So much hate for camden shows

boyo79

jjtormey wrote:

I'm not so sure I would say they do their best work indoors...I've seen them outside throughout the years and two of the best shows were:

Soldier Field in 1995
Berlin - Wuhlheide in 2009

Any Wuhlheide show is awesome

badbrains

on2legs wrote:

The atmosphere there is terrible. The shows themselves are great. But its hard to get excited about seeing a show in Camden like you do for other venues. They should drop Camden and use PNC in Holmdel again.

Holmdel sucks ass big time!

on2legs

badbrains wrote:

on2legs wrote:

The atmosphere there is terrible. The shows themselves are great. But its hard to get excited about seeing a show in Camden like you do for other venues. They should drop Camden and use PNC in Holmdel again.

Holmdel sucks ass big time!

If its a choice between Camden and Holmdel I'll take Holmdel every time.

MG79478

on2legs wrote:

If its a choice between Camden and Holmdel I'll take Holmdel every time.

I agree 100%. Easy in and out, nicer venue, better set list.

StillHere

I don't read the hate mail/posts

All I can say is that I've been to several Camden shows and while the acoustics are not overly fantastic, its an open air outdoor venue...a field on a hill more or less...the shows themselves have been quality.

That being said...Camden is NOT a tourist destination by any stretch of the imagination. IF you want entertainment before or after the show, or you are staying over....cross the bridge to Philly and knock yourself out.

One thing to see if you've never been to a big harbor aquarium *Baltimore* etc., is the Camden Aquarium. You can also catch the ferry to Philly from there.

I am looking forward to another round of Camden shows this year

Deamon

Is this show on the high or low priority for people in general?  I know MSG is going to be at the top of people's lists, but is Camden one of those "OMG this will be epic" shows or "this will of course be amazing because its PJ, but it's not really special" kind of shows?

rey

Deamon said:

Is this show on the high or low priority for people in general?  I know MSG is going to be at the top of people's lists, but is Camden one of those "OMG this will be epic" shows or "this will of course be amazing because its PJ, but it's not really special" kind of shows?

I'll let you know on September 15.  

JH6056

I've been seeing PJ in Camden since '98, and to this day if I could go to every Philly area show, INCLUDING Camden, I would. There is something about the energy of that area - because remember, most shows the majority of the audience is from that area.  I know PJ fans travel like crazy, but there's still a critical mass at any given show that is more local and I love Philly area shows.  I'm from NYC, lived in Boston, and go all up and down the eastern seaboard over time for shows, so I've got from Maine to Altanta to compare shows to, and Philly is cool.

Obviously Camden is a disinvested-in community, it was once the murder capital of the US (decades ago).  Now it's just not that pretty, but as many shows as I've seen there (PJ and many other bands too), we've never ever ever had a problem with locals, with our car, with cops, nothing. I find most people to be cool actually.

And maybe Jeff hates that venue but the band just has a special energy I find when playing Philly, and I say that having seen the DC, Philly, NYC and Boston shows on many tours.

Only thing in this convo that surprised me: that Camden amphitheater capacity is 25,000 but Wells Fargo arena is less! I checked it out, it's true, WF is 19,500, I am really surprised by that!  I do prefer outside when the weather allows, but obviously all tours aren't in spring or fall so....  But I didn't realize that.

kosteva2

I've been to every Philly/Camden show since '98.  Agree w/ most of the points made here.
Location not the nicest neighborhood (although its gotten a lot better over last 20 years).  Some sketchy people in the area.  Watch out for fake tickets, etc.
Agree w/ others that an arena show will top an outdoor amphitheater show 9 times out of 10.  
Would definitely prefer they play the Mann in Philly over Camden.  Much nicer parking lot scene in the middle of Fairmount Park.
Getting to Camden not too difficult.  Easy highway access and river ferry from Old City Philadelphia easy to use.  Problem is getting out if your coming back to PA side.  Ferries always back up and long wait unless you beat the rush and skip the encore.  Getting out of parking lots and back on highway/bridge a pretty slow process.  Even exiting the venue itself a pain as everyone kind of migrates to one of 2 main exit points.
Sound ok for an outdoor arena.
The sets for Camden shows over the past 22 years have been a little meh.  The '98 ones (especially night 1) really good.  Over time though its kind of become just another show.  The Philly proper sets more often than not seem to get a little more special treatment (Philly '05, Spectrum '09, Tenadelphia '16, Spectrum '03, even MIA w/ Jay-Z '12).  
Guarantee Ed makes a comment at some point along the lines of "where the f**k are we?  Are we in Philly or are we in Jersey?"  Has done it every Camden run since '98.

100 Pacer

Should be interesting following MSG.

Get_Right

Been to almost every Camden show since 2000. Love it. When I saw the list of dates that was the one that made the top of my list. Tailgate in the lot with primos and beers. Perfect. Cant wait. Hope the weather is nice. We always stay in the NJ suburbs near moorestown.  No hassles. Wawa chili dogs on the way home for the win (we do not do that as much as we used to).

2-feign-reluctance

When I lived in Philly I took a wrong turn and ended up in Camden. Police officer I asked for help with directions back (pre-smart phone times) told me not to get lost over there again. 

CROJAM95

i heard the area was improving prior to the pandemic, now prob bad like most urban areas around the country,  will be my 1st Camden show

100 Pacer

2-feign-reluctance said:

When I lived in Philly I took a wrong turn and ended up in Camden. Police officer I asked for help with directions back (pre-smart phone times) told me not to get lost over there again. 

For the 09 Philly shows we missed the turn to the hotel and ended up crossing over the bridge into Camden…we quickly crossed over back.

jdesantis1983

MG79478 said:

on2legs wrote:

If its a choice between Camden and Holmdel I'll take Holmdel every time.

I agree 100%. Easy in and out, nicer venue, better set list.

I prefer PNC in Holmdel too since it's about 5 minutes away, but the problem with PNC compared to a venue like Camden is PNC is in a residential area, so they have a tight curfew, either 10:30 or 11pm hard stop from what I remember. That might be why PJ stopped playing PNC years ago after they continued playing other amphitheaters. Even more recently when a group like Dave Matthews Band continues to play PNC, they usually don't have an opener and start early to accommodate the early stop time.

PureandEasy

This venue, with numerous name changes over the years; host shows all year long.  I have been to many.  The venue and local police do a fantastic job managing the traffic and walking crowd to the local train stations. So sick of hearing negative things about Camden, there are great people and bad people no matter the name of the town.  

Kswheeler

Camden blows worst venue don’t understand why they don’t play CBP or the linc great concert venues  

pjhawks

Kswheeler said:

Camden blows worst venue don’t understand why they don’t play CBP or the linc great concert venues  

Shocked they haven't played Citizens Bank yet.  I'm not a fan of the Camden venue either. I guess it's ok if you can lounge on the lawn with smaller groups and crowds but for a big sold out show like PJ it's not good. I actually debated even going to this upcoming show because it was in Camden.  Ultimately decided you only live once and didn't want to miss out on a local PJ show even if I dislike the venue.

GP179117

Camden is great......

eeriepadave

pjhawks said:

Kswheeler said:

Camden blows worst venue don’t understand why they don’t play CBP or the linc great concert venues  

Shocked they haven't played Citizens Bank yet.  I'm not a fan of the Camden venue either. I guess it's ok if you can lounge on the lawn with smaller groups and crowds but for a big sold out show like PJ it's not good. I actually debated even going to this upcoming show because it was in Camden.  Ultimately decided you only live once and didn't want to miss out on a local PJ show even if I dislike the venue.

or they can compromise and do Camden Yards (since they never made up the Baltimore date)

tdawe

If I were going to the Camden show this year (I’m not), my hope would be that it ends up being the “Newark 2010” show of this tour. 

nicknyr15

tdawe said:

If I were going to the Camden show this year (I’m not), my hope would be that it ends up being the “Newark 2010” show of this tour. 

Do we even think a show like that is possible anymore with the current structure of set lists?

bootlegger10

nicknyr15 said:

tdawe said:

If I were going to the Camden show this year (I’m not), my hope would be that it ends up being the “Newark 2010” show of this tour. 

Do we even think a show like that is possible anymore with the current structure of set lists?

No.

Ryan_WFC

Been going to shows there for almost 30 years without the slightest issue. Even park at a meter a few blocks away to save money.

tdawe

nicknyr15 said:

tdawe said:

If I were going to the Camden show this year (I’m not), my hope would be that it ends up being the “Newark 2010” show of this tour. 

Do we even think a show like that is possible anymore with the current structure of set lists?

By “of this tour” I meant “relatively”. 

nicknyr15

tdawe said:

nicknyr15 said:

tdawe said:

If I were going to the Camden show this year (I’m not), my hope would be that it ends up being the “Newark 2010” show of this tour. 

Do we even think a show like that is possible anymore with the current structure of set lists?

By “of this tour” I meant “relatively”. 

I understand. I just can’t help feeling slightly depressed when I revisit some of those setlists. 

on2legs

Hopefully we get a couple more songs added this leg of the tour.  

nicknyr15

on2legs said:

Hopefully we get a couple more songs added this leg of the tour.  

Yea I really hope we get 25-28 

on2legs

nicknyr15 said:

on2legs said:

Hopefully we get a couple more songs added this leg of the tour.  

Yea I really hope we get 25-28 

That would be a really good sweet spot between the stadium show epic setlists and the last Euro tour. 

mcgruff10

nicknyr15 said:

on2legs said:

Hopefully we get a couple more songs added this leg of the tour.  

Yea I really hope we get 25-28 

I'm down with that.