2013-07-19: Wrigley Field: Chicago, IL

[broken iris]

Rescheduled? TWICE THE MERCH TO BUY!!!!!!

[E.H. Ruddock]

Been seeing a lot of bad things here and on Facebook about what assholes the hardcore fans were, trying to "outdo" everyone in conversation about the band.

[Norah]

Looks like they skipped over Speed, Sleight and Man.

Don't forget Other Side.

[Fuck You Jobu]

Now that I managed to get a few hours of sleep, here's my take:


Good:
Hold On - I knew it was on the setlist that was circulated two days ago, but it was still a great treat. This was on my "never gonna hear it" list.
Low Light - Love Yield, love this song
Come Back dedication - It was great for Eddie to dedicate this one to the 10c who lost wife. Sets a dangerous precedence for the people who post there, but still very cool
MYM - Sounded better than London, crowd liked it
Bugs - ticked that one in StatTracker, now it can go away from the live show
Future Days - seemed a bit rough performance-wise, but I like the idea of Eddie writing love songs and the keyboards weren't nearly as bad as some made them out to be. Looking forward to hearing this one on LB
Chloe Dancer - First time hearing this, thought Eddie nailed it.

Bad:
Eddie's vocals on All Night and DTE - maybe there was a problem with the equipment after the delay, but he sounded bad on these two
Lightning Bolt - The crowd didn't respond well to this one, nor did I
Eruption - blah. A waste of time in a shortened set
Ed talking over the outtro of Black - WTH?
Why Go - felt like the weakest version I have heard in years
Cut songs - they cut songs the hardcores would have wanted to hear in favor of wishlist/UK/even flow #875

Ugly:
Rain delay - almost 3 hours, killed the crowd energy since it did not rain for the last 45 minutes of the delay.
Complete lack of communication for those in the stadium - Once word got out that Pitchfork ended early and Phish had given up, people were getting antsy. Would it killed them to just say something over the PA every 45-60 minutes? Shit, we got 30 emails about Wrigley merchandise, why not a few about the show itself?
Where was Alive? -
Crowd - just dead by the first encore break. Not that it was really good to begin with, but the band really tried. You could see it in Eddie's face, he wanted to make something great and was disappointed by the break just as much as everyone else, but they just wouldn't give the energy back to him. The crowd was just the picture of the bored, overexposed PJ fan base. They were there so that they could brag about on social media and to other PJ fans. And hopefully get a new badge in stattracker. Even the GA section looked bored. Hopefully the injection of newer fans into GA pits in the fall helps fix this.


This post might soundly overly negative, it's not meant that way. I am glad I was there and there were some great moments, but thanks to the clusterfuck rain delay, this one did not turn out "Epic". And to everyone who was at London but not Wrigley, you guys got the better end of the deal.

Hold on was great. And totally agree with Chloe Dancer. It really seemed like Eddie was really trying his hardest to make work and be special.

As a guitarist I like that he played Eruption. Though there were a couple of miscues...

REgarding the crowd.... it was a long hot day and it was pretty dour during the delay. They had to wait a bit for it dry up after it stopped raining. Can't have thousands of people running back out on the saoked plastic ground.

[Fuck You Jobu]

Looks like they skipped over Speed, Sleight and Man.

Don't forget Other Side.

Yeah missing that was a shame.

[Dr. Van Nostrand]

Been seeing a lot of bad things here and on Facebook about what assholes the hardcore fans were, trying to "outdo" everyone in conversation about the band.

I hate people so much most days, but i always really enjoyed PJ fans, what the hell happened to them

[Fuck You Jobu]

Been seeing a lot of bad things here and on Facebook about what assholes the hardcore fans were, trying to "outdo" everyone in conversation about the band.

Outdo them in what? PJ trivia?

[broken iris]

Been seeing a lot of bad things here and on Facebook about what assholes the hardcore fans were, trying to "outdo" everyone in conversation about the band.

LOL, absolutely. It's a consequence of social media as just showing off is not good enough anymore.

I wish I had a video of this dude's face last night when I told him I preferred RM to the pit. It was like I had just made a child molestation joke to a devout Catholic.

[southp]

Sounds like London was more of an "instant classic" in our eyes, but down the road Wrigley will be remembered a sorta legendary because of the scale and hype and rain delay...

[@SkitchP]

Bugs - ticked that one in StatTracker, now it can go away from the live show

Crowd - They were there so that they could brag about on social media and to other PJ fans. And hopefully get a new badge in stattracker. Even the GA section looked bored.

:/

[logan5ive]

setlist
If they had actually started on time at 7:30, they would have had time to play the complete setlist and not skip the 8 songs.

merch
I steered clear of trying to get any merch outside and was able to get all but one poster inside with just about a 45 minute wait.

performance
I thought the show was great. Show #65 for me and I'd put it in my top 10. The band sounded great and tight from where I was (section L). Mike was on fire all night and had great solo after great solo.

Rain delay
Sucked ass.

[broken iris]

Bugs - ticked that one in StatTracker, now it can go away from the live show

Crowd - They were there so that they could brag about on social media and to other PJ fans. And hopefully get a new badge in stattracker. Even the GA section looked bored.

:/

Two different things and uses for the excellent stattracker tool. One is to literally track the songs you have heard. The other (trophies) is so that you can measure how big your... err... "fandom" is.

[Chris_H_2]

BTW, they completely lost the crowd with that 3hr break. London was much better.

It didn't help when they came out and played songs like All Night and Bugs -- I'm guessing people didn't wait 3 hours to hear those songs.

[broken iris]

BTW, they completely lost the crowd with that 3hr break. London was much better.

It didn't help when they came out and played songs like All Night and Bugs -- I'm guessing people didn't wait 3 hours to hear those songs.

Yeah, should have come back with Wash. Crowd would have loved it.

[Chris_H_2]

FWIW, I thought Ed sounded really good last night.

[Chris_H_2]

Also, I stood next to the VIP section all night, and other than folks like Kenny Mayne, John Cusak, and a couple of Blackhawks, the amount of douchebaggery was unbelievable.

[Chris_H_2]

And I know I sound like a downer, but I thought Lightning Bolt and Future Days were both forced and really bleh.

[stupidmop]

Sucks the band couldn't play the set they wanted, and for all the people that had to wait 3 hours. I'm suprised they let them start again at midnight.

FWIW, I thought Ed sounded really good last night.

Only listened to the first set on the stream, anyone else hear that epically long note he held at the end of lowlight I think it was?

[patrick]

My brother and I were one of those that left once the delay ended as we planned to meet family after the show would have ended 11:30-12ish.

I guess my disappointment is my own, but the rain was a factor all week (they could plan for it) so if they had just started on time I think things would have worked out better. Ed even stated they had been planning the show for a while. Maybe we'll find out more as to why they didn't start on time.

Under cover, people were friendly, passimg cups of ice. By the second hour people were getting antsy, especially with the lack of air flow.

[jdopj]

Sucks the band couldn't play the set they wanted, and for all the people that had to wait 3 hours. I'm suprised they let them start again at midnight.

FWIW, I thought Ed sounded really good last night.

Only listened to the first set on the stream, anyone else hear that epically long note he held at the end of lowlight I think it was?

Yes it was pretty great