*** Ed solo Chicago Night 1 Fanviews Here 8/21/08 ***

luvisatower

No one made one of these yet, so I'm making one because this truly was one of the best evenings of music I have personally ever experienced. If I've forgotten anything, please let me know and I'll fix it

Eddie Vedder
August 21, 2008 The Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, IL
Ed solo tour- opening: Liam Finn

Set List (unofficial): Walking the Cow,Trouble (Cat Stevens cover),Ship Song (Nick Cave cover),I Am Mine, Hurt (Nine Inch Nails cover), Sometimes, Man of the Hour, No More, Setting Forth, No Ceiling, Gauranteed, Far Behind, Rise Up, Here’s to the State of Mississippi, Goodbye, Driftin’, Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover), Betterman (Lullaby version), Porch

1st Encore: Elderly Woman, Someday We‘ll Go All the Way (Cubs Song), Helpless (Neil Young cover- w/EJB), Society (w/ Liam Finn), Parting Ways (w/ Liam Finn), Arc

2cnd Encore: Hard Sun (w/ Liam Finn)

Please share your experiences of the show here...the Fanview threads are preserved on the board.

spyguy

thank you for posting. probably one of the greatest shows I've ever been to. I will say this, Ed was in a great mood and loved being home. the lullaby betterman version was sooo damn cool. Hurt was awesome too. Thomas young also was there and he looked really bad. poor guy, I felt for him. crowd gave him a standing-o for what seemed like a few minutes. very emotional.

mjb

Gulp...that is sick - looks like Chi is going to give Toronto a run for the title. Sounds like a wonderful show. Hurt, Ship Song, Helpless, Betterman, Parting Ways. Beautiful.

LukinFan

mjb wrote:

Gulp...that is sick - looks like Chi is going to give Toronto a run for the title. Sounds like a wonderful show. Hurt, Ship Song, Helpless, Betterman, Parting Ways. Beautiful.

I don't think it's even close, Chi will get the best shows of both tours

whichwaysign

LukinFan wrote:

I don't think it's even close, Chi will get the best shows of both tours

As if there was ever a doubt. Wait until tonight.

pjsteelerfan

Wow

LukinFan

whichwaysign wrote:

As if there was ever a doubt. Wait until tonight.

oh, I know. Hunger Strike is coming....

kcherub

I am here in Chicago--woke up at 6 a.m.!!! After reading these posts, I am uber-excited about tonight! Okay, "uber" is very annoying.

LukinFan

kcherub wrote:

I am here in Chicago--woke up at 6 a.m.!!! After reading these posts, I am uber-excited about tonight! Okay, "uber" is very annoying.

Have a great time tonight!!!!!!!!!!

kcherub

LukinFan wrote:

Have a great time tonight!!!!!!!!!!

and will be thinking of *YOU*!!!

Shouldn't you be bending the minds of our future generation?!?

LukinFan

kcherub wrote:

and will be thinking of *YOU*!!!

Shouldn't you be bending the minds of our future generation?!?

School was canceled today because of Faye- yay!!!!!

I hope that everyone stays safe though

luvisatower

also, i wanted to remind everyone, the wishlist foundation pre-party will be in the same place tonite
Kasey's Tavern on Dearborn (Printer's Row)
so please make sure you stop in before the show

Ridin The Wave

LukinFan wrote:

oh, I know. Hunger Strike is coming....

I am so tempted to hop on a plane to Chicago right now.....I hate work - it gets in the way of EVERYTHING!!!!

schpee

The music was great of course, so I'll mention some of the other things.

1) He brought Thomas Young out on stage twice. He sang No More with Thomas sitting next to him. After the song he hugged him and kissed him, and Ed was crying throughout the next song and had to wipe his face multiple times. He was obviously overcome by the moment. The crowd did give him a nice long ovation (Thomas).

2) At the start of the first encore he told an amusing story about how when he was 13 his uncle took him to his first show at the Auditorium Theatre. He said they walked in, and Ed saw the velvet ropes and nice seats and said "Alright, these are nice seats" and his uncle said "No, we have to go upstairs." So they go up to the first balcony and Ed thinks "Alright, the stage is really far away, but these are still nice seats." And then they go up to the second balcony, and then all the way up to the gallery seats. And they sit down in the back row, with their backs up against the wall. Ed said he sat in that same seat today, and he mentioned the seat number. He said he had a goal of someday coming back and getting closer to the stage. Then he said that but he never imagined this and pointed to being on the stage itself. The show he saw first was Springsteen.

3) He told a story about how the Cub song came about. He was at a game in Arizona, and there was a rain delay so he was in the clubhouse visiting. Jose Cardenal was his favorite player as a kid and Jose asks him "Eddie, you meet Ernie?" (spoken with an accent) And he gets to meet Ernie on his 82nd birthday. So Ernie asks him about him "So, you sing in a band?" "yes" "Where have you played?" "The United Center" "And one time at Soldier Field". Ernie says, "Hmm.." "Someone needs to write a song about Wrigley Field." Eddie says that thats why no one has ever been able to do it- because you cannot capture the feeling, spirituality, etc. of the place. But he then says, "but when Ernie Banks, Mr. Cub, asks you to write a song about Wrigley and the Cubs and its his 82nd birthday, you do it!" Great story. And before he played it he said that the crowd should sing their best because it might be recorded and that everyone was working as a backup singer for free.

A great time, and I can't wait for tonight!!!!!

By the way, regarding posters- I saw all 3 of them still being sold AFTER the show, so there's no way they ran out. The Chicago only poster (with the Picasso on it) was being purchased in multiple copies- I saw a guy buy at least 5 of them.

jbalicki10

I was near the front and saw the setlist. The setlist was actually longer than what was played. It did have Throw your arms around Me that was misplayed with Liam. They skipped it. They also had another song with I couldnt read in the first encore. They also were suppose to play a song before Hard Sun for the second encore. Couldnt read that one either.

turningscrews

The betterman he played last night was not the "lullaby" version. I think I have an old copy of that, and it wasn't the same. Didn't even sound the same. SOUNDED A MILLION TIMES BETTER because the crowd couldn't figure it out. It's fun and all hearing the crowd sing along to this song but once you hear it every other show, you'd just like to enjoy the guys performing it.

I hope there is a copy of this show floating around.

gathering speed

It is a pleasure to read that people actually enjoyed themselves last night in Chicago. Reading those reviews from Milwaukee a few days ago, were enough to make me happy i didnt attend any of these shows. But it looks like Chicago was a great show and people behaved.

luvisatower

turningscrews wrote:

The betterman he played last night was not the "lullaby" version. I think I have an old copy of that, and it wasn't the same. Didn't even sound the same. SOUNDED A MILLION TIMES BETTER because the crowd couldn't figure it out. It's fun and all hearing the crowd sing along to this song but once you hear it every other show, you'd just like to enjoy the guys performing it.

I hope there is a copy of this show floating around.

it WAS sort of odd hearing betterman and not hearing the crowd sing along
and while it is not one of my favorites, last nights version brought a new appreciation of the song for me

petrocs

Now I'm pissed that I DIDNT fly to Chicago yesterday :(

bootlegger10

Hearing the Ship Song was great. Night 2 folks better get ready, because he'll top Night 1, and that's crazy to think about. Wish I could go.

inmytree29

This was the 1st show I've been two this year and I have a feeling none other compared to this one.

It was so powerful, I actually cried on three seperate occasions- during Sometimes, Man of the Hour and Arc.

Arc almost brought me to my knees. Did anyone else feel this? I never been so moved in my life.

iamica

The energy from Ed and the audience was just perfect. There were a few shouters, but Ed shut them up early on by saying, "Look, don't even bother shouting out requests...I've been doing setlists for about 17-18 years now, I think I know what I'm doing!" It was mostly quiet after that, which was nice.
I loved when he was teasing the people up front who mistook his mandolin for a ukelele.
Oh, and this had to be one of my favorite moments...he was saying something about, "look at the size of my..." (crowd goes crazy) "I was talking about my guitar, what did you think I was talking about? Oh wait, I'm holding the smallest guitar right now...George, get me a really big guitar! The 12 string or a bass!" Too funny.

spyguy

I feel bad for Milwaukee. As soon as Ed finished the first 2 songs he said...

"2 songs in and your already better then those assholes in Milwaukee"


I guess he really was pissed

PresentlyAlive

Wow! The show was amazing! Thank you so much to Tim for taking me because I wasn't able to score tickets on my own. We ended up in 7th row, which was just awesome! The setlist was obviously great, but what was really neat and unique for me(since I haven't been to any of these solo shows until last night) was the intimacy and the banter. One piece of banter that I didn't see yet in this thread was after the 2nd song I think. Eddie said we were already better than the 2% of the assholes the other night in Milwaukee. He joked that us Chicagoans are much better drinkers. I think he opened a can of worms by saying that, though, because then for the next couple songs some people tried to prove him wrong by yelling shit out when Ed was trying to tell stories. At one point after someone yelled out a song request, Eddie stopped and said,"Here's the deal...Don't even fucking TRY to yell out song requests tonight...Don't even fucking bother...You, know there is this other band that you may have heard of, 'Pearl Jam'...Yeah, we've put out a couple of good things over the years...haha...Anyway, I have been making the setlist for that band for over 17-18 years, and I think I'm pretty good at it and I know what I'm doing...So, I don't need any help from any fucking rookies!...Plus, I'm going to play shit tonight that you can't even fucking imagine!"...Or something to that effect. That was pretty awesome. The whole show was great. I was really blown away by Liam Finn's set. He is crazy...In a good way. I can't wait to see the show tonight. I can only imagine what Eddie is going to do to try and top last night. The only thing I can think is possibly a special guest. Sorry, so long. Cheers!

luvisatower

inmytree29 wrote:

This was the 1st show I've been two this year and I have a feeling none other compared to this one.

It was so powerful, I actually cried on three seperate occasions- during Sometimes, Man of the Hour and Arc.

Arc almost brought me to my knees. Did anyone else feel this? I never been so moved in my life.

yes, i did
i almost always do
music, particularly the music of eV and PJ, evokes the very strongest of emotion in me

Riot_Mac

The show was great. Far surpassed my expectations. The crowd was awesome too. Seemed like everyone behaved. We had tickets in row U... they were pretty damn good.

Highlights for me were No More, Parting Ways, Hurt, Sometimes, Porch and Helpless. The whole show was great.

It was nice of Eddie to bring out Thomas Young. It was a touching moment. I really hope he pulls through.

I didn't score tickets to tonight's show. I wish I had. Anyone have a couple extras?

Edit - I forgot Arc... it was amazing!

skyeriverwinter

Were there any stories before "Ship Song" or "Hurt"?

releaselauren

inmytree29 wrote:

This was the 1st show I've been two this year and I have a feeling none other compared to this one.

It was so powerful, I actually cried on three seperate occasions- during Sometimes, Man of the Hour and Arc.

Arc almost brought me to my knees. Did anyone else feel this? I never been so moved in my life.

yes. I shed some tears and got it together after the first song. I really had to keep it together during "Parting Ways" due to the current situation that is my life.

I was fortunate to meet Eddie after the show...to put it simply, I gave him a hug and told him "thanks". It was a night I will NEVER forget.

spyguy

releaselauren wrote:

I was fortunate to meet Eddie after the show...to put it simply, I gave him a hug and told him "thanks". It was a night I will NEVER forget.

where? care to give us the story

Riot_Mac

inmytree29 wrote:

This was the 1st show I've been two this year and I have a feeling none other compared to this one.

It was so powerful, I actually cried on three seperate occasions- during Sometimes, Man of the Hour and Arc.

Arc almost brought me to my knees. Did anyone else feel this? I never been so moved in my life.

I came pretty close a few times. It was a pretty emotional experience.

PresentlyAlive

skyeriverwinter wrote:

Were there any stories before "Ship Song" or "Hurt"?

I don't think there was anything special before Ship Song...I may be wrong, though. Before Hurt Eddie did say something about having never played the song before and he was probably going to fuck it up, or something like that. He said he was borrowing it from another guy from Chicago. Afterwards he said "Thanks, Trent" or something like that. He didn't really make a big deal about either of the songs, though. Hurt was fucking GREAT, by the way.