i\'m sticking with my release opener call for tonight. psyched.
:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D
oh. hell. yes.
2008-06-25 - Madison Square Garden; New York, NYI:
Release, World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand, Corduroy, All Night, Cropduster, Garden, Marker In The Sand, I\'m Open, Wishlist, State Of Love And Trust, Even Flow, Who You Are, Rats, Given To Fly, Do The Evolution, Go
E1: Inside Job, W.M.A., Lukin, I Believe In Miracles, Better Man(Save it for Later), Rearviewmirror
E2: No More, Last Kiss, Why Go, Black Diamond, Alive, Yellow Ledbetter
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tuesday night\'s show was fantastic. last night made it seem like i saw a nickleback show at cafe nine on tuesday night.
holy fucking shit.
i\'m still not 100% sold that it was better than camden 1, but i\'m sort of leaning towards "it was". i got my release opener that i\'d been calling for 36 hours, and it was everything i thought it would be. absolutely perfect way to set the mood. 1st WWS of the tour! Cropduster?!?!?!?!? *never* saw that one coming. we were actually out to eat before the show and the restaurant had on the garden dvd. cropduster came on, and we were commenting on how we wouldn\'t be hearing that one tonight. ha!
perfect place to bring back Garden! and it wasn\'t the half-assed 2006 shitfest version of the song, either. it was the real deal, and was terrific to hear. i also love that they played MITS!! mike completely fucked up the beginning and they had to stop and restart it. i was glad they\'d already played corduroy, cause typically that\'s their fallback when they fuck something up. but they got it right and it was great. wishlist i could take or leave, but it was my first of the tour so that was cool. SOLAT!!
i actually enjoyed Even Flow tonight. matt took a pretty damn good drum solo during it. he\'s really starting to open up on this tour. finally. i\'ve always said that matt with PJ isn\'t half as good as he was with Soundgarden. that\'s starting to change. didn\'t think i\'d get another Who You Are, but i\'m not complaining. RATS was amazing, dedicated to the rats at shea stadium and all over the city. GO to close the set was completely unorthodox and amazing. fantastic choice.
Inside Job to open the first encore was a huge surprise. the entire first encore was pretty unbelievable, actually. CJ Ramone was in the house again and played bass on IBIM again. didn\'t mind hearing that 2 nights in a row either. ed started Better Man with "Talking...", and was pretty ashamed about it. stopped the song, restarted, and let the crowd take over. i called RVM to close E1 at that point, and bam, there it was.
i like No More, but i\'m wishing ed would switch it up a little bit. there\'s plenty of other songs to put in this slot, but i guess NM has a message he wants people to hear (and sing), so... i knew Last Kiss was coming when the band set up facing the people in the back. it was good to hear. it\'s been a while. interesting placement for Why Go, but it worked. i don\'t think i could get sick of this one live. good thing, too. they\'re playing the balls out of it.
Ace Frehley came out for Black Diamond, and i didn\'t know what it was. :shrug: ed took a break, and mike and matt sang it. it was pretty damn good, with ace and mike going back and forth on solos. Alive was quite awesome with the garden completely lit up and singing in unison. i knew YB was coming to close it out, however, i\'d mark it down as E3. the band never left the stage, but they did all leave their stations and instruments before getting into a quick huddle and deciding to play it. the lights stayed on, and it was great. mike played a full Star Spangled Banner at the end, and when it was over, we just stood and watched thankfully as our favorite band, who\'d just played one of the greatest concerts we\'ve ever seen, in the most famous arena in the universe, actually thanked us. surreal.
the poster story: so on tuesday, we took the 3:52 train into the city. didn\'t get a poster. on wednesday, after originally pushing up to 3:30, we decided to take the 2:50. we made our way to MSG at a good pace on foot, eye on the prize the whole time. we got there at 5:00, and entered the poster line, which had hundreds of people in it. you first had to get a wristband to stand in this line. we did. after a little while, they started letting people in, 50 at a time, to buy
posters wristbands to pick up a poster after the show. i wasn\'t feeling very good about our place in line, but there was also no way i was leaving the line. each time 50 people went in, we only moved up about 3 baby steps. well, eventually we get to the front, and we get through the first part, and get to now go stand in line at the extremely crowded merch table. we were only in this second line for about 5 minutes. we were about 8 people from the merch table when the crown up there started to disintegrate. my heart sunk. it was 6:05, and wristband posters had sold out. :mad:
while i don\'t think they had this system in place yesterday, you *still* did not need a ticket to the show to get a poster. ugh. i\'m hoping i have some better luck in hartford and mansfield, because i now have 3 shows to make up for lack of posters this tour. i really wish i never started collecting these fucking things.
