Date: Wednesday, June 12th @ 7:30
City: West Palm Beach, FL
Venue: Cruzan Amphitheatre

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It had been WAY too long since I had seen my favorite band (yes, July 23, 2006 at the Gorge is a long time). I believe this made my 21st Pearl Jam show, and the first time I’ve seen the on the opening night of their tour. I’ve seen many last night of the tour shows… West Palm 98, Seattle 00, Kissimmee 04, Gorge 06… but never an opening night, so I was quite excited. My friend and I were able to skip out of work a little early, and we made our way down to the show. We arrived, cracked open a beer, and moseyed on over to the fan club line to get our tickets. The last time I had seen them in West Palm back in 2003 I was about 20th row center stage. The fan club allocates seats based on seniority, so I was hoping to move up a few rows with the passage of time. Got our tickets: 20 rows back, dead center. “Damn.” Was a little upsetting, but this year they implemented a “Lottery” system, where the first two rows were up for grabs, and somewhere around rows 10 and 11 were up for grabs. Another friend of mine that was in the fan club had a higher number than me, so she should have been behind us, but she scored row 12, so she must’ve won the lottery. So I was very happy for her. Take away the 4 rows for the lottery and I probably would’ve been 4 rows closer… so that makes sense. Turns out the seats were great. Everyone in front of us was short! That NEVER happens at a show I attend.

Kings of Leon opened. We went in early hoping to get a pre-set from Eddie… No such luck. Thought maybe Eddie would come out and do “Slow Night, So Long” with the Kings… No such luck. Again, a little disappointing, but not enough to ruin the night by a long shot. In any event, Kings of Leon were awesome. I’ve become quite a big fan since seeing them open for U2 on their Vertigo tour in Philly. Was very happy I got to hear “The Bucket,” “Milk,” and of course “Slow Night, So Long,” even if it was sans Eddie.

Pearl Jam took the state around 8:50, paving the way for a slightly more than 2 hour show. Once Eddie started counting “One, Two…” it was clear the opener would be “Oceans.” What was not clear was that it would be a false start. After getting the timing correct, they nailed a beautiful rendition of an opener that I hadn’t heard in 8 years. Fast, energetic versions of “Severed Hand,” “Save You,” and “Gods’ Dice” followed. Eddie then said his hello’s to the crowd before launching into a duo off Yield: “Given to Fly,” then “Faithfull.” “Unemployable” sounded extremely solid, and “Sad” was a wonderful, unexpected treat. The popular old song “Dissident” really got the crowd into the show. Ed’s girlfriend Jill was with his daughter Olivia side stage for most of the show. She is so cute and wore heavy duty pink earmuffs. I believe Eddie made mention during the show that it was her birthday. Then came the surprise of the night, “Who You Are,” which that hadn’t been played since 1998-03-09 Sydney. I’m so glad I didn’t seek out the soundcheck online before the show, because they played this. It was a total shock. I’ve been pretty lucky in hearing songs that hadn’t been played in a long time: the first performance of “Glorified G” in 7 years, the first performance of “Dirty Frank” in 12 years, and now the first performance of “Who You Are” in 10 years. It sounded great, not rusty at all, and it had an extended jam at the end. The ever-present “Even Flow” got the crowd moving again. Was sad to not hear a Matt Cameron drum solo in the middle, but it was still a great version. For “Glorified G” Ed donned a camo hunting hat that remained for the rest of the show. “Do The Evolution” sounded a little different during the intro, I need to hear the official bootleg when it gets released to find out what was going on there. “Why Go” is such a powerful main set closer. When they came back for the first encore, Mike was sporting the double neck guitar, meaning “Inside Job” was to be played. I was hoping they would hold off “Better Man” till Tampa when I was going to be with some casual Pearl Jam fans, but I wasn’t upset to hear it. No “Save it for Later” tag though which was disappointing. “RearViewMirror” closed the first encore with the wonderful strobe light action during the outro jam. Speaking of “light action,” the light show was beautiful and complemented the music so well as it always does. It was strange to see the stage with a backdrop and banners hung off to the side being that their stage decoration is usually minimal. Eddie came out by himself for the second encore with an acoustic guitar and spoke about how they were so excited to get to Florida and enjoy the sun, but instead got pissed on by God with a hangover, referring to the earlier rain storms that had luckily subsided. This lead to an impromptu short singalong cover of “It Rains On Me” by Tom Waits. Strangely enough, the only other time they had covered this was as a tag on the end of “Daughter” at the 2003-06-01 Shoreline show that I happened to attend. What were the chances of that? Ed then played “No More” solo, which he wrote for the film Body Of War. The rest of the band filed on stage for “Alive,” (with Eddie leading the fist pumps at the end). The perpetual set closer “Yellow Ledbetter” ended the evening with the house lights on. The rest of the band stood quietly on stage watching lead guitarist Mike McCready tag a Jimi Hendrix inspired rendition of The Star Spangled Banner to the end of the song. Surprisingly, the whole show was over with time to spare before the 11:00 curfew. But it was the first night of the tour, so they were still getting into the swing of things, and later shows on the tour should fill the entire time.

A wonderful show, they never disappoint. “Who You Are” was worth the price of admission by itself. Some bands are tailor made to be seen live. Their shows take their music to another level that studio recordings just cannot reach. Pearl Jam leads the pack in this category. So often a casual fan will attend one of their shows, and become infatuated to a fanatical level. It happened to me back in 1998, it happened to a fellow poster of this website in 2003, and I believe it may have happened to some friends who attended the next night’s show in Tampa. Stay tuned for a review of that show to appear in the near future.

Setlist:

Main Set: Oceans, Severed Hand, Save You, Gods Dice, Given to Fly, Faithfull, Unemployable, Sad, Dissident, Who You Are, Even Flow, Low Light, Gone, Grievance, Glorified G, Do the Evolution, Why Go.

Encore 1: Inside Job, Betterman, Comatose, RearViewMirror.

Encore 2: Ed Solo: Rains on Me (Tom Waits), No More, Full Band: Alive, Yellow Ledbetter

Soundcheck: Who You Are, Light Years, Blood, Present Tense, Save You

Date: Monday, May 5, 2008 @ 7:30
City: West Palm Beach, FL
Venue: Cruzan Amphitheatre

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Gilbert C Gator, gFly, myself, and another friend were able to attend this event together. I always love going to shows with friends. Even though I have been known to attend shows solo (I don’t mind, gives me a chance to be silent and just focus on the music), sharing musical endeavors with those close to you is where it’s at! Especially when it’s a band as big as Radiohead, and the others you are with are “virgins” (not that I’m all THAT much more experienced, what with only ONE other Radiohead show under my belt…).

We tried to leave early, to get enough time to relax, tailgate, and drink some fine brews. Traffic getting to the Amphitheatre was awful. This is one of my favorite venues (it’s no Gorge, but come on, not much else is). It has great sound (it’s actually MADE for concerts, unlike the hockey/basketball arenas in Tampa/Orlando respectively), and you can usually position yourself between the heads in front of you that slowly decline with the slope of the entire floor. We arrived around 6:30, giving us enough time to sip our beverages, pretend we were college folk by playing hacky-sack with a McDonald’s toy, and laugh at the acoustic bellowers across from us. I had heard good things about the opening band, Liars, but had not listened to any of their music; so I wasn’t dead set on seeing them, but I did want to catch a little of their set. We moseyed our way to the Amphitheatre around 8:00 and caught the tail end of their set. I wasn’t all that impressed. They weren’t bad, but they didn’t blow me away either. I’ll need to listen to their studio albums to get a better feel for them.

8:55 rolled around and the band finally hit the stage. They had weird vertical blinds hanging behind the stage that were staggered at two different heights. As the dreary tones to “All I Need” filled the air, the blinds actually became illuminated creating a beautiful LED effect, quite similar to the U2 “ball curtains” from their last Vertigo tour. They lit up to look like raindrops during “The Gloaming” which was very cool. Thom was wearing a white suit jacket, which I knew wouldn’t last long in the Florida heat. They also had 2 Tibetan flags hanging on stage. “Bodysnatchers” and “Reckoner” were two songs from In Rainbows that I was looking forward to hearing, and I was not disappointed. “How to Disappear Completely” threw me for a loop, thinking that it was at least 2 other songs before I was finally corrected (my OK Computer/Kid A song knowledge tends to get mixed sometimes). A setlist I found online lists “Idiotech” after “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” but I seem to remember Thom speaking to each band member after “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi,” adding a song off the new album to the setlist, that Thom ended up botching the lyrics to, stopping the song mid-way through. Laughing it off he said something to the effect of “Sorry, we haven’t practiced that one enough,” and they launched into the much more familiar “Idiotech.” I’ll need to wait for a recording to surface in order to confirm that. Thom’s signature crazy dancing ensued throughout “Idiotech,” (always a pleasure to witness), and the band FINALLY played something pre-2000 with “Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was.” Thom chatted with the crowd a little, saying how they had just spent 3 days on Miami Beach, and how “white, pale, and English” he felt. Before an unusually early appearance of “Everything In Its Right Place,” Thom mentioned the Tibet flags, and spoke of how with the Olympics coming up in China, people should look into the human rights violations (not surprising as Radiohead had played the Tibetan Freedom Concert’s in 97 and 98). The main set ended as it had began, with a melancholy “Videotape.” Coming back for the first encore, I was very surprised and pleased to hear “Optimistic,” as it was a song I didn’t get to hear the last time I saw them back in 03. “Just” got the crowd moving quite a bit, and “Exit Music (For a Film)” was a definite pleaser as well. “Faust Arp” was wonderful and featured just Ed and Thom to start on acoustic guitars. Thom told of how the music had been around, but the lyrics took longer to come about. “Bangers + Mash” was a real treat, and featured Thom on a tiny drum kit brought out to the middle of the stage. Man was he going to town on those things. The band came back for a second encore, and finished the night off with “House of Cards” and “Street Spirit (Fade Out),” which Thom messed up, making him laugh and acknowledge his mistake again. Overall it was a fantastic, though a little rusty performance. But I love to see mistakes happen at shows. Who wants to go and see a show that is just the album versions of songs played perfectly? Boring. Give me mistakes, give me tags on the ends of songs, give me improvs… “wow” me. Radiohead does not disappoint.

SETLIST
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01 All I Need
02 Bobysnatchers
03 There There
04 Reckoner
05 The Gloaming
06 Morning Bell
07 Nude
08 How to Disappear Completely
09 15 Step
10 Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
11 Idioteque
12 Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was
13 Where I End and You Begin
14 Airbag
15 Everything In Its Right Place
16 The National Anthem
17 Videotape
***encore 1***
18 Optimistic
19 Just
20 Faust Arp
21 Exit Music (For a Film)
22 Bangers & Mash
*** encore 2***
23 House of Cards
24 Street Spirit (Fade Out)

Date: Tuesday April 22, 2008 @ 7:30
City: Tampa, FL
Venue: St Pete Times Forum
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I know this is neither “new” or “indie” music by any stretch of the imagination, but hey, come on… it’s THE BOSS! I’ve been a casual fan of Bruce for a while, nowhere near a fanatic. So when I saw a few months ago that he was coming around on tour, I didn’t hop on tickets right away. But being that he is “one of the greats,” I knew he was on my list of someone I’d like to see before it was too late. Thursday the 17th I got an email with concert listings, reminding me of Bruce touring. Still interested, I looked at prices and dates. I was going to be relegated to the nosebleeds based on how much I was willing to spend, but at least I’d be in the building. I checked the availability of Orlando: postponed. “Huh, that’s odd,” I thought to myself… so then i checked Ft. Lauderdale: postponed as well. Something was definitely afoot, so checked out his home page to see what was going on. It was then I learned of long time E Street Band keyboardist Danny Federici’s death earlier that day, after a three year battle with melanoma. I now was determined to see a show knowing that there would be some sort of a tribute, and being that Tampa would be their first show back after the sad loss, I purchased tickets in a flash. My friend and I arrived in Tampa, found a bar for some food and beers, then made our way over to the arena.

As I mentioned in my previous review, I’m kind of anal about concerts, so I had avoided previous setlists as much as possible so that I would be surprised of things to come. I had my wishlist in my head of songs I’s like to hear. The band came on to an unlit stage some time before 8:30. Bruce said something short and simple to the effect of “This is for Danny,” and “Blood Brothers” was played with all the lights off, and a video montage playing on the screens, with clips of Danny throughout the years. Very touching. After the song, the stage light rose softly, and a spotlight appeared on an empty set of keyboards at the back left of the stage. The lights remained like this for the next song “Backstreets.” Again, very subtle and touching, the way it should have been. Federici’s death was nothing to make a spectacle of, but it did need to be acknowledged, and it was handled with class. Honestly, would you expect anything less from The Boss? It became apparent later when the light came on full that every member of the band was wearing black. As I stated before, I’m not a huge fan, I hardly know any songs post 1985 (save “Streets of Philadelphia” and “Secret Garden”), so I was hoping to hear some old ones. I was pleasantly surprised, and got to hear “No Surrender” and “Growin’ Up.” Then midway through the main set, I heard some familiar notes being played. I recognized it as “Because the Night” by the Patti Smith Group (famously covered by 10,000 Maniacs for their Unplugged set). It was incredible. When I got home I looked it up on the wiki, and found out that Bruce had actually written it, and gave it to Patti who was recording in the neighboring studio, who then changed it to a females perspective, thus becoming the version I came to know and love. A bit later in the set, one of my hopes came true: they played “The Promised Land.” I’m not much of a lyrics person (I usually just focus on the music), but these lyrics really speak to me more-so than most other songs I enjoy for whatever reason. The performance of this song was nothing short of a spiritual experience for me.

Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

Still gives me chills. They closed out the main set with a blistering version of “Badlands,” then “Out In The Street.” When they came back out for the encore, they did a cover of “I’ll Fly Away” for Danny. Bruce then went to the crowd for a sign, and took it to his mic stand. I could barely read it, but I believe it said “Come Out Tonight,” and the band launched into “Rosalita.” Much hopping from those on the floor of the arena during this song which made me smile. After the song, Bruce signed the… uhh, sign, then gave it back to the person in the crowd. Then came the anthem “Born To Run.” For a song they’ve probably played thousands of times, he still sang and the band played with as much emotion as if they were playing it for the first time. Fantastic. They closed the night with “American Land.”

The setlist can be found HERE. One of the fan boards has these notes with the setlist:

0. Blood Brothers (NOT PERFORMED…PLAYED OVER SPEAKERS DURING DANNY VIDEO TRIBUTE)
1. Backstreets (Band on stage without Charlie)
2. Radio Nowhere (Charlie joins band)
3. Lonesome Day
4. No Surrender
5. Gypsy Biker
6. 4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy) (Bruce kisses Roy after song while crying)
7. Growin’ Up (Small Rap included)
8. Atlantic City
9. Because the Night
10. Darkness on the Edge of Town
11. She’s the One
12. Livin’ in the Future
13. Promised Land
14. Waitin’ on a Sunny Day
15. Brilliant Disguise (Bruce jokes about the brownies with no one at home watching kids)
16. Racing in the Street
17. The Rising
18. Last to Die
19. Long Walk Home
20. Badlands
21. Out in the Street

ENCORE #1
22. I’ll Fly Away *FOR DANNY* (Garry on Bass, Max on tambourine, Roy on accordion)
23. Rosalita
24. Born to Run
25. 10th Avenue Freeze Out
26. American Land

The show was not sold out (not surprising since they had pushed the show back one day due to the death), and there were many open seats in the upper deck. We were able to migrate to better seats directly across from the stage, rather than 1 row from the top of the arena and to the side. You couldn’t tell that the place wasn’t full from the appreciation and noise produced by the crowd that was there. It was loud. Not only the crowd, but the band. My ears are still ringing. I wasn’t expecting that being so far from the stage. I had held off getting tickets due to the high price, but it was worth every penny. Go see him if you haven’t already, before it’s too late. Another “Great” to scratch off my list… Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd: you’re on notice (hey a guy can dream right?!).

Pictures Thanks to DMR from the SPL furum.

Fan Forum Setlist Relay #1

Fan Forum Setlist Relay #2

Here is a recording of a phenomenal cover of “The Promised Land” by Sleater-Kinney with Eddie Vedder from 2005-10-03 in Philly (thanks to taper GW):

Full Review this weekend…hopefully.

Edit: Video from the performance last night

Date: Friday March 21, 2008 @ 9:00
City: Orlando, FL
Venue: The Social
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I had been looking forward to this show for a while… mostly because it was originally scheduled for February 10th but was postponed to March 21st. I arrived in Orlando early so that I could hit up Knightly Spirits. This is possibly the best beer store in the south, especially for Belgians. I was able to pick up some ‘05 Gonzo Porter’s which I was very happy about, as well as a few other rarities. Then I made my way over to Red Light Red Light. I held off heading to the show till about 10:00, which was about 3 beers. I figured with doors @ 9:00, I’d be getting there midway through band #2. I walked in and band #1 was still on. Both opening acts were OK. They didnt blow me away but they weren’t bad.

The Social is very oddly shaped for a show: when you walk in the stage is on your left, with the bar across it on the right. The issue is, that the width is very small compared to the depth of the room. The stage would be much better off being in the back of the room, leaving much more space for people to stand back from the stage, and not so much to the side. I’m kind of anal about where I stand/sit for shows. I like to be near the center for better sound. If I can’t see perfectly, I can deal. But if I can’t hear what they are singing/saying i get irked immensely. So I made my way to the bar, and found a good spot that was in line with the middle of the stage. Turns out that wasn’t the best choice. It was quite a high traffic area with people heading to restrooms, and god knows where else. People obviously had places to be, even during the main set. Which brings me to one of my main beliefs when going to shows: proper concert etiquette. I have no problem with people getting drunk and acting like an ass, etc. It’s only when that asinine behavior interferes with my or other peoples enjoyment that you should be drug out onto the street and shot. Don’t get in my way, bump into me, or have social hour in the middle of a show. Save the talk for outside. Seriously.

OK, now that I’m off my soapbox, onto the show. They were fantastic. They have a very My Morning Jacket/Death Cab For Cutie sound to them. They opened the set with “The Great Salt Lake” off 2006’s “Everything All The Time.” A definite highlight was “Is there A Ghost” which I feared couldn’t possibly live up to the album version. Very glad I was wrong. I liked the fact that members of the band were sporting beards, shifting focus to the music instead of appearances. I may be wrong in thinking that that is their thought process, but if it is, I commend them. There’s nothing worse than going to a show and hearing/seeing people that are only there cause so and so is “so cute, so dreamy.” “The Funeral” was another crowd pleaser that sounded great. I didn’t recognize what song closed the set. By looking at previous setlists online, they have covered “Effigy” by CCR, “13 Days” by JJ Cale, and “Feeling Stronger” by Chicago; of which the latter has closed a few shows, so I think that may have been it. All in all it was a wonderful show. Well worth seeing if you ever get the chance. I think they will be big one day.

Here is “Is There A Ghost” live on Letterman:

Since I believe no one should pay for lossy music, I will not link you to their iTunes selection. Until iTunes offers lossless purchases at CD prices, I will link to albums on amazon. Go pick a CD up (or a vinyl LP preferably if you can find it), or better yet, go see them in concert.

Everything All the Time by Band of Horses (Audio CD - Mar 21, 2006)

Cease to Begin by Band of Horses (Audio CD - Oct 9, 2007)

Website links:

Band of Horses Official Site
Band of Horses on Wikipedia
Band of Horses on myspace

They Might Be Giants are currently making their way around the US, promoting both 2007’s The Else and this year’s Here Come the 123s, ‘edutainment’ album geared toward children. Today they happened to stop in the studio of one of the stations I listen to.. (An all-talk radio station, strangely enough.)

I managed to capture this 40 minute live studio session / interview… so give it a listen, be sure to check out their new albums, and if you’re lucky enough to have them come through your area, get your tickets now!

They Might Be Giants - Live Session at Real Radio, Orlando - March 13, 2008