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

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.

releaselauren

spyguy wrote:

where? care to give us the story

backstage after the show

Eddie is friends with a friend of my mother-in-law. It helps to know people who know people to make a dream come true. It was surreal and I have to keep convincing myself that I really did meet my musical therapist.

skyeriverwinter

PresentlyAlive wrote:

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.

THANK YOU!!

spyguy

releaselauren wrote:

backstage after the show

Eddie is friends with a friend of my mother-in-law. It helps to know people who know people to make a dream come true. It was surreal and I have to keep convincing myself that I really did meet my musical therapist.

I hate you! so what the hell goes on back there? was there alot of people? what was ed doing?

jentarr

Utterly unbelievable. How awesome was it to hear Eddie's voice without a bunch of other noise going on behind him? (no offense to the rest of PJ who I love, also). He acted and spoke like we were all his best friends. Is there another performer who can make his audience feel as comfortable as Eddie did?? He has become such a great guitar player, too! It's really amazing how much he has progressed since he first started playing around with it. I've been to 30+ PJ shows and I don't know if I've ever heard Porch sound so unbelievable. And Arc! OH MY GOD. I had no idea what I was in for. That was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. Congrats to Eddie for doing his thing and doing it so incredibly well. I don't think the anything about the entire experience could have been put together any better. Thank you EV.

Dark Grin

I am still buzzing from the show. Eddie really was in a good mood, although some assholes tried to ruin it. Chicago is certainly not immune to the idiots that yell crazy comments and requests and interrupt Eddie. WTF! Some woman behind me kept yelling "Cubs suck!" during the Wrigley song. Unbelievable.
But Eddie didn't let it ruin his mood and he was in rare form. No mistakes (minor pause in Hide Your Love Away but it added to the song). I loved Ship Song, although I didn't know what it was when I heard it. Hurt was unexpected and amazing. Society was probably my favorite, though.
My friend at the show is educated in vocals and she was astounded at Eddie's control and range during Arc. I'm a little less sophisticated...I just thought it sounded cool.
I've got to get a copy of this show!

dthomas

Hey guys,
This is a double post because I think as a long timer there was some interesting stuff to point out.

To answer pressing questions:
Betterman sounded to me like it was straight off the Into The Wild album. He could have used the rendition from last night on there and it would have flowed perfectly. I don't know how else to describe it. It was so different NO ONE was able to sing along. My wife loved it. As neve my favorite PJ song, I liked it a lot better without the massive singalong!

The comments about Milwaukee came after the second song. He said "Already I can tell this is going to be a good show. You're 100% better than the 2% of assholes in Milwaukee" loosely quoted.

Now onto my thoughts of the show:
I haven't seen Eddie on these two last tours but saw him play with C Average at Tibetan Freedom Concert (and some other time but I'm blanking when that was!?! argh too early and I'm hungover). I was majorly impressed by how great it sounded. Auditorium Theater is known for its acoustics, unless you're in the nosebleeds. Eddie many times apologized to the folks up there and went into a long story about how his uncle took him to his first concert there when he was 8 or so he said 1978 then 1976 and they kept going all the way up. If you've never been in those seats, they're awful. We left a Wilco show once because it was so bad. Do not buy tickets up there tonight even if they're cheap. Also he said it was Springsteen and I briefly wondered who the "Uncle" was if you catch my drift.

Oh the sound...they must have mic-ed the actual floor because his foot stomping was definitely coming out of the amps. And no, not the little kickdrum box. I think he only used that twice. It was great. Setlist was great. I don’t know why he did Hurt, but it was definitely a take on the Johnny Cash version. It was good, but hasn’t everyone covered that song by now? The audience mics were out and EV mentioned recording the show on two different occasions. My guess would be a set of the two nights to be released at some point. It was definitely worthy of its own bootleg as 1 show though. Eddie had lyrics for every song as well. He seemed VERY concerned with getting the words right and I don't think I noticed any major mistakes at all.

Anyway, the highlight for me was No More with Thomas Young. It’s pretty hard to be that close to the stage and see how crippled this guy is and not get emotional. The whole place (mostly, I’ll get into this later) was singing the chorus and it was very emotional. Eddie even got choked up during the next song and mentioned it. Probably one of the more “moving” moments I’ve experienced at a concert just because of the crowd and what was going on. And I’m a jaded concert goer.

Now for the crowd: It was a pretty old crowd. I’m 32 and I’m guessing that was the avg age. That said there was only 1 or 2 dudes yelling idiot stuff and they got loud shushes.

The worst people were in a box to my left on the left side of the orchestra. The “rock chicks” looked like they came from a Motley Crue concert and were dancing during songs that weren’t really “pleasant” in their lyrics. And they were shouting etc. Luckily the sound was so good you couldn’t hear them much.

My biggest issue with the crowd came from the four, I assume 10C members, in front of me. One college age couple and two guys who came separately. I overheard them talking before the set and assumed, oh fellow travelers, neat, they mentioned they read this board too. During No More, they did not sing along. They stood there staring. If you haven’t heard the song once in your life, you can figure out the chorus by the second go through. I assume they’d heard it before. To me, that’s almost rude, if not disrespectful. I can almost understand not singing along to Sometimes when ed prompted everyone, but they should know that song too. BTW the singalong to Sometimes was so cool!

During the whole concert these four barely moved. I can totally understand why this would piss EV and Pearl Jam off like at the UC a few years ago. Now that I’m married with a baby Pearl Jam shows are about all I’ll make the trip to see and I cant’ travel as much to see them as I used to. That’s cool, family is most important. But if you’re able and traveling to see shows like these people in front of me said and you’re not INTO IT, why the f-ck are you there? Seriously. Explain this to me?! Me, I was singing along and having a good time.

Anyway, I also mused on the sheer money that had to be made on this tour. $35 posters! Even if you sold 1000 a night at a cost of $10 that’s $25,000 a night! Times 20 shows. Nearly half a mil on posters alone. WOW! I bought a show specific one, as I always do, but it sure made me think. I’m not begrudging EV on this, just makes you wish you had talent

All in all a fantastic fantastic show. I’m not going tonight as we have a busy weekend ahead and I kind of don’t want to ruin how good a show last night was in case tonight isnt’ as good! Anyway thought everyone would like to hear my thoughts and want to hear what others think too!

dthomas

Ah, i'll add thoughts on arc. It is a totally indulgent song for a singer I would think and can understand why PJ might avoid it. But if you ever wanted the pure, primal blueprint of Eddie's voice without one word, boy that is it. I'm not a fan of the overdubbing technique and thought Finn's use of it was kind of lame, but on Arc it sounded very cool. Not sure as a set closer though, but again, as a blueprint maybe it makes sense.

voodoopug

Great show, going again tonight (tonight is my birthday and I am taking my wife to her first Eddie Show). Hurt was fantastic. The highlights of the show for me were Trouble, Arc, and the alternate version of Betterman. I was also quite impressed with Society.

Crowd was very good except for the one screamer in the back right.

Also, the dumbass award is split tonite:

1. I'd like to recognize the potato head sitting two rows in front of me in ORCH R, row P, seat 307. Smooth move pissing all over yourself, the floor, and the people in Row "O". Was glad to see you tossed out. You probably needed another beer.

2. Lets not forget his little fluff boy with the Mookie Blaylock jersey on and the poor Ziggy Marley immitation "Shi*tlocks" in his hair who not only had to pump his fist and jump up and down like a school girl when Eddie started playing "Sometimes", but had the gall to start arguing with the guy who asked security to deal with his little buddy. The guy's response was great when Lil' Mookie asked him why did you have to narc on my boy.........he says...."ARE YOU SERIOUS.........HE PISSED ON ME"

youknowrobby

dthomas wrote:

Hey guys,
This is a double post because I think as a long timer there was some interesting stuff to point out.

To answer pressing questions:
Betterman sounded to me like it was straight off the Into The Wild album. He could have used the rendition from last night on there and it would have flowed perfectly. I don't know how else to describe it. It was so different NO ONE was able to sing along. My wife loved it. As neve my favorite PJ song, I liked it a lot better without the massive singalong!

The comments about Milwaukee came after the second song. He said "Already I can tell this is going to be a good show. You're 100% better than the 2% of assholes in Milwaukee" loosely quoted.

Now onto my thoughts of the show:
I haven't seen Eddie on these two last tours but saw him play with C Average at Tibetan Freedom Concert (and some other time but I'm blanking when that was!?! argh too early and I'm hungover). I was majorly impressed by how great it sounded. Auditorium Theater is known for its acoustics, unless you're in the nosebleeds. Eddie many times apologized to the folks up there and went into a long story about how his uncle took him to his first concert there when he was 8 or so he said 1978 then 1976 and they kept going all the way up. If you've never been in those seats, they're awful. We left a Wilco show once because it was so bad. Do not buy tickets up there tonight even if they're cheap. Also he said it was Springsteen and I briefly wondered who the "Uncle" was if you catch my drift.

Oh the sound...they must have mic-ed the actual floor because his foot stomping was definitely coming out of the amps. And no, not the little kickdrum box. I think he only used that twice. It was great. Setlist was great. I don’t know why he did Hurt, but it was definitely a take on the Johnny Cash version. It was good, but hasn’t everyone covered that song by now? The audience mics were out and EV mentioned recording the show on two different occasions. My guess would be a set of the two nights to be released at some point. It was definitely worthy of its own bootleg as 1 show though.

Anyway, the highlight for me was No More with Thomas Young. It’s pretty hard to be that close to the stage and see how crippled this guy is and not get emotional. The whole place (mostly, I’ll get into this later) was singing the chorus and it was very emotional. Eddie even got choked up during the next song and mentioned it. Probably one of the more “moving” moments I’ve experienced at a concert just because of the crowd and what was going on. And I’m a jaded concert goer.

Now for the crowd: It was a pretty old crowd. I’m 32 and I’m guessing that was the avg age. That said there was only 1 or 2 dudes yelling idiot stuff and they got loud shushes.

The worst people were in a box to my left on the left side of the orchestra. The “rock chicks” looked like they came from a Motley Crue concert and were dancing during songs that weren’t really “pleasant” in their lyrics. And they were shouting etc. Luckily the sound was so good you couldn’t hear them much.

My biggest issue with the crowd came from the four, I assume 10C members, in front of me. One college age couple and two guys who came separately. I overheard them talking before the set and assumed, oh fellow travelers, neat, they mentioned they read this board too. During No More, they did not sing along. They stood there staring. If you haven’t heard the song once in your life, you can figure out the chorus by the second go through. I assume they’d heard it before. To me, that’s almost rude, if not disrespectful. I can almost understand not singing along to Sometimes when ed prompted everyone, but they should know that song too. BTW the singalong to Sometimes was so cool!

During the whole concert these four barely moved. I can totally understand why this would piss EV and Pearl Jam off like at the UC a few years ago. Now that I’m married with a baby Pearl Jam shows are about all I’ll make the trip to see and I cant’ travel as much to see them as I used to. That’s cool, family is most important. But if you’re able and traveling to see shows like these people in front of me said and you’re not INTO IT, why the f-ck are you there? Seriously. Explain this to me?! Me, I was singing along and having a good time.

Anyway, I also mused on the sheer money that had to be made on this tour. $35 posters! Even if you sold 1000 a night at a cost of $10 that’s $25,000 a night! Times 20 shows. Nearly half a mil on posters alone. WOW! I bought a show specific one, as I always do, but it sure made me think. I’m not begrudging EV on this, just makes you wish you had talent

All in all a fantastic fantastic show. I’m not going tonight as we have a busy weekend ahead and I kind of don’t want to ruin how good a show last night was in case tonight isnt’ as good! Anyway thought everyone would like to hear my thoughts and want to hear what others think too!

Thanks for adding that he said the 2% of Milw. While I'm over the bad chatter in Milw, hearing how he commented on it brought it back. Glad you clarified the 2%.

It's crazy, all day yesterday I listened to the song Hurt (Johnny Cash version) and commented to my wife when I got home, sure wish EV would have covered that song. Glad he finally did..............

TrixieCat

releaselauren wrote:

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.

I am sorry to hear you are going through a rough time.
:(
But happy to hear you met Eddie.
Peace to you.
Buy yourself some hot shoes.