*** Chicago, IL 2 Fanviews Here 9/7/23 ***

Eddieshometown

In this point in my life, I'd prefer to hear "Mother's Little Helper" rather than "Street Fighting Man".  I'm still beat after last week.  What a drag it is getting old!

ceska

Wow, what a perfect day and what a great show! My brother and I went to the United Center at 9:30am and got wristbands #88 and #89. It was suspicious getting wristbands from a guy in a Lexus in the parking lot, but everyone we talked to said it was legit. We then checked out the Ukrainian Village and got lunch at a Greek place. We returned to the arena after lunch and saw enormous lines for merch so we went back to our hotel (Congress Plaza) to rest an hour or so. We returned to UC around 4:15pm. There were no lines at all for merch inside or out. We got everything we wanted except stickers (basketballs, duffel bags, and the good poster were out but we weren't looking for them). It was my smoothest PJ merch experience ever. Amazing. I got the show tshirt and the hockey jersey, which I figured would long have been sold out by then.

We got in line for GA and met many cool people. A lot of them were from Michigan. It was amazing how easy and seamless this GA lineup process was. I hope more venues do this for GA. Going through arena security was a breeze too, and we got "third" row from the rail. However, people without wristbands ended up right next to us. More people went to the merch line than to the rail when the venue opened. Everybody in the GA pit was cool, and only one younger person tried sneaking up to the rail during the first song but they were firmly told "No, that doesn't happen here". They moved back behind me and they disappeared after 3 or 4 songs.

As for the show, I love Elderly Woman, and it was interesting to hear it as an opener. I love when the band throws a curveball. That said, I think Elderly Woman works better 4-5-6 songs into the show when the band is ready to kick things up a notch. I prefer a slow burn (Release/Long Road/Oceans/Sometimes/Wash) or a rocker (Breakerfall/Go) as an opener. The whole main set was pretty interesting,  almost "hit free" - no Corduroy, no DTE, no Betterman. Green Disease and Marker in the Sand were perhaps the biggest surprises of the night, and I was happy to hear them again after a long time absent from my setlists. Tremor Christ is always good to hear too. Being right up front and with earplugs on, I didn't always recognize songs right away, and it took me a moment to recognize Marker. I think there may have been a lyric flub in Immortality but I'd need to hear a tape to confirm. Nevertheless that one is always great to hear too. Seven O' Clock is my favorite song off Gigaton and I am glad that song seems to have found a steady spot in the rotation - at least for the shows I've attended.

I think people have commented on most all of Ed's trips to "Banter Corner". Additionally, just prior to the Chelios number retirement announcement Ed asked to see the ID of someone who asked for Ed's wine. The fellow was indeed turning 21. Ed had some comments in jest regarding the spelling of the fellow's name and his mustache or lack thereof. I also threw up a little when Ed got the Rocky chant going. I suspect that Ed doesn't pay close enough attention to sports, and not to hockey in particular, to know who Kyle Beach is, so I'm just chalking this one up to plain old uninformed ignorance.

Ed kindly gave a pick, and later a harmonica, to a young lady on the rail whose car had been stolen a few nights before. Nice gestures that hopefully lifted her spirits. Ed also tossed a tambourine in the direction of a child on his dad's shoulders, and there was struggle of about 15-20 seconds until the child was in firm possession of said tambourine. Sheesh, people!  I saw a comment that Mike tossed his Blackhawks jersey into the crowd. How did that go down and how many pieces did it get ripped into?

I agree that Leash usually takes shows to another even higher level, but at the time none of us knew it was on the setlist, so no loss there that Once was played instead. Smile was great - gotta get my No Code fix. I am not a Rolling Stones fan so I did not recognize Street Fighting Man. But as far as covers go it sounded good and I enjoyed it. I am super glad to not have heard Rocking in the Free World for the first time in a few shows. The ending of Alive > Baba O' Riley > Yellow Ledbetter was perfect.

I very much enjoyed Inhaler's set. There was a distinct group of 4-5 young ladies to the left of the stage who sang along to every song. I am having a harder time getting into their album but I will keep giving them a try. They have a good foundational sound.

Here are some of my photos. I've posted another 70 or so to my website. All taken with the Sony RX100VII. Enjoy!

john.riedlz

NEweather

ceska said:

Wow, what a perfect day and what a great show! My brother and I went to the United Center at 9:30am and got wristbands #88 and #89. It was suspicious getting wristbands from a guy in a Lexus in the parking lot, but everyone we talked to said it was legit. We then checked out the Ukrainian Village and got lunch at a Greek place. We returned to the arena after lunch and saw enormous lines for merch so we went back to our hotel (Congress Plaza) to rest an hour or so. We returned to UC around 4:15pm. There were no lines at all for merch inside or out. We got everything we wanted except stickers (basketballs, duffel bags, and the good poster were out but we weren't looking for them). It was my smoothest PJ merch experience ever. Amazing. I got the show tshirt and the hockey jersey, which I figured would long have been sold out by then.

We got in line for GA and met many cool people. A lot of them were from Michigan. It was amazing how easy and seamless this GA lineup process was. I hope more venues do this for GA. Going through arena security was a breeze too, and we got "third" row from the rail. However, people without wristbands ended up right next to us. More people went to the merch line than to the rail when the venue opened. Everybody in the GA pit was cool, and only one younger person tried sneaking up to the rail during the first song but they were firmly told "No, that doesn't happen here". They moved back behind me and they disappeared after 3 or 4 songs.

As for the show, I love Elderly Woman, and it was interesting to hear it as an opener. I love when the band throws a curveball. That said, I think Elderly Woman works better 4-5-6 songs into the show when the band is ready to kick things up a notch. I prefer a slow burn (Release/Long Road/Oceans/Sometimes/Wash) or a rocker (Breakerfall/Go) as an opener. The whole main set was pretty interesting,  almost "hit free" - no Corduroy, no DTE, no Betterman. Green Disease and Marker in the Sand were perhaps the biggest surprises of the night, and I was happy to hear them again after a long time absent from my setlists. Tremor Christ is always good to hear too. Being right up front and with earplugs on, I didn't always recognize songs right away, and it took me a moment to recognize Marker. I think there may have been a lyric flub in Immortality but I'd need to hear a tape to confirm. Nevertheless that one is always great to hear too. Seven O' Clock is my favorite song off Gigaton and I am glad that song seems to have found a steady spot in the rotation - at least for the shows I've attended.

I think people have commented on most all of Ed's trips to "Banter Corner". Additionally, just prior to the Chelios number retirement announcement Ed asked to see the ID of someone who asked for Ed's wine. The fellow was indeed turning 21. Ed had some comments in jest regarding the spelling of the fellow's name and his mustache or lack thereof. I also threw up a little when Ed got the Rocky chant going. I suspect that Ed doesn't pay close enough attention to sports, and not to hockey in particular, to know who Kyle Beach is, so I'm just chalking this one up to plain old uninformed ignorance.

Ed kindly gave a pick, and later a harmonica, to a young lady on the rail whose car had been stolen a few nights before. Nice gestures that hopefully lifted her spirits. Ed also tossed a tambourine in the direction of a child on his dad's shoulders, and there was struggle of about 15-20 seconds until the child was in firm possession of said tambourine. Sheesh, people!  I saw a comment that Mike tossed his Blackhawks jersey into the crowd. How did that go down and how many pieces did it get ripped into?

I agree that Leash usually takes shows to another even higher level, but at the time none of us knew it was on the setlist, so no loss there that Once was played instead. Smile was great - gotta get my No Code fix. I am not a Rolling Stones fan so I did not recognize Street Fighting Man. But as far as covers go it sounded good and I enjoyed it. I am super glad to not have heard Rocking in the Free World for the first time in a few shows. The ending of Alive > Baba O' Riley > Yellow Ledbetter was perfect.

I very much enjoyed Inhaler's set. There was a distinct group of 4-5 young ladies to the left of the stage who sang along to every song. I am having a harder time getting into their album but I will keep giving them a try. They have a good foundational sound.

Here are some of my photos. I've posted another 70 or so to my website. All taken with the Sony RX100VII. Enjoy!

             Love the action! 

Leezestarr313

We had a fun time in Chicago, arriving the night before and staying at proper hotels thanks to hubby's job for the first time. We only had tickets for Baltimore for the last tour, which was sadly cancelled, so this was the first time in seven years to see them again live. It was cathartic to hear the first notes, to say the least, even from our sad sack section 313 seats. The band came across in wonderful mood, and they looked and sounded energetic. I thought Ed sounded fantastic too. I loved hearing Whoever Said and Seven 'o Clock for the first time and hope to get some more goodies from Gigaton (because I had not heard any live yet) but oh well... Tremor Christ was my highlight, that was another first, as well as Marker and Deep and Garden and Smile. I was sad when the show was over, I could have easily done another half hour at least but I guess second encores are now a thing of the past. Merch lines were awful with nothing fun left even upon arrival. We left the show happy and with little voice left, ate some great late night pizza and went to bed knowing we would have another amazing show coming up two days later in Noblesville, giving our nephew the first experience of live PJ as a gift...

Jcanr20

troubledsoulsuniteblog said:

ddeschler said:

I was in Sec 114.  I could hear every note of Mike's guitar, but I wasn't getting much of Jeff's bass.

danceswithsquirrels said:

Did anyone notice anything off with the sound? I was in 219 and it sounded like one of the guitars was completely missing for awhile. I believe the first song I noticed it was Tremor Christ. Still enjoyed the hell out of the show. Just wondering if anyone else noticed. 

Agreed. Both nights I was on MIke's side (309 and 111). Could hear him loud and clear, but it almost sounded like Stone was turned off and the bass was way down. If I plugged my ears, then I could hear the low end stuff, but otherwise it was as if they were playing as a Ed, Mike, Matt trio.

I sort of lightly plugged my ears with my hands a couple times and I thought it sounded better. I was going to use some old ear buds to lightly plug them in Indy to see how it was but didn't get the chance unfortunately. For me, the sound was so loud it was hard to decipher what I was hearing much of the time.

ceska

NEweather said:

ceska said:

Here are some of my photos. I've posted another 70 or so to my website. All taken with the Sony RX100VII. Enjoy!

             Love the action! 

Thank you very much!

vito

mrussel1 said:

Gern Blansten said:

So Leash got scratched....just realized that. Once took its place

Oh man.. that would have taken a great show to the next level.  The crowd goes bananas for that song. 

Agree but, still one of the best shows I've ever seen🙏

jniko

Show me a better 14 song stretch

jniko

Add Tremor Christ as a deep cut  and it even gets better 

Loujoe

I spy green disease in there too. Scorcher set.