
14. Steam Engine
15. Victory Dance
16. Circuital
17. Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 2
18. Touch Me I’m Going To Scream pt. 1
19. Highly Suspicious
20. Wordless Chorus
21. Run Thru
22. Smokin’ From Shootin’
Encore One:
1. Wonderful (The Way I Feel) [with Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses]
2. I’m Amazed
3. It Makes No Difference (The Band cover)
Encore 2:
1. Off The Record
2. One Big Holiday
In case you’re even mildly interested, I recorded MMJ coming onto stage and the first few minutes of “Xmas Curtain” (which has some incredibly interesting lyrics)…for me, one of the most interesting things to see from shows I wasn’t at is how the bands start the performance…the entrance music, the first few chords, the audience response…and MMJ never disappoint in this regard. (notice the red and green lights for “Xmas Curtain”, which, as far as I can tell, may or may not be about having sex with a prostitute on Christmas). This also gives you a good idea of how far away I was :(
The dual concert of two of my favorite bands, Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket, is in two days, and even though I have exactly zero friends who are fans of both these bands (I know a few people who *kinda like* each one but no superfans), I have to get a few things out into the public sphere here. I’ve been following both band’s setlists on this tour (here are Band of Horses’ and here are My Morning Jacket’s), and both bands are mixing up their setlists more than any band I’ve ever seen short of Pearl Jam, and I dare say that if they had PJ’s depth of catalogue, it would be even more extensive than Pearl Jam. Band of Horses (BoH) and My Morning Jacket (MMJ) are mixing up their openers and closers a lot more than Pearl Jam ever has.
So, although my so-called friend Kyle once mercilessly mocked me in a blog entry of his for making entries like this, I feel compelled to put my wish list for both bands here, as well as my predictions for what will open and close each band’s sets. Even though none of you are fans, if I am right or I get my wishlists, at least I can point back to this and say I did it! And if I don’t, nobody will care, so it’s really win-win for me.
Band of Horses
Opener prediction: Am I a Good Man
Closer prediction: The Funeral
Top 3 wishlist:
–Evening Kitchen
–Compliments
–No One’s Gonna Love You More Than I Do
My Morning Jacket
–Opener prediction: War Begun
–Closer prediction: Steam Engine
Top 3 wishlist:
–O is the One that is Real
–Steam Engine (anywhere in the setlist will do)
–It’s About Twilight Now
And here is a sweet video of MMJ playing “Dancefloors” at Red Rocks a little over a week ago:
Pictures, video, and setlist from My Morning Jacket show, 8/10/11 in Pittsburgh
Jim James and Neko Case duetting "Islands in the Stream"
The following videos are all from the same show, but only the first, “Knot Comes Loose”, was taken by me (the sound sucks.) The others were taken by people with better cameras and shittier crowd positions. :)
Picture of the setlist taken from the band’s Facebook page:
Setlist:
1. Victory Dance
2. Circuital
3. Off the Record
4. I’m Amazed
5. Gideon
6. You Wanna Freak Out
7. Knot Comes Loose
8. Slow, Slow Tune
9. Evelyn Is Not Real
10. Honest Man
11. Dondante
12. Movin’ Away
13. Smokin’ From Shootin’
14. Run Thru (end only)
15. First Light
16. Touch Me (I’m Going to Scream) part 2
17. Mahgeetah
Encore:
1. Wordless Chorus
2. Islands in the Stream (w/ Neko Case)
3. Holding Onto Black Metal
4. One Big Holiday
So. That was a pretty insane trip home (and lots of other places). I’m not even sure where to begin. This may end up being a ridiculously long and disjointed blog entry. I apologize in advance. If it ends up not being extremely long and disjointed, I will come back and delete this intro, and you will never read it.
First, I should like to thank my family (Dad, Mom, Sister) for their various forms of hospitality and much-needed displays of unconditional love. Yay human spirit and the familial bond! I feel pretty damn good about my family. You guys rule! And thank you to all my friends who made me feel as if I never moved away. I am blessed beyond belief with deep, intense, loyal friendships! In addition, a big frowny face to those who I had to miss on this trip (most notably, loyal blog reader and renowned Muse, Cory. Little does she know, my next trip home is going to be so all about her, she will have to call the cops on me. And the truly lovely Mercedes, whom I am unabashedly smitten with. Also, on-again-off-again blog reader Tiff, who I had *promised* a certain something to…well, next time, ok???). I was stretched a little thin to do and see everything and everyone I wanted, but it was fairly satisfying nonetheless.
My Zany Itinerary
Let me just show you the zaniness of where I’ve been the last week and a half. I am going to include tomorrow, as I go to Pittsburgh tomorrow for a work seminar. Here’s where I was, for the most part, the last ten days:
3/25: Erie, PA/ Carlisle, PA
3/26: Carlisle, PA/ Asbury Pary, NJ
3/27: Mantua, NJ
3/28: Brooklyn, NY/ Newark, NJ
3/29: Manhattan, NY/ Mantua, NJ
3/30: Mantua, NJ/ Carlisle, PA
3/31: Carlisle, PA
4/1: Carlisle, PA
4/2: Carlisle, PA/ Erie, PA
4/3: Erie, PA
4/4: Pittsburgh, PA
4/5: Pittsburgh, PA/ Erie, PA
And I aint even tired yet. Bring. It. On.
My Newville Tour
Early on in my trip, I had a little extra time to kill early in the morning, and I drove into Newville (the small town I grew up in) and walked around the town for the first time in many years (I have been there plenty as of late, but not actually walked around). I took some pictures of major landmarks in my life, also making sure to get a few pictures of some of the places that have played large parts in some of my blog entries. Here is a bit of a pictorial tour of Newville:
My first house, 66 Big Spring Avenue. My bedroom was the top two windows on the right of the picture.
I have been trying to upload the famous picture of my mother and I admiring my grandmother’s garden, but I am having some trouble, so here is a link to that picture on Facebook. And here is a picture of that back yard area today:
One of my most popular blog entries ever was “The Fruit that Ate Itself“, about me being bullied in a local church yard. I snapped some pics of that area in current day:
The church yard itself.
The line of trees is where the dreaded swingset and slide had been.
The Senior Center where the "fight" ended. Those are the bushes I flew through in the climactic moment.
If you’ve read my blog entry “Down the Rabbit Hole“, you may be interested to see this cellar door on one of my childhood neighbor’s homes:
OK, so just a few more pics here, but not related to any previous blog, just some Seth-historic stuff:
The very spot where I got on a school bus for the very first time.
This was my corner when I was a crossign guard.
Friendies
I had almost too much fun with friendies to try to sum things up here. I’ll hit some highlights:
I surprised Kate with my presence not once but twice, and she lost. her. shit. each time. First, Michael and I surprised her at her house:
It was also on this visit that this picture of Michael happened:
A few days later, I was strolling through Carlisle wasting a few minutes before picking up another friend, when I came across Kate and her family at the local eatery The Green Room. As I was leaving them I took this pic of Kate, her husband Matt, and their son Dylan:
Let me just take this moment to say, as I was strolling around Carlisle that night, I was struck by just how freaking cool of a town it is. Those of you who still live there, please do not take it for granted. First, it is totally adorable. And such a great pedestrian town! And for a relatively small town in central Pennsylvania, it is arts-friendly. Open mic nights, free music, poetry readings, public displays of photography, and on and on, are quite common. The area known as the square and the surrounding blocks are humming with a vibrant intellectual life (not to mention some fantastic cuisine). Please partake of what the gem of a town has to offer!
My brief time with Burke was spent in some fairly intense conversation that may, in fact, make me think about my life differently. Oh, and Johnny Depp is a fucking sellout.
I spent some truly hilarious time with Jenny. Jenny is quickly becoming a Major Friend. (if her name is unfamiliar to you, this was the last woman to be an “official girlfriend”…and if my hunch is true– that I am a lifetime bachelor– she may go down in the history books as the last woman to be an official Seth girlfriend…what a distinction!). Anyway, I sure do love this woman. She has the special ability to make me laugh until I am worried about my health…without saying anything. She has a non-verbal humor akin to Kramer. She can just look at me and I lose my shit. Here we are, loving life:
Of course, you know I saw Michael, and it resulted in a moment of hilarity that I am pretty sure you “had to be there” for, but we decided that Merle Haggard had at one point recorded the “classic” song “You’re Gonna Make Daddy Fart (and Momma Aint Gonna Be Happy)”. I still laugh when I type that.
Mary and I had one helluva time trying to find parking in downtown Harrisburg—notable because it’s usually not THAT hard. Sure, those few blocks in the very center of town are tough, but we were unable to find ANY spots on the street ANYWHERE. When we finally did park (in a garage) we ended up just hanging around Strawberry Square , when in fact we had intended to go to the Susquehanna Art Museum. I’m still not sure in the least how this distraction occurred, but we had a blast. But the major news from this venture is that Mary has OK’d some photographs of herself! You may or may not know that pictures of Mary are quite rare. She just hates pictures of herself, and of course I love taking pictures of people, so this is a friction. Plus, she really is one of the most exquisite women in existence, so I always feel as though the world in general is being deprived of some joy by the absence of Mary pictures. When I take a Mary picture, I have to show her, wheneupon she then either insists on immediate deletion, OKs the picture for my own personal collection but not anyone else’s eyes, or (the most rare) OKs a picture for online distribution. So here, lucky world, are 4 new Mary pictures:
That's the back of Mary's head in the lower right.
Staying at Dad’s
It is with much chagrin that I realize I did not take a single picture of my papa and me on this trip. *sad face* Nonetheless, I must say, spending time with my dad just gets more and more pleasant as the two of us age. It never stops surprising me how we continue to grow into friends (while he retains his essential papa-ness). He is one cool dude and we somehow never run out of things to talk about.
This also marked the first time in recent memory that I have stayed at Dad’s for multiple days without my sister also being there. In this sense it was entirely unique. The last time I stayed at my dad’s by myself for more than one night was way back when I was still drinking and on-again, off-again living there. So this was new, and really, really great. In a lot of ways, it felt like a true homecoming, learning how that house and I interact when I’m a grown-up, and sober, and left all alone with it. Turns out we get along just fine. And I sleep magnificently in my old bedroom. But it’s tough getting used to that shower again.
Hey Rosetta!
I’m gonna really have to shrink down the Hey Rosetta! story, or I’ll be here all day. So, in summary:
Here are pictures from Paul and I’s show in Asbury Park, NJ. It was a fantastic time, both Paul-wise (Paul, thanks for helping me see that not all my close friends have to be women!) and band-wise. Really, one of the more satisfying concert-going experiences I’ve had.
Then, I made an audible call and went to see them by myself twice more over the next three days, in New York City (more on NYC later). Long story short, I ended up basically knowing the band. But they started talking to me. I suppose when you are a band that is really famous and successful in Canada, and then you come to the states and are playing bars where most of the people are ignoring you, and there is a short fat guy with gray hair jumping around and screaming your lyrics, when he shows up to your NEXT show in a different state, it is worth taking note. So as I was taking this picture of the chalk board advertising their show in Brooklyn, a few of the band members were walking out of the bar and saw me and introduced themselves.
Because shows like this entail a lot of waiting around (if you insist, like I do, on front row) in small bars with no “backstage” area for bands, as well as lots of changing-out of gear between bands (not to mention trips to very small bathrooms), the two shows in New York would prove extremely fertile ground for me talking to the band. This went way beyond my previous “thank you, your music has meant so much to me” that I’ve been able to give other bands. This was basically a getting-to-know-you situation. Specifically cellist Romesh Thavanathan, lead guitarist Adam Hogan, and violinist Kinley Dowling spoke quite a bit to me and I was definitely on a first-name basis with them by the end of my second New York show, and I’d had a chance to speak to every member of this six-piece band. Certainly, this was fairly incredible, but also….in some ways, not as great as you’d think. Parts of this experience were awkward. I may blog more about this at some point, just because it was pretty intriguing (ever have your favorite band watch you as they are playing?) But don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It was an amazing experience. Here is a video I took of “Red Song” at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn, followed by a few select pictures of the New York shows:
I also managed to snag handwritten setlists off the stage two of the three nights. Here are scans of the setlists:
So now, for the benefit of probably just myself and maybe Paul, here is some Hey Rosetta! setlist discussion: on the first setlist shown, Bandages was skipped. On the second shown (from my thrid concert, Manhattan) ‘Bandages’ and ‘Red Heart’ were swapped in position (as were the two songs where a swap is indicated, ‘Yer Spring’ and ‘Welcome’…and talk about a way to open a show! “Lions For Scottie” into “Welcome”!) Here are all three setlists for shows I went to this tour:
Asbury Park, NJ
1. New Goodbye
2. Yer Spring
3. New Glass
4. Bricks
5. Another Pilot
6. There’s an Arc
7. Seeds
8. Red Heart
1. New Goodbye
2. Yer Spring
3. New Glass
4. Bricks
5. Another Pilot
6. There’s an Arc
7. Welcome
8. Red Song
9. We Made a Pact
10. Seeds
11. Red Heart
12. A Thousand Suns*
*’Bandages’ is on the setlist in the 12 spot, but ‘A Thousand Suns’ was played.
Manhattan, NY
1. Lions For Scottie
2. Welcome
3. Yer Spring
4. New Glass
5. Yer Fall
6. There’s an Arc
7. I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time
8. Holy Shit
9. New Sum
10. Seeds
11. New Goodbye
Encore:
1. Bandages
2. Red Heart
And now, for the record, the sum total of Hey Rosetta! songs I’ve seen, including the two acoustic shows I saw last year:
1. Red Heart–5 times
2. Bricks–4 times
3. I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time–3 times
4. Lions for Scottie–3 times
5. Bandages–3 times
6. New Goodbye–3 times
7. Yer Spring–3 times
8. New Glass–3 times
9. There’s an Arc–3 times
10. Seeds–3 times
11. Seventeen–2 times
12. Red Song–2 times
13. We Made a Pact–2 times
14. Another Pilot–2 times
15. Welcome–2 times
16. A Thousand Suns–1 time
17. Yer Fall–1 time
18. Holy Shit–1 time
19. New Sum–1 time
Mom’s/ Sisters
So my mom now lives with my sister, which makes visiting everybody much easier! It was quite nice to see everybody all at once! In the same breath, however, I must admit it made me feel as though I did a poor job of paying ample attention to everyone. When you are seeing a gaggle of loved ones all at once for the first time in a long time, it can be a strain to give equal time. I think specifically of the nephews, who I love uncontrollably but whom I was not able to give the sort of attention they are accustomed to receiving from me. When it came down to it, my mom and my sister were the center of my focus (not to mention the antics of Pumpkin Latte). Don’t get me wrong, I had a lovely time! I guess I’m just feeling some guilt, cause those boys worked up a good amount of anticipation for my arrival and I almost certainly dissapointed. That being said, the time with Momma and Sis was marvelous. LOTS of laughs, and a new momma/ son tradition: I claim her and I are going to do the Jumble together, and then I end up freaking out over how amazing she is at it, while I add absolutely nothing to the process (she really is amazing at the Jumble). Also, I “T”d my sister, which always rules. A brief but incredibly heartwarming time. Some select pics:
Sister and Pumpkin Latte, as she was taking their picture
Sis, Me, Mom
New York
The New York trip is another thing I shall have to gloss over, or I’ll be writing this blog entry until next week. I did what I typically do: I drive right into the city, pay a thousand dollars to park, and just walk around. I usually have very little plan other than one or two fairly simple goals. This trip’s goals: see sunrise from inside Central Park, and buy a New York Times from a newsstand and read the whole thing from inside a midtown Manhattan Starbucks during the morning commute hours. I’m not sure why I wanted to do these things, but once the goals were in my mind, I could not seem to let them go. I accomplished both, and although being in Central Park during sunrise was magical, it was not easy to get any great pictures of the event, due to the vast amount of:
a) Tall trees, and
b) skyscrapers
These things blocked the view of the actual sunrise rather effectively, but feeling the world come alive from within the park was quite joyous. Here is the best picture I got of the sunrise:
I spent almost two hours in the Starbucks, enjoying my latte and an incredible issue of the NYT. I suppose for a moment I felt as hip as I’ve always suspected I am. It was a quality time.
I spent the rest of the day wandering around, taking pictures, eating, even napping briefly in the tranquil section of Central Park known as the Woodlands. I also visited, for the first time, the Central Park Zoo, which was a lovely treat. Here is some video I took of the Sea Lions being fed (and putting on a little show) followed by some pictures:
Sunset, Brooklyn
Me in Central Park
Some Things I Learned
1. 8 months is not long enough to forget how to get around (but it IS long enough to cause some occasional navigation confusion)
2. When you are a single man in your 30s who moves away from everyone he knows and doesn’t visit home for 8 months, a surprising amount of people from all demographics will just straight-up ask you about your sex life. This is fodder for an entire blog entry at some point that will be in the form of a “rant”. FYI, nobody need worry about my sex life, mkay?
3. You may think where you live is boring, but leave it for a little while and then come back; you may just find it’s really cool.
4. There are really hot ladies everywhere.
5. Don’t tell people you got fat. You may think it will make your fatness less awkward, but it makes it moreso.
6. Things change. Buildings get knocked down, businesses change their name, streets get re-directed. Accept these things as a natural course of existence. (reminds me of a Hey Rosetta! song: “The schools that we went to have all been closed./ And all of my teachers are dead, I suppose.”)
7. You can walk further than you think you can.
8. If you move and your sports allegiances change a little bit, you can just kinda keep that to yourself on your first few visits home.
9. As you leave places you have stayed for just a day or two, remember to gather all your various “chargers”. We have a lot of chargers in this day and age.
10. Family and friends really are the best things in the world, even if saying so sounds cheesy and cliche. Fuck it, it’s true!
I Almost Forgot…
Today is my 8 year sobriety anniversary! The original purpose of this vacation was for me to have off and see my loved ones leading up to the big day. (I just have to complete my anniversary tradition of watching “Dark Days” on the anniversary itself) So…yay me! But also…yay you! Thanks everybody for putting up with my horribleness when I was horrible, and then helping me live such a satisfying and fantastic life in my sobriety! What a treat, to be able to celebrate the week leading up to it in the way I did. And how neat is it that I almost forgot today was the day??? That must mean life is pretty good. I love you, everybody!
The Hey Rosetta! show in Asbury Park, NJ with Paul was a truly thrilling experience (so much so that I am locked in an intense internal debate over whether to go see them again in Manhattan sometime Monday or Tuesday…I guess you’ll find out via blog post eventually!) I’d type a longer entry about Paul andI’s experience, but I’m on my sister’s laptop and this keyboard and mouse are confounding me. This time, the band was fully electric (you may remember the first two times I saw them, they were acoustic) and it was MINDBLOWING. Paul and I once again got to thank the band and shake their hands, and we both got handwritten copies of the setlist off the stage (I’ll be scanning mine in when I get home). A ball-to-the-wall awesome time. The setlist was:
1. New Goodbye
2. Yer Spring
3. New Glass
4. Bricks
5. Another Pilot
6. There’s an Arc
7. Seeds
8. Red Heart
So after raving and annoying everyone for the better part of a year about Hey Rosetta!, I finally saw them twice over the weekend, and boy howdy, it did not disappoint! I’ll sum everything up lickety-split: had an awesome time seeing Paul and Davey, saw two great sets of music, met and had conversations with two members of the band (Tim Baker, lead singer and main songwriter, and Romesh Thavanathan, cellist), had those two members sign one of their vinyl albums, spent a relaxing and spiritually fulfilling day on my own leisurely driving from Ithaca to Buffalo then meandering around Buffalo, eating lots of food and taking artsy pictures, then had an even longer conversation with Tim Baker the second night (he came over to me after their set while they were still tearing their equipment down and talked to me from the stage, then asked me to stop by their merchandise booth and talk to him before I left! Then we had a 5 minute conversation before I left which bordered insanely on “friend-like”. It was like walking in a dream. Granted, I’ve only been a fan for a few years, it’s not like this is a major band from my history like Pearl Jam or 7m3, but I don’t think I can deny they’ve vaulted to “favorite band” status, so it was beyond cool!). So there’s a really quick rundown of the weekend.
There was, I suppose, a minor dissapointment. Because Hey Rosetta! was opening for a schmaltzy singer-songwriter lady named Sarah Harmer whose fans aren’t really hard rockers, Hey Rosetta! opted to play sort of “Unplugged” sets on this mini-tour. Parts of this were really cool—the arrangements of these songs like this are actually really, really cool and coupled with the fact that these shows are now very unique in the Hey Rosetta! universe gave these shows a very special and intimate feel (and probably gave Tim Baker much more reason to ask me questions about the show than he normally would have; it was quite clear he wasn’t exactly sure how the whole thing was coming off). However, I can’t deny that there were parts when I wished I could have jumped around and lost my mind. A few of these songs are real blood-pumpers and even though the slow, quiet versions were beautiful, I wanted some loudness! Here is an example of the changes. This first video is the studio version of one of my favorite songs of their, “I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time”. You just have to hear the first 30 seconds or so to get an idea of how it goes:
Now here is video I took at the Buffalo show of the “unplugged” version of the same song. I have no idea why it’s so damn dark, it wasn’t that dark in person! Also my damn batteries ran out halfway through the song (did you read that, Mom?) so you don’t get to see the extremely interesting way they end this version. But still, you can see the extreme difference in the arrangements:
So, you can see it’s a very cool version. I feel pretty special having seen these versions, but now I just need to see the electric set! here are the setlists:
Ithaca setlist
1. 17 (new song)
2. Red Song
3. Brick (new song)
4. I’ve Been Asleep for a Long, Long Time
5. Lions for Scottie
6. Red Heart
7. Bandages (new song)
Buffalo setlist
1. 17 (new song)
2. I’ve Been Asleep For a Long, Long Time
3. Brick (new song)
4. Red Song
5. Lions For Scottie
6. We Made a Pact
7. Bandages (new song)
Here is video I took of “Red Song” in Ithaca. This is not a different version of the song; this is the studio version:
I need to thank my buddies Paul and Davey for making the weekend so special; we’ve agreed to have a similar outing once every 6 months. It’s good to rekindle things. Anyone else want to rekindle? Oh and I now have a new codename. It’s no longer Wise Guy in the Backseat, but M.R. Science. That’s not mister science, but the letter M and R, like the M.R. Ducks t-shirt. I dig it.
Anyway, I had a much more artisitic and heartfelt blog entry in mind, but I am just burnt out, so this will have to do. Here are a bunch of pictures from all phases of the weekend. (I originally posted about 3 times as many photos but WordPress is being weird. This will have to suffice; also a few of the captions are acting weird, my apologies.)
Me with Tim Baker at Castaways in Ithaca, NY.
Paul with Tim Paul and Davey at Castaways in Ithaca
First attempt to get a picture of all three of us. My head looks like a peanut.
Success! My head looks like a peanut.
The vinyl that Tim and Romesh signed for me. That's Tim who wrote the sentence.
Just a few more notes on the 7mary3 show last night, for the few of my readers who do care.
I just CANNOT piece the setlist together, and no one over on the message board is posting about the show. So. I can tell you how it began:
1. Last Kiss
2. Settle Up
3. RockCrown
4. Was a Ghost
5. Roderigo
6. Headstrong
That’s as far as I can get in sequence. The rest of the songs played were:
Sleepwalking, Dislocated, Over Your Shoulder, My My, Out For Blood, Cumbersome, Honey of Generation, Blue Letter, Water’s Edge, Wait, Laughing Out Loud, Big Bird. There may be a few others I can’t quite remember.
“Out For Blood” is the new song. It’s good. It’s rock-alt-country-blues. Think thi bonus song on Orange Ave. It’s like that.
“Big Bird” is a cover they’ve been doing for quite some time. It’s by a guy named Eddie Floyd. It rules. It was their show closer. Here is a video of Seven Mary Three playing the song (though not at the Allentown show):
Turnout for this show was much, much better than the Reading show I went to a few months ago. It was still fairly sad. There were perhaps 50 people watching 7m3, but after the (literally) fifteen people at the Reading show, it felt like freakin’ Madison Square Garden. And there were GOOD fans. They weren’t “Cumberfucks”, as they are called on the 7m3 message boards. These fans knew all the albums. And they cheered and sang along. Made me feel good!
Immediately after the applause had died down after the opening song, a really drunk guy yelled “Jason Ross! You are STILL the shit!” I winced, unsure how the famously moody Ross would react. He loved it! Exchanging grins with guitarist Thomas Juliano, Ross said “Thank you. Every day I wake up and I say to myself…’Am I still the shit?’ And some days, somebody tells me.” *Long pause* “And some days, they don’t.” GOOD STUFF.
This band was in a terrific mood all night. You could see Jason Ross’s smile clear as day through his ridiculous beard. Juliano was jumping around the stage like a 19 year old. Even Casey Daniel was moving around, grinning ear-to-ear.
Thomas Juliano
Sometime during the first few songs, somebody yelled out “Roderigo”, a song from their first album that is a major concert rarity. Next song, they played it! (it wasn’t on the setlist, I could see the setlist from where I was standing. Songs removed from the setlist: “Upside Down” and “Dreaming Against Me”.). Anyway, this must have made the crowd basically think the band was going to continue taking requests. The rest of the night, in between songs, seemingly everyone was shouting out song names (even I, once, shouted for “Where Are You Calling From?”…more of a longshot than ‘Roderigo’!). You might think this woul dpiss off some bands, but they just kept laughing. At one point Ross turned to Juliano and in a very funny voice said “They’re all screaming at me!”. Later, he made a ‘calm down’ motion with his hands and whispered “I’ve got a list.” You had to be there, but trust me, very funny stuff.
After seeing them twice touring on their new album, I can say with certainty that at this point in my life, “Was a Ghost” is my favorite part of a 7m3 show. It’s not a huge rocker, but it’s just really freakin good, and it gets a whole lot better in the live setting. These guys really know how to play this song!
After the show, Burke and I were leaving the pit in front of the stage when I saw that Jason Ross was hanging out down in the actual club, talking to fans, signing things, etc. So I gave Burke my camera and waited my turn. Now, I’ve spoken to Ross once before (and you can read that blog entry here), but Ross was NOT in a good mood that day, so I just shook his hand and said thank you. THIS time, though, I emoted a bit, telling him the music had “meant alot to me” and had “gotten me through some tough times”. He probably hears stuff like that alot, but it felt good to say it anyway, even if it is cheesy and cliche. Because it’s also true. Oh, and the picture:
What a show! I’m not sure if I’ll ever get the setlist up (I have a really good feeling no one else is going to post it for me to copy it and I have very little faith I can do it from memory). but highlights:
–“Roderigo”. Period. I had never seen it live and I don’t expect to ever again.
–A re-tooled “Dislocated” with an AMAZING jam session in the middle.
–“Sleepwalking”!!!!!!! my first time ever seeing it!!! LOVELOVELOVE!!!
–“Cumbersome” in the middle of the set! Craziness!
–They debuted a new song called “Out For Blood”…great song!
I think I’ll probably have a full-length blog on the experience tomorrow. Oh, also, I got to talk to Jason after the show and get my pic with him:
I arrived at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC exactly on time; doors for The Cribs show were to open at 7; I showed up at 6, to insure a front row spot. I normally show up a tad earlier than one hour, but The Cribs haven’t really caught on in the states yet (they’re British, and seemingly, considerably more popular there). I gambled correctly—as I walked up to the door, I was the 7th person in line (and when doors opened, there were no more than 20 of us in line).
I was standing in line for no longer than 5 minutes when Johnny Marr walked out the door and directly past me. Chances are, you don’t know who Johnny Marr is, but in my insular little “Indie Rock” world, he’s our very own Eddie Van Halen.
Johnny Marr. I didn't take this pic, I stole it off the internet.
He was, most famously, a founding member of The Smiths. After they disbanded, he dabbled all over the place for years, making special appearances here, in one-off bands there, producing albums over here. Then, 2 years ago, he quite unexpectedly joined indie favorites Modest Mouse—being granted full member status— rounding out their sound in a quite marvelous way. Then, just last year, he joined The Cribs (which, you must realize, were a quite established band in Britain, and they were a band of three brothers—so Marr’s full membership is quite…strange). Once again, Marr’s addition really amped up that band’s sound, giving it a much less bare-bones feel and adding an “atmospheric” quality.
So now, Marr is an ex-Smith and a current member of one of the most-beloved American indie bands and one of the most beloved British indie bands. Wow. And here’s what really makes him so loved: he really is the epitome of cool. I mean, he’s just really cool! And to watch him play…most guitarists like to make what they’re doing look harder than it is, but Marr seems to try to make it look easier. He really seems like he is making a grocery list in his head while he’s playing, without being disengaged. AND—he’s short, probably no more than 4 inches taller than me. Badass.
So anyway, I’m standing in line and Johnny Marr walks past me. Without thinking I just yelled—yelled, and he was just a few feet away from me—“Johnny!” Damn. I sounded like some damn groupie! I had just been shocked by the sight of his shock-black hair. So he looks at me expectantly, as if I was going to say something of substance following my shout, like “Your mom’s on the phone!” or “There’s a piano falling toward you!” but all I managed was “Hi!” and he gave me a perky British “Hi!” back, and was on his way.
Turns out, my HI with Johnny Marr probably wasn’t worth it. Seems the woman in front of me in line had spoken to him earlier before I got there, and saw the fact that we both knew who he was as some sort of bond. I didn’t mind talking to her at first—she was, after all, very nice. But we had a crucial miscommunication that ruined everything.
The annoying woman
She quickly revealed to me that she knew nothing about Johnny Marr—she was there with her son, who knew who he was, she had “never heard of him”, to quote her. This was fine with me, of course, and then I said “He’s actually been in lots of bands”. But she must have thought I said “I’ve actually seen lots of bands.” Which would have been ridiculous of me to say at that point in the conversation, but she probably heard it because she was waiting to just pounce on someone and tell them her concert-going history, and this opened it up.
There’s one of these in every concert line, isn’t there? Why do they do this? I do not give a shit about what shows you’ve seen!!!! If it can come up in normal conversation, then fine, but the whole “Jaws scar” scene with concerts is just…gross. It grosses me out, personality-wise. And she would. not. stop. She talked straight to me for the whole hour in line, and even intimated I should stand with her and her son once we got in there. Unfortunately, when we got in there, they chose Johnny Marr’s side of the stage, so I had to settle for Gary Jarman’s side (not a bad compromise, really). Oh, and right before doors opened, she went over to the box office and bought 2 tickets for the Editors show in February, which I may be attending if work schedule permits. I’ll have to take someone with me in case I get stuck in line next to her again!
(some of you may ask what the difference is between these obnoxious concert-line braggers and me writing long blogs about each of my concert experiences. And you have a mild point, the difference is negligible, but here it is: you can’t click out of or minimize these line gabbers.)
The opening band (there were supposed to be 2 openers…not sure what happened) was so-so, I’m not going to waste and time talking about them.
So, after a long wait inside the club (I assume most of you have been to 9:30 at some point, but if not, it’s comparable to Electric Factory or Chameleon Club) The Cribs finally emerged. I found myself a bit more excited than I had expected. They did not enter to the prolonged classical music they have been using as entrance music for the European tour this year. It was sort of like a southern gothic funk….very dark and brooding and quite awesome. It only played for about one minute before they came out, and when Johnny Marr started playing the “We Were Aborted” riff, I absolutely lost my mind, even though I knew this would be their opener, and I’ve watched about 12 different live versions of this show opener on YouTube, but really, truly, I think “We Were Aborted” may be the BEST concert opener I’ve ever seen (and I’ve seen Pearl Jam open with “Wash”!). The music, the way Marr plays so casually, the way Ryan Jarman jumps facing the drum kit, the way Ross Jarman nearly comes off his stool while hitting the drums…just really, really, really good rock and roll. And then they immediately follow this with “Hey Scenesters!”, a rollicking indie anthem from an earlier album, and one of my absolute favorites. I was quite pleased with our crowd’s singalong to “Hey Scenesters!” (I’d estimate the 9:30 Club was at about half capacity for the show, but we were a lively bunch). There’s no YouTube from the show I was at, but here’s a video of a “We Were Aborted”—->”Hey Scenesters!” opener from a few months ago in Europe. It fairly accurately depicts the opening from last night:
Here’s the full setlist:
We Were Aborted
Hey Scenesters!
We Share the Same Skies
Hari Kari
Last Year’s Snow
What About Me
Cheat on Me
I’ve Tried Everything
Save Your Secrets
Mirror Kissers
Another Number
Our Bovine Public
Ignore the Ignorant
Be Safe
I’m a Realist
Girls Like Mystery
Men’s Needs
City of Bugs
–No encore
–“Hari Kari”—the end repetition part was ridiculously intense
–“Save Your Secrets” proves in a live setting that it is, unexpectedly, a moving cynical ballad
–I must have really, REALLY wanted to see “Mirror Kissers”, because I nearly jumped over the barrier when they started it. It had a prolonged, feedback-heavy intro. I sweated profusely.
–On a bad note (pun intended), “Our Bovine Public”—which I love–was almost unrecognizable. It was way too heavy and loud. I didn’t even know what song it was until the SECOND chorus. Not sure if this is a result of Marr’s added guitar (this is a song from before Marr joined the band, hence there’s one more guitar part in it when they play it). Even after I realized what it was, I couldn’t enjoy it.
–When either Gary or Ryan Jarman addressed the crowd (about 5 times total) it was damn near impossible to understand them. VERY thick accents. Makes you wonder why it’s so easy to understand them when they’re singing?
–“Be Safe” is an incredible and very unique song in The Cribs canon. I IMPLORE YOU TO CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINKS, YOU WILL LIKE THIS. Read what the song is here. Read the lyrics here. Here is the best video I can find of a performance of the song similar to how I saw it, however, at my show, the screen was directly behind the band:
–The crowd seemed most amped for “I’m a Realist”—there were many calls for it throughout the show, and the biggest cheer was for the song’s start—which I found odd, as it’s not their most dynamic song. It has somewhat silly, curse-infused lyrics at the beginning, though, which I suppose accounts for it’s popularity.
–“Girls Like Mystery” was a nice surprise, hadn’t seen it on any of the setlists I’d been following leading up to the show.
–I was at first disappointed when I realized “City of Bugs” would be the closer. It’s my least favorite song on the new album. But bada-bing! In the live setting I was convinced. I saw what they were going for. It was engaging, energizing, and intense. I could even finally forgive the lyric “I’m messed up, baby, like the Berlin Wall.” The guys left their guitars on the stage in a feedback loop, so we couldn’t rightfully cheer until a roadie unplugged the guitars, a few minutes after the band left the stage, but I was looking around, and nobody left that venue until we could cheer, and when we did, we did as though The Cribs were still on stage to hear us. Great band. Consider me hooked.
So, Pearl jam just wrapped up the American leg of their tour with four shows in Philly, culminating in a show on Halloween night. Us in the “fanatical” Pearl Jam club were HIGHLY anticipating these shows. Firstly, Pearl Jam always blows the roof off the joint in Philly; PA and PJ have a long history of mutual love. Secondly, the band has just really been something special this whole tour, pulling out incredible rarities, being funny, and doing lots of unexpected stuff. Thirdly, this was wrapping up their tour in the states. Fourthly, these shows were to be the final rock concerts in the Spectrum, a very storied arena in Philly that the band is very fond of. Fifthly, the World Series was taking place at the same time as the shows…not really important, but it just added to the insanity of the whole thing. I implore you to check out the tour stats at the end of the blog for a notion of how amazing these guys are as a live band, aside from just the performance itself. NO BAND of Pearl Jam’s level works this hard to have this many actively played songs, and setlists this varied. And, as expected, all four setlists were fucking insane. Here they are, with commentary from me:
NIGHT ONE
Set List: Corduroy, Whipping, Hail Hail, Supersonic, Dissident, Unthought Known, Faithfull, Parachutes, Unemployable, Immortality, Green Disease, Not For You/Modern Girl, Rival, Nothingman, Ghost, Do The Evolution, Why Go
1st encore: Bee Girl, Just Breathe with string quartet, The End with string quartet, All Those Yesterdays, State Of Love And Trust, Mankind, The Fixer, Go
2nd encore: Daughter, Love Reign O’er Me, Black, Leash, Rearviewmirror, Rockin’ In The Free World
Most fans don’t consider this the best set of the four, but honestly, if I could turn back time and go to only one, it would probably be this one. I’m one of the only “Ghost” fans in the world, and nobody really saw it coming (and no one but me seemed to notice). “Rival” has been on my wish list for years. I can’t even contemplate how amazing it is that they played “All Those Yesterdays”. Stone sings “Mankind” and it’s a serious concert rarity. Also, night one we discovered that for the Philly shows, the band’s entrance music would be the theme from “Rocky”–you’ve got to see it happen in the YouTube videos to understand how awesome it is! The first YouTube clip below is of their entrance on night one–it’s not the best video but it really gives you a feel for the entrance.
NIGHT TWO
Set List: Animal, All Night, World Wide Suicide, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, I Am Mine, Johnny Guitar, Nothing As It Seems, Gone, Evacuation, Even Flow, Come Back (intro only), No Way, 1/2 Full, Down w/Mike Ness & Jonny “2 Bags” Wickersham, Wishlist, Grievance, Given To Fly, The Fixer, Save You
1st encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, Lukin w/string quartet, Speed Of Sound, Push Me, Pull Me, Garden, Blood
2nd encore: Last Kiss, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/Save It For Later, The Real Me, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter/Little Wing
“Animal” opener? Yowza!“No Way” was pulled out earlier in the tour but I’m still not used to seeing it in setlists. “Push Me, Pull Me”…are you serious?????
NIGHT THREE
Set List: Gonna See My Friend, The Fixer, In My Tree, Given To Fly, Tremor Christ, Untitled/ MFC, Hold On, Unthought Known, In Hiding, Deep, Habit, Cropduster, Off He Goes, Force Of Nature, Present Tense, Got Some, Do The Evolution1st encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, Parting Ways w/string quartet, Jeremy w/string quartet, Breath, Light Years, Rearviewmirror
2nd encore: Whipping, Crazy Mary, Footsteps, Once, Alive, Sonic Reducer, Baba O’Riley
Holy shit. There’s almost too much here to mention. “Tremor Christ” is always a surprise. “Hold On” gets played for only the second time ever. The four songs starting with “Deep” through “Cropduster” are all setlist rarities. I have no idea when the last time was I saw “Parting Ways” on a setlist. “Jeremy” WITH STRING QUARTET? “Breath” is one of the songs they pull out when they want the moment to be “special”.
NIGHT FOUR
Set List: Why Go, Last Exit, Corduroy, Severed Hand, The Fixer, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, You Are, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Pilate, Unthought Known, Daughter/Another Brick In The Wall Part 2, Johnny Guitar, Rats, I’m Open, I Got Shit, Glorified G, Out Of My Mind, Black, Insignificance, Life Wasted
1st encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, The End w/string quartet, Low Light, Speed Of Sound, Jeremy w/string quartet, Inside Job, Bugs w/string quartet, Spin The Black Circle, Porch
2nd encore: Whip It, Got Some, Crown Of Thorns, Satan’s Bed, Sweet Lew, Do the Evolution, Better Man/Save It For Later, Smile, Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner
First “Pilate” since 2000. “Out of My Mind” was a fucking IMPROV they played in like 1994, but they put it on the “Not For You” single. Nobody in the whole world ever expected it to be played again, ever. “Bugs” had never been played live, and NOBODY EVER EXPECTED IT TO BE. “Whip It”–the Devo song–was played by Pearl Jam for the first time, and THEY WERE DRESSED UP LIKE DEVO IN THE FAMOUS “WHIP IT” VIDEO. “Crown of Thorns” is THE ‘special’ song (it was by the band Mother Love Bone, whose lead singer died of a heroin overdose. Two members of Pearl Jam were in that band.) “Sweet Lew” is a really shitty but interesting deep track B-side about basketball, sung by bassist Jeff Ament. Once agian, NO ONE EVER EXPECTED THIS TO BE PLAYED, EVER. Eddie bounced a basketball into a microphone for extra percussion.
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (6)
Long Road (4)
Sometimes (3)
Of the Girl (2)
Gonna See My Friend (2)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
In My Tree (1)
Interstellar Overdrive–>Corduroy (1) Last Exit (1)
Corduroy (1)
Animal (1)
Main Set Closers:
Rearviewmirror (5)
Go (3)
Do the Evolution (3)
Life Wasted (3)
Alive (2)
Blood (2)
Porch (2)
Got Some (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
MFC (1)
Why Go (1)
Save You (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (15)
Rockin’ in the Free World (7)
Indifference (2)
Alive (2)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
Baba O’Riley (1)
Just got back from the Silversun Pickups show in Norfolk, Virginia, and boy are my arms tired! Seriously though. That is a long ass drive! But well worth it, fo sho.
The NorVa is a fantastic club! It’s a fairly well-renowned mid-sized rock club and I was excited to finally see a show there. It has a very old-timey feel inside (and apparently it actually is really old), and it’s also fairly intimate, with a capacity just over 1,500.
I’m a bit too tired for any long, detailed story, plus by my count I only have three friends who might even care about this blog entry (hi April, Sarah and Joel!), so I’ll get to the point: yes, I left early enough to get front row! Check out this good shot I got of Brian:
Brian Aubert, "Well Thought-Out Twinkles"
A rarity: I really enjoyed BOTH opening bands. Cage the Elephant was especially exciting, they are very much rock. Loved every second. The first opener, An Horse, I’d actually been exposed to a bit of before and mildly enjoyed their more mellow, oddball rock. The live experience delivered more of the same, and was totally grooving.
So Silversun Pickups came on sometime around 9:30. They open with the song off their new album which I’ve been obsessing over since the album came out, “Growing Old is Getting Old”. It was no big surprise–they’ve been playing a fairly consistent setlist this tour, and I haven’t seen a single setlist that didn’t open with “Growing Old is Getting Old”, but it was my first time ever seeing the band, so it didn’t matter to me that I could basically guess what song was coming next. Here’s the setlist:
1. Growing Old is Getting Old
2. Well Thought-Out Twinkles
3. There’s No Secrets This Year
4. The Royal We
5. Little Lovers So Polite
6. It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone
7. Sort Of
8. Booksmart Devil
9. Future Foe Scenarios
10. Kissing Families
11. Panic Switch
12. Lazy Eye
Encore:
1. Catch and Release
2. Common Reactor
Nikki Monninger, "Well Thought-Out Twinkles"
We actually did get one surprise in this setlist: “Booksmart Devil”, a song off their first, little-bought album Pikul. They’ve been playing one song off this album all tour–“Kissing Families”–and I hadn’t yet seen any other song from Pikul make a setlist. Not only that, but it didn’t swap out with a normal song in the set, but instead was just a straight-up addition. And it sounded awesome!!! Both Pikul songs were much more full and rounded in the live arena than on the somewhat lackluster studio album.
Highlights without a doubt included “Well Thought-Out Twinkles”, “Future Foe Scenarios”, “It’s Nice to Know You Work Alone”, and “Lazy Eye”, just a gaggle of some of my favorite songs, and a true joy to see. This band has an odd combination of pure sadness laced with uplifting joy in every chord they play. It really makes you feel alive. But nothing could compare to the show-closing “Common Reactor”, a song I sometimes miss completely when listening to the CD, but the power of this song cannot be denied. It builds, it swells, it punches you in the gut. Brian Aubert played and sung this song like his life depended on it–like all of our lives depended on it, and bassist Nikki Monninger sparked to the most alive of the evening, jumping, swaying, sweat flying from her forehead. There was a moment when I thought I was about to have a heart attack (the only other band that consistently makes me fear for my health is LIVE). I left NorVa feeling as alive as I have in months. Oh, and the solo roadtrip without smoking? Easy peasy lemon squeezy. I really need to go to bed now.
I’d like to make the observation that they have STOPPED playing “Brother” for the American shows. :(
Set List: Last Exit, Corduroy, Severed Hand, Brain Of J., Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Amongst The Waves, Johnny Guitar, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Parachutes, Daughter, I Got Shit, You Are, Force of Nature, Got Some, Do The Evolution, Army Reserve, Rearviewmirror
1st encore: The End, Red Mosquito (featured Ben Harper), Given To Fly, Last Kiss, The Fixer, Life Wasted
2nd encore: Why Go, Black, Better Man(Save it for Later), Little Wing (featured John Szantos and Bud Whitcomb), So You Want to Be a Rock and Roll Star, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter(The Star-Spangled Banner)
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (5)
Long Road (4)
Sometimes (3)
Of the Girl (2)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
Gonna See My Friend (1)
In My Tree (1)
Interstellar Overdrive–>Corduroy (1)
Last Exit (1)
Main Set Closers:
Rearviewmirror (4)
Go (3)
Do the Evolution (3)
Alive (2)
Life Wasted (2)
Blood (2)
Porch (2)
Got Some (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
MFC (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (12)
Rockin’ in the Free World (4)
Indifference (2)
Alive (2)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
September 30, 2009 Universal City, California, Gibson Amphitheater (LA night one)
Set List: Why Go, Animal, World Wide Suicide, Got Some, Tremor Christ, Force Of Nature, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Unthought Known, Even Flow, Amongst The Waves, Insignificance, Rats, Present Tense, Big Wave, Down, The Fixer, Porch
1st encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, The End w/string quartet, Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper, Black, Life Wasted
2nd encore: State Of Love And Trust, Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World
Tremor Christ from LA night One:
October 1, 2009 Universal City, California, Gibson Amphitheater (LA night 2)
Set List: (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Severed Hand, Got Some, Do The Evolution, Dissident, Given To Fly, Johnny Guitar, Amongst The Waves, I Got Shit, Daughter, Jeremy, Unthought Known, Small Town, Driven To Tears, The Fixer, Rearviewmirror
1st encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, The End w/string quartet, Lukin w/string quartet, Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper, Jazz Odyssey, Better Man/(Save It For Later)
2nd encore: Gonna See My Friend, I Believe In Miracles, Once, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)
Lukin w/ Strings from LA night 2 (literally the funniest moment I’ve ever seen from a PJ show):
Austin City Limits Festival
October 4, 2009 Austin City Limits, Austin, Texas
Set List: Why Go, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Got Some, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Given To Fly, World Wide Suicide, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Daughter/(WMA), Hail Hail, Insignificance, Present Tense, State Of Love And Trust, The Fixer, Go
Encore: Jazz Odyssey, Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper, Do The Evolution, The Real Me, Alive, Mountain Song w/Perry Farrell, Rockin’ In The Free World
October 6, 2009 Universal City, California, Gibson Amphitheater (LA night 3)
Set List: Sometimes, Breakerfall, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Save You, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Got Some, Unthought Known, Faithfull, Even Flow, Unemployable, Daughter, Johnny Guitar, Given To Fly, Off He Goes, Comatose, The Fixer, Do The Evolution
1st encore: Just Breathe w/string quartet, The End w/string quartet, Lukin w/string quartet, Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper, Jazz Odyssey, Rearviewmirror
CHECK THIS OUT! Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains) comes out at the end solo and plays guitar. Mike takes his guitar off and runs around the stage. And kudos to this YouTuber for getting great shots of the crowd “fist pump” during the solo–always a highlight of the experience for me:
Los Angeles, 10/7 Gibson Amphitheater (LA night 4)
Main Set: Long Road, Animal, Hail, Hail, Gonna See My Friend, Got Some, Alone, Nothingman, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Untitled/Unthought Known, All Those Yesterdays, Why Go, Wishlist, Present Tense, Force of Nature, The Fixer, Spin The Black Circle, Porch
Encore: Just Breathe w/ String Quartet, The End w String Quartet, Lukin w/ String Quartet, Red Mosquito w/ Ben Harper, Jazz Odyssey w/ strings, Love Reign Oer Me, Blood(atomic dog)
2nd Encore: State of Love and Trust, Crown of Thorns, Kick Out The Jams w/ Jerry Cantrell, Alive, Indifference w/ Ben Harper
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (5)
Long Road (4)
Sometimes (3)
Of the Girl (2)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
Gonna See My Friend (1)
In My Tree (1)
Interstellar Overdrive–>Corduroy (1)
Main Set Closers:
Rearviewmirror (3)
Go (3)
Do the Evolution (3)
Alive (2)
Life Wasted (2)
Blood (2)
Porch (2)
Got Some (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
MFC (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (11)
Rockin’ in the Free World (4)
Indifference (2)
Alive (2)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
Note: to the best of my knowledge, the Vancouver show is the only time “In My Tree” has ever been the opener.
September 28, 2009 Salt Lake City, UT, E Center
Set List: Of The Girl, Breakerfall, Hail Hail, Severed Hand, The Fixer, Low Light, Marker In The Sand, Even Flow, Unthought Known, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Got Some, Given To Fly, Immortality, Satan’s Bed, Amongst The Waves, Do The Evolution, Blood
1st encore: Bee Girl, (Fan brought on stage for wedding proposal), Just Breathe, Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper, Daughter, Supersonic, Spin The Black Circle
2nd encore: I Believe In Miracles, Crazy Mary, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter
September 26, 2009 Clark County Ampitheater, Portland, OR
Set List: Gonna See My Friend, Last Exit, Why Go, The Fixer, In Hiding, Johnny Guitar, Green Disease, Amongst The Waves, Even Flow, Off He Goes, Unthought Known, Daughter, Supersonic, Present Tense, Got Some, Once, Life Wasted
1st encore: Golden State w/Corin Tucker, The End, Red Mosquito w/Ben Harper, Inside Job, Go
2nd encore: Do The Evolution, Not For You /(Modern Girl), Black, Porch
Yellow Ledbetter/(Star Spangled Banner)
September 25, 2009 Vancouver, BC, GM Place
Set List: In My Tree, Save You, The Fixer, Severed Hand, Johnny Guitar, Given To Fly, MFC, Even Flow, Amongst The Waves, Sad, Unthought Known, Light Years, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Grievance, No Way, Got Some, Rearviewmirror
1st encore: I Got Shit, Love, Reign O’er Me, Breath, State Of Love And Trust, Alive
2nd encore: Last Kiss, Indifference w/ Ben Harper, Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Yellow Ledbetter
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (3)
Long Road (3)
Sometimes (2)
Of the Girl (2)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
Gonna See My Friend (1)
In My Tree (1)
Main Set Closers:
Do the Evolution (2)
Alive (2)
Go (2)
Rearviewmirror (2)
Life Wasted (2)
Blood (2)
Got Some (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
MFC (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (10)
Indifference (1)
Rockin’ in the Free World (2)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
Alive (1)
I had no plans to post this setlist tonight; I was going to lump the next few together to avoid filling my blog up with Pearl Jam sets, and besides, there are only 4 or 5 PJ fans still reading my blog anyway. But then they had to go and have an amazing set. First and most importantly, they played “No Way”, which you’ll only know how badass that is if you follow what they’re up to. We’ve been asking for it for a loooong time. And then, without using any more rarities, they strung together an incredible set through some genius song order, and it’s tough to impress me with song order anymore (yes, I admit I’ve read every single Pearl Jam setlist–ever). For instance, this five song sequence to end the main set is a master stroke: Comatose–>Insignificance–>Present Tense–>Got Some–>Go. Go ahead. Put that sequence on your iPod. You’ll see. Also, that is a rather unique first encore. And also quite notable: there is no “Even Flow” or “Alive”, which would upset me a bit (which other hardcore “fans” are cheering the songs’ absences), but it’s quite odd for neither of them to appear. The only thing that really bugs me about the show is the “Ledbetter” closer. How tired am I of this? Real tired.
Main Set: Sometimes, Why Go, All Night, The Fixer, Dissident, Johnny Guitar, Faithfull, Lukin, Not For You/Modern Girl, No Way, Unthought Known, Unemployable, Comatose, Insignificance, Present Tense, Got Some, Go
Encore 1: Just Breathe, The End, Black, In My Tree, Spin The Black Circle
Encore 2: Supersonic, Do The Evolotion, The Real Me, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (3)
Long Road (3)
Sometimes (2)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Of the Girl (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
Main Set Closers:
Do the Evolution (2)
Alive (2)
Go (2)
Got Some (1)
Rearviewmirror (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
MFC (1)
Life Wasted (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (7)
Indifference (1)
Rockin’ in the Free World (2)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
Alive (1)
Main Set: Long Road, Corduroy, Gonna See My Friend, Got Some, Hail Hail, Amongst the Waves, Daughter(no tag), Evenflow, Johnny Guitar, Unthought Known, Worldwide Suicide, Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town, Off He Goes, Down, Save You, The Fixer, Life Wasted
Encore 1: Just Breathe, The End, Inside Job, Rearviewmirror
Encore 2: Given To Fly, Do the Evolution, Betterman, The Real Me, Indifference, Alive
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (3)
Long Road (3)
Sometimes (1)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Of the Girl (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
Main Set Closers:
Do the Evolution (2)
Alive (2)
Got Some (1)
Go (1)
Rearviewmirror (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
MFC (1)
Life Wasted (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (6)
Indifference (1)
Rockin’ in the Free World (2)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
Alive (1)
Of note: Of all the setlists I’ve studied (which is all of them), I’ve never seen MFC close a main set. Also, this is the SECOND new Neil Young cover they’ve done on this tour.
Main Set: Why Go, Animal, Severed Hand, Corduroy, Low Light, The Fixer, In My Tree, Small Town, Even Flow, Got Some, I am Mine, Down, Given to Fly, Black, Do the Evolution, Go, Save You, MFC
Encore 1: Wasted Reprise, Betterman, Daughter, The Real Me, Crazy Mary, Alive
Encore 2: Throw Your Hatred Down, Rockin in the Free World
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (3)
Long Road (2)
Sometimes (1)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Of the Girl (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
Main Set Closers:
Do the Evolution (2)
Alive (2)
Got Some (1)
Go (1)
Rearviewmirror (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
MFC (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (6)
Indifference (1)
Rockin’ in the Free World (2)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
Set List: Hard To Imagine, Corduroy, In My Tree, Last Exit, All Night, Nothingman, The Fixer, Even Flow, Present Tense, Whipping, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Daughter/(Another Brick In The Wall part 2), Brother, Gone, Got Some, Do The Evolution, Alive
1st encore: No More, Comatose, Grievance, Black, The Real Me, Porch
2nd encore: Wasted Reprise, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Crazy Mary, State Of Love And Trust, Fuckin’ Up
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (2)
Long Road (2)
Sometimes (1)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Of the Girl (1)
Hard to Imagine (1)
Main Set Closers:
Do the Evolution (2)
Alive (2)
Got Some (1)
Go (1)
Rearviewmirror (1)
Blood (1)
Spin the Black Circle (1)
Closers:
Yellow Ledbetter (6)
Indifference (1)
Rockin’ in the Free World (1)
Fuckin’ Up (1)
August 18, 2009 London, UK, O2 Arena
Opening band: Gomez
Set List: Release, Animal, Corduroy, Why Go, Small Town, Immortality, The Fixer, Even Flow, I Got Shit, Rats, Got Some, Whipping, Light Years, Insignificance, Black, Life Wasted, Blood/(“Atomic Dog” )
1st encore: Supersonic, Hail Hail, Footsteps, Love, Reign O’er Me, Do The Evolution, Alive
2nd encore: Better Man/(Save It For Later), Crazy Mary, Leaving Here, Porch, Yellow Ledbetter
August 17, 2009 Manchester, England Manchester Evening News Arena Opening band: Gomez
Set List: Long Road, Last Exit, Why Go, All night, The Fixer, Low Light, In Hiding, World Wide Suicide, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Evenflow, Present Tense, Save You, Grievance, Sleight Of Hand, Got Some, Given To Fly, Rearviewmirror
1st encore: Go, Daughter, Do The Evolution, Alive
2nd encore: Smile, Black, Leash, The Real Me, Indifference
Tour stats:
Openers:
Why Go (2)
Sometimes (1)
Small Town (1)
Release (1)
Long Road (1)
Main Set Closers:
Alive (1)
Got Some (1)
Go (1)
Do the Evolution (1)
Rearviewmirror (1)
Blood (1)
I arrived at The Silo in Reading, PA at about 5pm Friday. This was an hour and a half before doors were to open. I always get to shows early, so I can be guaranteed to actually see the action on stage. When you’re as short as I am, you get sick of spending money to look at the back of some dude’s head. However, even I knew that this early arrival was probably unnecessary. If you don’t know alot about Seven Mary Three, let me be the first to tell you, this is no longer a popular band, and they were never more than marginally popular to begin with. They are, by most measures, a one-hit wonder, and time has largely forgotten them. At their peak in the late nineties, 7m3 was playing to sold out crowds at the more premiere, mid-size national act clubs in the country; (such as Trocodero and Seattle’s Showbox) now, touring-wise, they are one step above a bar band (but they are not a bar band yet!). I want to make that clear, before anyone thinks the story I’m about to relate is more impressive than it actually is. It is not impressive in a real sense, but it was a huge night from my perspective.
At 5pm, Silo’s parking lot was empty, save 6 or 7 cars. I took them time to walk back out Silo’s driveway so I could take a picture of the marquee. The much dilapidated marquee.
Then I walked back to the building. There was one guy standing by the door, and he was holding a clipboard. Naturally I walked up to him so I could ask my usual questions:
1. Where will the line form?
2. What is the camera policy?
3. Are there different areas for over/under 21, and if so, which area is closer to the stage, and how will I know how to do this once inside the door?
Of course, these are questions for a situation where there is a line, and people are streaming into the building.
I approach the guy. “Is this where the line will form?”
“I have no idea,” guy says.
He was a fan. His clipboard was pictures of the band, which he was going to try and have signed. This guy was a bigger fan than I am! I learned his name was Tim, and boy-howdy, if we didn’t strike up a really fast friendship! Aside from my buddy Paul (who was unable to attend due to his wife’s impending due-date–damned priorities!) there is probably no one else in the state of Pennsylvania who I can talk to about 7m3 like this. What 7m3 album would you take to a desert island? (We both agree it’s RockCrown) Are there really only two utternaces of “fuck” in the 7m3 catalogue? (Yes.) I sure do miss Jason Pollock, don’t you miss Jason Pollock? (He misses him more than I do.) Is there a way in which the album day&nightdriving is NOT a breakup album? (No. It is entirely a breakup album) And on and on. I was happy as a squirrel at a squirrel party.
Shortly after I met Tim, he proceeded to tell me that after I parked my car and walked to take a picture of the marquee, Casey Daniel (7m3’s bassist) walked out of the club and into the adjacent Holiday Inn. I was floored! I had yet to comprehend that this band wasn’t still the band that I watched from a balcony at a sold-out 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, ten years ago, and that The Silo in Reading is not The Electric Factory.
Now, I really fucking love Casey Daniel. He is one of the few bassists out there who I am a true fan of what they do. The man is a mad genius. His intricate yet subtle, balls-to-the-wall bass lines truly turn some medicore 7m3 tunes into masterpieces. I listen to some songs, like “First Time Believers”, just to listen to what Casey is doing. I couldn’t believe I had just missed him.
Now, I no longer do the whole “hero worship” thing. Five, ten years ago, I thought my favorite artists were some kind of gods, and if I met them–which I really really wanted to–I’d have peppered them with silly questions relating to the myth surrounding them; some silly hints in liner notes or recurring names in films or irregular iambic structures in poems, and just told them ten different ways that they were “awesome”. Then, a few years ago, something changed, and I came to the realization that even though these people were immensely talented, they were all just people. Hell, I know some immensely talented people who just happen to not be famous, and sometimes I’m just watching them eat a hot dog. So, I decided I did not want to meet my artistic idols. I did not want to bother them, and I now thought it awkward that I would want to meet a regular person; it seemed homo-erotic and obsessive. Listen to the music, watch the movie, read the book–and leave it at that. You’re already having a conversation with them, and that’s where that conversation is meant to end.
Then, about 6 months ago, my sister won meet-and-greet passes to meet the band LIVE (a band I also adore with all my heart), although in the end there was a mix-up and she ended up not getting to meet them. But as the day of the meet-and-greet drew near, we were talking about what she would say to them. She was a bit stumped, as was I. Then I said, “I’d just thank them for everything they’ve done for me.” And I knew right then that I wanted to do that, to say that, to all the artists who had enriched my life, meant so much to me, gotten me through such hard shit, and made the sweet moments of my life so much sweeter. Sure, I can keep throwing money at them, but wouldn’t it be satisfying for everyone involved if I could also tell them that they meant something in my life?
So. I was upset that I’d missed Casey. But no more than 2 minutes after Tim tells me this does Jason-fucking-Ross (vocals, rhythm guitar, lyrics, undenied leader and spirit of the band) walk out the door 5 feet from me, talking on a cell phone! Now I was certain this wasn’t the Electric Factory! I was totally ready to introduce myself right then and there and thank him profusely and even tell him that the album Orange Ave. helped me greatly with my recovery from alcoholism, but he was only out there for a minute, and he was on his cell phone the whole time.
But! Moments later, lead guitarist Thomas Juliano is walking straight toward us! Tim grabs him first. “Tom! Tom! can we just have a moment of your time?”
Let me tell you, Tom had more than a moment for us, he had five minutes for us, and he’s really cool. Not like, cool in the sense of, he’s just a regular Joe; no, Thomas Juliano is they type of guy who is so cool, you wish you could be that cool. And I’m not saying he’s cocky–he was anything but cocky. He was down-to-earth (after all, he’s playing The Silo) and very, very appreciative of our attention. And I got to do something that I’ve wanted to do countless times with countless artists: I got to tell him specific stuff that he had specifically done that had touched me. I told him how much I loved his playing on “Where Are You Calling From?”–how the emotions of his playing perfectly matched the content of the lyrics, how he worked in perfect concert with the rhythm section to literally drive the song like a big rig through Jason Ross’s emotions, etc etc. I was having so much fun! And then, Tom and Tim and I just chatted–about getting gray hair, about how much he missed the old tour bus (Tim had a picture of it; they tour in a van now), and about the hat he was wearing. Then he kindly imformed us he had to go, but told us to stick around after the show!
Then, mere moments later, here comes Casey Daniel! We’re on a roll! We stop Casey and it’s more of the same, and Casey is of course really cool too, but in a different way than Thomas is. I can imagine being roommates with Casey Daniel–and I’d be the responsible one. You immediately feel at ease around him, as though you’ve been friends forever. He drops the F-Bomb within 60 seconds of meeting you. He lets a cigarette hang in his mouth while he talks. He has less of a fashion sense than I do. It was seriously like just meeting a guy on the street; within moments, any apprehension I had was gone; suddenly, I knew Casey Daniel.
My new buddy Tim with Casey
I was even more excited to thank Casey than I was to thank Thomas; I just go apeshit over Casey’s bass playing, and it really does add alot of emotional punch to what is happening in the songs lyric-wise. The first thing I mentioned–and I’m actually saying it as the picture of us together was being taken–was that his playing in the song “Headstrong” makes me poop my pants. And then I did a very smart thing: I got specific. “That change you do, in the middle of the final chorus, where you take it up a notch.” His eyes lit up–someone actually wanted to talk about his bass playing!! And did he ever start throwing me golden nuggets! He told us (for it was not just me, but Tim and I recieving this special moment) the story of “Headstrong” being written–how it was him and Jason Ross living together in a little apartment in Virginia, it was the middle of summer, and on and on. He even showed us some of the song on an “air bass”! Then the conversation steered toward more rare songs, and I mentioned how much I love “Shelf Life” (which was never on a 7m3 album) and his eyes lit up big time; I suppose they don’t have many hard core fans anymore who know the deep tracks. So he told us about “Shelf Life”, and how it materialized, musically, out of jam session in an attic with just himself and Giti Khalsa (the band’s drummer, who unfortunately is not touring with them at the moment, as he has just opened a restaurant in Florida. Some dude is touring in his place but I never did meet him). Then we chatted amiably, Casey talking alot about his bout of Shingles a few years back, which caused him to gain alot of weight and make sit hard for him to play bass sometimes. We must have talked to Casey for ten minutes.
6:30 arrived, and no one else was there to form a “line”, so Tim and I just sorta waltzed into the place by ourselves. Inside there is a huge island bar, tables throughout, a surprisingly large stage, and a railed-in “pit” area, about 20 feet square, in front of the stage. We immediately see Casey at the bar and we stop and talk to him some more. It is unbelievably congenial. Because Paul will want to know: he was drinking a bottle a Budweiser.
After a few minutes of talking to Casey, I edged away and sat at a table. Although Casey showed no signs of being annoyed by us–in fact, seemed to like us quite a bit–I was still wary of overstaying my welcome and bothering him. Eventually Tim joined me, and we settled on staying at this table during the FIVE OPENING BANDS (which I’m not going to bother to talk about there) or until people started actually standing at the stage. We were going to be front row either way, but we weren’t going to stand up there for five openers.
I should take a moment to tell you that Tim was getting stealthily drunk, and this is an awesome fact about Tim. As we were waiting outside, the fact of my recovery had come up in our conversation and he was fully understanding. As we sat at our table throughout the night, Tim would get up “to go to the bathroom” about once every half hour. He would return, every time, with a bottle of water for himself and a Coke for me, despite my protestations. It also became clear that Tim was getting drunk, almost certainly doing a quick shot of something during his stop at the bar. How cool is that? Here I am, a guy he’s only known for two hours, and he’s going out of his way to not bring a drink to our table, even though I had told him outside that I am perfectly fine being around booze now, in bar settings, etc. However, around the fourth opening act, this also got a bit annoying, because he was drunk. He began forgetting what we had already talked about, and we had a couple of conversations for the second time. Nonetheless–a sweet gesture, and I got a lot of free Coke (I did buy him one bottle of water once on a return trip from the bathroom.)
As the second opening act was playing–the only good one, too–I saw Jason-fucking-Ross walking though the bar in a tremendous hurry. He was doing that quick-walking thing, when you’ve really got some place to be. But I couldn’t help myself–I was on a roll. I’d met Thomas and Casey, I simply could not leave without at least saying “Thank you” to Jason. So I, um, kinda, a little bit, stood in his way and stopped him. I stuck out my hand, introduced myself, and said “Thank you for everything.” He was very cool about it, and he thanked me for listening and for showing up, and then he was off. I didn’t get a picture with him, but I told him what I wanted to, and I hope he really heard it.
Nobody came to this concert. Nobody. By the time 7m3 went on (midnight) There were about 30 people in the pit area (most standing near the back, not the stage) and maybe 20 other people at tables and at the bar. It was like watching them play in somebody’s basement. It was neat, but I was sad for the band. They may have headlined only large clubs, but they have played arenas, as recently as 2004, when they opened for Nickleback. So an empty club in podunk Pennsylvania mut not look very awesome from that stage. But Tim and I, from our spots nuzzled up to the stage (no barrier) were determined to rock the fuck out and show these guys some love.
All four guys came onto the stage to ge ttheir equipment ready. They noodled around for awhile, tuning guitars, etc. Then Casey went somewhere. And he didn’t come back. And he didn’t come back. And he didn’t come back. Finally some dude comes onto the stage and whispers something into Jason-fucking-Ross’s ear, and Jason is obviously pissed. I figure, Casey has gotten into some shit. Maybe he has diahrrea, or a phone call from a girlfriend, or something. So Jason confers with Thomas and the drummer guy, and moments later, Jason says into the mic, simply, “Uh, we’re gonna do something until Casey gets back.”
Then Jason and Thomas proceeded to play a guitars-only version of “Times Like These”, a quiet, contemplative song from their masterpiece album RockCrown. Now, I follow 7m3’s setlists online, and, although “Times Like These” may have been played, at the most, 30 times over the last decade, it has certainly never been a show opener, and it hasn’t been played in at least 5 years, not that I’ve seen, anyway. This was one of the last songs I expected to hear. This is just the first of many thrilling moments.
The setlist:
Main set:
Times Like These
RockCrown
Was a Ghost
Last Kiss Headstrong
Shelf Life
Joliet
Settle Up
She Wants Results
Peel
My My
Upside Down
Over Your Shoulder
Dislocated
Southwestern State
Roderigo
Cumbersome
Breakdown
Encore:
Water’s Edge
Strangely at Home
Yeah. Do you see the songs I’ve put in bold there? Yeah. The songs I mentioned to Casey. And these are not songs played by this band frequently. “Headstrong” gets played somewhat–maybe 20% of the setlists I’ve looked at. But “Shelf Life”? That’s as rare as looking in the toilet after you take a crap and finding an Oscar statuette. As both songs started, Casey (who I was directly in front of) pointed at me and smiled. We nodded our heads at each other. During the bass line change at the end of “Headstrong”, I was all about Casey, and he was all about me. We watched each other and smiled, and I jumped around like a lunatic. It was like living in a dream. Literally, it was like living in a dream.
I won’t bother you with why the rest of this setlist is bonkers-crazy unreal. If you are familiar with the band, then you already know. But I just kept crapping my pants over and over again. And Tim and I were rocking out, jumping, throwing our arms in the air, singing at all the right parts, and letting Jason sing when we had no right to be singing (like in “Southwestern State”). I’d turn around occasionally, and see that the room was getting even emptier; people were leaving. Oh well–let them. Seven Mary Three don’t need no room full of people. Seven Mary Three didn’t need nothing but me and Tim.
After the last song (the beautifully exquisite “Strangely at Home”), Jason-fucking-Ross immediately left the stage, and just about everyone in the building except Tim and I left, as well. That left Tim and I (and two other guys who were, thankfully, pretty serious fans of the band, as well) to chat with Thomas and Casey as they packed up their gear. Casey simply said to me, “I hope you liked that”, with a wink, which I took as confirmation those two songs were for me. Then he promptly got on his cell phone.
Thomas, however, was a chatterbox, and I got to, once again, do an unimaginably cool thing: tell one of my favorite musicians, immediately after a show, which parts I thought they did really good in. (I know some of you see alot of local and smaller-venue artists and this probably seems silly to you, but most of the shows I go to are larger-scale clubs and arenas; this kind of interaction is brand new to me). I told Thomas that his solo in “Southwester State” moved me, and that the new take he had brought to “Cumbersome” (and boy, is it new!) made the song fresh for me again. Tim asked Thomas is he could have a guitar pick, and he asked the drummer for a drum stick, which they were happy to give. I didn’t want any thing from them, however. I’ve already gotten so very much.
August 15, 2009 Berlin, Germany, Wuhlheide
Opening band: Gomez
Set List: Why Go, Hail Hail, The Fixer, Corduroy, I Am Mine, Nothing As It Seems, Untitled, MFC, Gods’ Dice, Even Flow, Unemployable, Severed Hand, Light Years, Daughter/(Blitzkrieg Bop), Got Some, Glorified G, Brother, Insignificance, Do The Evolution
1st encore: Bee Girl, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Given To Fly, Hard To Imagine, Alive
2nd encore: Angie (part/chorus. Rolling Stones), Small Town, Faithfull, Sonic Reducer, Rockin’ In The Free World, Yellow Ledbetter
So, it’s really late at night, and I don’t have time for the kind of entry I want to write here, but I can’t go to bed without putting something here, so I’ll give a quick rundown, mainly for Paul’s benefit, since I won’t be able to tell him about this until tomorrow afternoon. I’ll have a more detailed blog about this tomorrow night.
1. Met the entire band except for drummer Giti Khalsa, who isn’t touring with the band this tour–though I didn’t meet his fill-in, either. Talked to bassist Casey Daniels and guitarist Thomas Juliano at length, mainly about a few of my favorite songs of the moment, but also about Casey’s shingles (the illness, not the roofing), the upcoming 7m3 live album (which I did not know about!), Thomas’ salt and pepper hair, etc etc. I’ll have more on that tomorrow. Met lead singer Jason Ross inside the venue. He was in quite a hurry so I didn’t bother him for a pic, but I shook his hand and thanked him for everything and he was quite gracious, despite being in a quite obvious hurry.
2. The band played the two songs I had talked to Casey about, and they were definitely put in the setlist for me!!! (“Headstrong” and “Shelf Life” back to back); Casey pointed at me and grinned during both songs (I was right in front of him) and after the show he walked over to me and simply said “I hope you liked that.”
3. I know I always say something like “The setlist was amazing!” in my post-show blogs, but really…I honestly can’t believe that set just happened and it wasn’t a dream. I follow their setlists online and nothing like this has ever happened. The setlist isn’t online yet, and I’m not sure I can re-create it from memory, but (this next bit will probably only interest Paul)…they opened with “Times Like These”! They weren’t going to but they had to improvise..full story tomorrow. The show ended with “Strangely at Home Here”!!! Can you say HolyShit!!! Other songs in the set:
–Southwestern State
–Roderigo
–Was a Ghost
–Joliet
…and alot more!!! But I’m having trouble thinking right now!!! Full blog tomorrow. More pics are already up on my Facebook!
August 13, 2009 Rotterdam, Netherlands, Sportspaleis Ahoy
Opening band: Gomez
Set List: Small Town, Last Exit, Animal, The Fixer, Given To Fly, Severed Hand, Why Go, Dissident, Brother, Gone, Even Flow, Wishlist, Nothingman, 1/2 Full, Black, Got Some, Go
1st encore: Life Wasted, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Daughter, Lukin, Comatose, Alive
2nd encore: You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, Love, Reign O’er Me, Do The Evolution, The Real Me, Yellow Ledbetter
August 11, 2009 London, UK, Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Set List: Sometimes, Interstellar Overdrive/Corduroy, The Fixer, All Along The Watchtower (w/ Ron Wood), Why Go, Dissident, Severed Hand, Given To Fly, Low Light, Even Flow, Present Tense, Save You, Down, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Brother, Do The Evolution, Got Some
1st encore: The End, Inside Job, Better Man, Alive
2nd encore: Soldier Of Love, State Of Love And Trust, The Real Me (w/ Simon Townshend), Yellow Ledbetter
August 8th, 2009 Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Canada Olympic Park – V-Fest
Set List: Why Go, All Night, Dissident, The Fixer, Got Some, Severed Hand, Sad, Unemployable, Even Flow, Rats, Save You, Given To Fly, Daughter/(W.M.A tag), Down, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Do The Evolution, Alive
1st encore: Better Man, Brother, Black, Spin The Black Circle
2nd encore: Crazy Mary, The Real Me (Pete Townshend cover), Yellow Ledbetter
1. Yasmin the Light
2. The Birth and Death of the Day
3. A Song For Our Fathers
4. Your Hand in Mine
5. Greet Death
6. Snow and Lights
7. A Poor Man’s Memories
8. Catastrophe and the Cure
9. The Only Moment We Were Alone
Notes From the Fire 
