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

[Scott]

As critical as I've become of this band over the past few years, I can't think of many other bands that would wait for a few hours to finish a show.

[evenslow]

as a pink floyd fan, i was very excited they played mother, and i thought they nailed it.

completely forgot to mention 'mother.' vedder really made it his own for the first time and it was stunning. this coming from a guy who didn't like their initial attempts at it.

[mkay0]

my rain delay story is a bit different than most- the ladyfriend fainted during the middle of release, and we spent the remainder of the first set of songs as well as most of the rain delay in the first aid room so she could recover. the heat had taken its toll on her, and because we got into town late and rushed to the show we didn't do a good job of fueling up beforehand- she was dehydrated and we hadn't eaten since lunchtime. thank you to the folks around us in the back of GA who showed concern and helped out- it was scary (i'd never seen someone so devoid of normal color- even her lips were blue) and i appreciated the support. once she got an icepack, water and some food, she recovered and we were back in the crowd for the restart of the show. suffice it to say, we both were not disappointed the show was stopped- if one was going to pass out during the first song, this was the show to do it at.

Saw your lady being taken out, good to hear she is fine. I honestly am surprised stuff like this doesn't happen more at GA concerts.

[given2trade]

As critical as I've become of this band over the past few years, I can't think of many other bands that would wait for a few hours to finish a show.

Agree but they would have had to refund or reschedule the show which would have cost them millions. It's not so altruistic

[mkay0]

So, just got home. Yesterday was one of the weirdest days of my life.

We rushed to the venue because of all the shit I had read online about long merch lines. I walked right up to the Ten Club box office for tix, they had a ton of windows. No wait, walked right up. I had reserved lower, and got Aisle 4, row 5 with ten club number 302xxx. Was initially disappointed that my seats were not on the field, but we were probably closer to the stage than the back rows of the floor were. I had never sat that close to the Bartman seat before for a cubs game, so that ended up being pretty cool.

Show was advertised as starting at 7:30, but the band came on at 8:15. This would have been a totally moot point if there was no weather delays, but if they came out 10-15 minutes earlier, they would have done 'All the Way' at the end of that first set, which would have been pretty perfect timing for a break and probably allowed for 1-2 more songs.

The weather delay was a clusterfuck. Eddie said after Small Town and said that it would be 30 minutes of weather, then back to work. 2 hours 30 minutes after he said that, the tech crew finally started tuning back up. The entire delay was from about 9:00 to 11:45. The only really shitty thing was the lack of communication. An announcement on the PA would have gone a long way. Everyone around us had no internet service during the delay, so getting any info from news about weather or from PJ themselves was not really possible. Wrigley does not have much space on the inside, so it was pretty snug for a while.

After they came back on, it was honestly as good as you could have possibly hoped for, considering the circumstances. The band was as very solid, and the fans were relatively energetic. Another 25 songs over 2 hours 15 minutes was much more than I thought were were going to get. Eddie really wanted this one to be special, and it showed. Mother was the best version of it I have seen them do and Chloe/Thorns was amazing. We can debate the quality of the two new songs, but it was amazing to be there when they were first played. I really don't know what to think of them yet, but at the time I was just wishing they would have played something else.

After the show, I was extremely disappointed when I saw all the songs they cut from the original set list. The show that might have been during a night without rain could have been one of the best ever. I would have strongly preferred Eruption/Bugs to have been cut and replaced with Sleight of Hand or Man of the Hour, or really anything else. Also, closing with ritfw instead of Alive was not what I would have done. I was pretty adamant about those complaints last night, but I can now see that it must have been ten times the clusterfuck for the band as it was for the fans, so picking apart the set with a fine toothed comb probably wasn't feasible.

I see a lot of people with negative experiences with other fans, and that was not the case for me. The people I sat with were all Ten Club members and very glad to be there and were very cool. The delay sucked, but we were only stuck inside due to heavy rain for about an hour. The rest of the time, we were in our seats bullshitting. The energy level was not as high as it would have been, but I think it was pretty impressive, all things considered. Sure, the merch stuff was bad, but I think that is more about the secondary market, rather than people needing to have every item. How shitty can the fans be when there was nearly a 3 hour delay, and 98 percent of the audience was still there when the show started back up?

My takeaway from the experience was that I really can't believe how well everyone dealt with that long of a delay. I can't imagine any other band being worth waiting 3 hours for, and it was insane how many people stayed, and how long/late the band eventually played. Comparisons to the Ice Bowl seem very warranted, but I think the performance by the band was much better than that. It was an insane night, but I'm pretty happy considering how it could have gone.

[BDB]

i don't know, the crowd around me, and in the concourse during the delay were decent.
agreed on the lack of energy....but the first set of songs were all slow. Then a 3 hour delay, then back on so i am not really surprised due to the heat and excessive alcohol at that point in the night.

overall, a strange show. kind of frustrating knowing how it could have been an epic performance. also since getting anywhere after the show was a joke. took us 2 hours to get downtown. if there was no delay the show would have ended and people would have hit the bars. instead you had 45,000 or what ever were there roaming the streets trying to pack onto the el.

fuck, i'm tired today.

[Birds in Hell]

In case this gets overlooked in the main LB thread:

There's a very decent audience recording of Wrigley (and one of London too) up at dimeadozen now if anyone is interested in better quality versions of the new songs.

[evenslow]

A lot of this thread could be condensed to: Rain Sucks

[BurtReynolds]

A lot of this thread could be condensed to: Rain Sucks

yeah. what ya gonna do?

[warehouse]

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.

so what do you do w/ stattracker, jerk off to it when you're alone? you are doing the same exact thing you bitch about.

after seeing the setlist and reading some articles, i gotta hand it to all you guys who stuck it out. sounds like it was quite the experience. there are some weird complaints in this thread though. people are complaining about a lack of energy, and then complaining the band didnt play songs like sleight of hand and man of the hour. wtf? i love SOH, but thats probably the last song you play when the crowd lacks energy. where was go? animal? whippin? i completely understand why some songs were cut, while others, like bugs, were still played (see above).

with that said, the band could have changed it up a bit as well. i understand the setlist was written days in advance, but you kinda gotta wing it after a delay like that. why not open the 2nd set w/ 'rockin in the free world'? that will get the crowd into the show. im sure mccready wanted to play 'eruption', but it would have been kinda awesome if they kicked into 'you really got me' after that. if you want a show to be epic, you have to do something epic during the show, not just play all night. im sure the entire band could have learned a cover they never played before during the rain delay. i applaud their effort after a shitty delay like that, but it seems like they are afraid to take chances sometimes.

[given2trade]

broken iris is the guy who was pissed a few years ago the band repeated a "rare" song in the same tour because it ruined his "rare" experience

lol

[Birds in Hell]

with that said, the band could have changed it up a bit as well. i understand the setlist was written days in advance, but you kinda gotta wing it after a delay like that. why not open the 2nd set w/ 'rockin in the free world'? that will get the crowd into the show.

Given the circumstances, I really think it seems like the band went above and beyond, but I'll agree they probably could've kicked off the resumed set with something a little more exciting. Personally, I think Alive right into All Night would've been perfect.

im sure the entire band could have learned a cover they never played before during the rain delay

Oh, come on.

i applaud their effort after a shitty delay like that, but it seems like they are afraid to take chances sometimes.

The band played until 2am, played three new songs (two of which are unreleased and were played for the first time ever) and even threw in BUGS for crying out loud. But yes, totally standard issue Pearl Jam set.

[warehouse]

with that said, the band could have changed it up a bit as well. i understand the setlist was written days in advance, but you kinda gotta wing it after a delay like that. why not open the 2nd set w/ 'rockin in the free world'? that will get the crowd into the show.

Given the circumstances, I really think it seems like the band went above and beyond, but I'll agree they probably could've kicked off the resumed set with something a little more exciting. Personally, I think Alive right into All Night would've been perfect.

agreed, alive would have been perfect.

im sure the entire band could have learned a cover they never played before during the rain delay

Oh, come on.

what? its not like they havent done this before. mountain song, 99 problems...

i applaud their effort after a shitty delay like that, but it seems like they are afraid to take chances sometimes.

The band played until 2am, played three new songs (two of which are unreleased and were played for the first time ever) and even threw in BUGS for crying out loud. But yes, totally standard issue Pearl Jam set.[/quote]
debuting songs is taking chances now? and lets be honest, bugs sucks. they only reason they even play it is so nerds can enter it into their stattracker. its like the retarded brother of 'bee girl', completely pointless song live. i actually think the setlist is great considering the circumstances. they blended enough deep cuts w/ stuff like black and evenflow. i dont really like the new song, but the encore looks fantastic.

[Birds in Hell]

debuting songs is taking chances now?

Of course it is!

Apart from doing more awful covers, what other "chances" would you have had them take?

It just seems like a thoroughly bizarre complaint to have about this particularly unique show.

[warehouse]

debuting songs is taking chances now?

Of course it is!

Apart from doing more awful covers, what other "chances" would you have had them take?

It just seems like a thoroughly bizarre complaint to have about this particularly unique show.

how about awesome covers?

[Birds in Hell]

debuting songs is taking chances now?

Of course it is!

Apart from doing more awful covers, what other "chances" would you have had them take?

It just seems like a thoroughly bizarre complaint to have about this particularly unique show.

how about awesome covers?

Maybe they should play an entire set of covers, that's taking a chance.

[warehouse]

debuting songs is taking chances now?

Of course it is!

Apart from doing more awful covers, what other "chances" would you have had them take?

It just seems like a thoroughly bizarre complaint to have about this particularly unique show.

how about awesome covers?

Maybe they should play an entire set of covers, that's taking a chance.

i feel like they've done that already, so it wouldnt even be that big of a chance

they should have let matt sang lead on a song. or even mike.

[Birds in Hell]

debuting songs is taking chances now?

Of course it is!

Apart from doing more awful covers, what other "chances" would you have had them take?

It just seems like a thoroughly bizarre complaint to have about this particularly unique show.

how about awesome covers?

Maybe they should play an entire set of covers, that's taking a chance.

i feel like they've done that already, so it wouldnt even be that big of a chance

they should have let matt sang lead on a song. or even mike.

The inclusion of Turning Mist and a hastily-chosen barely-rehearsed cover would've really pushed this show into epic territory, sure.

[warehouse]

debuting songs is taking chances now?

Of course it is!

Apart from doing more awful covers, what other "chances" would you have had them take?

It just seems like a thoroughly bizarre complaint to have about this particularly unique show.

how about awesome covers?

Maybe they should play an entire set of covers, that's taking a chance.

i feel like they've done that already, so it wouldnt even be that big of a chance

they should have let matt sang lead on a song. or even mike.

The inclusion of Turning Mist and a hastily-chosen barely-rehearsed cover would've really pushed this show into epic territory, sure.

agreed.

but seriously, isnt cheap trick from chicago? how about 'surrender'? or an old chicago blues song?

[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.

so what do you do w/ stattracker, jerk off to it when you're alone? you are doing the same exact thing you bitch about.

.

I see it as two different things; tracking what you heard (we have a thread about in the main PJ forum) versus bragging about it and using it as a measure of being a superior fan. If you don't that'd fine, no need to be a dick about it.