Will probably a couple short entries this week especially if the baseball games are anything like tonight's game. The Twins-Tigers one-game playoff for the AL Central crown tonight was an all-time classic. 162 games wasn't enough, 9 innnings wasn't enough, an exciting game through and through. And I must say thank you to the inventor of the DVR for allowing me to watch that game in its entireity even though I gave the kids a bath and put them to bed. It will also allow me to watch the Phils game tomorrow after work even though its a 2:30 PM start. I just need to avoid all media until I can get home. GO PHILLIES!
Anyway on to the U2 review and what a show it was. My appreciation of the show was certainly helped by the fact that Gordon and I got into the inner circle of the massive stage and were 25 ft. from the band between Bono and Adam Clayton. When the boys would walk on the outer circle, we were only 10 feet away. Here is the setlist:
10/01/2009 Scott Stadium - Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Breathe, Get On Your Boots, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day / The Hands That Built America (snippet), No Line On The Horizon, Magnificent, Elevation, Your Blue Room, New Year's Day, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / Movin' On Up (snippet), Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of, The Unforgettable Fire, City Of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight / Thank You (Falettin Me Be Mice Elf Again) (snippet) / I Want To Take You Higher (snippet), Sunday Bloody Sunday / People Get Ready (snippet), MLK, Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
encores: One / Amazing Grace (snippet), Where The Streets Have No Name, Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment of Surrender
comment: Ninth consecutive concert at which Pride is not played; this is a record, beating eight consecutive shows in March/April 2001.
The show opens with two from the new album. Breathe was great, Get On Your Boots hasn't really done it for me yet.
Things really get cooking with Mysterious Ways as we watch Clayton lay down the bass line and the bridges linking the stage with the outer ring swing nearly over our heads and Bono and Clayton pass over.
Beautiful Day was, well, beautiful with stage breaking out into rainbow colors. No Line on the Horizon is one of my favorites from the new album but I don't know how familiar the crowd was with it. I expected the "Woooa - woooa - woooa - wooo!" lines to get more audience participation. It was sometimes hard to tell how much the crowd was getting in the stands was getting it because we were so close. Elevation, however, was the first song were I felt like the crowd and band really got together. Everyone on the floor was bouncing up and down and I think the band started to feel the love. Your Blue Room was a real wild card, an obscure track from the Passengers CD. I had just discovered this song when it popped up on my iPod while I was mowing the lawn the previous weekend and was instantly taken by it, listening to it a couple times. So needless to say I was quite pleased when they went into it and it provided a breathy, psychedelic moment to cool down and catch air. The space visuals worked well with the song also, equating the blue room of the girl in the song to images of the blue Earth from space.
New Year's Day and Still Haven't Found were standard, nothing new there. Stuck In a Moment was just Bono and the Edge on acoustic guitar. Not one of my favorite U2 songs. Don't dislike it but can take it or leave it. However, Bono and Edge harmonized quite well on this one with Edge really showing off that falsetto he has and getting a hug from Bono at the end.
At this point the show really started to take off for me. This was also the point where the video screen surrounding the top of the stage began to expand downward like a trellis and the light show really kicked in. Unforgettable Fire was an unexpected but welcome song in the set. I had forgotten (pun intended) how great this song is and Bono really nailed the vocals. (The sound isn't so hot on this clip but you get a nice view of the stage.)
City of Blinding Lights was fab (I've been singing it all day today) with Bono coming to the outer circle near us to get the crowd singing the "Oh...you... look...so...beautiful toniiiight!" chorus.
Vertigo truly sucked me into a Vertigo with the lights on the video screen spinning around and actually making me dizzy but in a good way not a puking kind of way.
Next came the highlight of the show for me, the new song I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight. They changed the arrangement from the album to turn this into an extended drums/bass rave-up. The whole band took to the outer circle, including Larry Mullen on a djembe drum. The crowd on the floor was dancing like crazy and the whole band ended up near us on the outer circle for the last part of the song and the pit around us turned into beautiful, crazy dancing chaos. One of those moments when I felt truly transported by the music and the crowd.
Sunday Bloody Sunday was made contemporary with Bono and the stage visuals placing it in the context of the Iranian revolution after the elections earlier this year. The politics continued with Walk On becoming a truly moving tribute to about Burma's Ang San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 20 years. The outer circle was completely manned by volunteers from Amnesty International wearing Ang San Suu Kyi masks. It threatened to get a little cheesy but the conviction of the band and the realization of what Ang San Suu Kyi has been through pulled it through.
During the break before the encore, they played a pretty cool short speech from Bishop Desmond Tutu on the video screens. It compared people who fight for human rights all over the world and the twinkle in his eye and his beatific smile really pull you in and he ended by saying "We are all One", which of course led into One.
As much as Bono has sung this song in his lifetime, he still sings this with absolute conviction and feeling and it really is one of the great songs of rock and roll. Where the Streets Have No Name was good but standard.
My second highlight came next with the performance of Ultraviolet (Light My Way). A microphone dropped from the top of the stage that had a round neon light around it (if you saw their performance of this at the end of SNL a couple weeks ago you know what I'm talking about). Bono was wearing a jacked with LED lights in it and when the dry ice fog surrounded him it looked like he was emanating needles of red light. The microphone was on a high-strength cable so Bono was hanging off of it and swinging over the crowd at times. Combined with a transcendent perfromance of the song, it was a true sight to behold.
With or Without You was next and then the show ended with one of my favorite songs from the new album, Moment of Surrender, and was given a great performance.
Everyone I spoke with liked the opening band Muse and their industrial 80's meets metal sound was pretty good.
U2 should be back in the spring for more stadium dates in the US. If you go, buy the $50 General Admission seats and get in early because they let the first 2000 people into the inner circle. It was not overly crowded in there and even if you don't get in there, you can get a nice spot on the outer circle. I'm hoping to catch the show again in the spring.
Now quickly because I need to get some sleep before work, Wednesday nights shows in Richmond.
Third Eye Blind will be at The National. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Blueskyreality. Tix are $27.50.
The Richmond Roots Music Seessions continue with Brad Spivey and the Honky Tonk Experience (country honky tonk freakout) - with - Hamburger James (rock-a-billy) & David Shultz and the Skyline (alt-country) at the Hat Factory. Doors open at 8 and tix are $10.
See you tomorrow.
Tony Jordan
Showing posts with label Scott Stadium. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Stadium. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
U2, Disco Biscuits, Bruce Hornsby, Austin City Limits Fest
October starts with a busy weekend here in Richmond. We kick things off tomorrow night with U2 at Scott Stadium at the University of VA in Charlottesville. Doors open at 5, show starts at 7 with opener, Muse. Tickets range from $30 - $250. As of 9:40 PM on Wednesday, there were seats available (and pretty good ones) at the $250, $95, and $55 levels. The only ones sold out were the $30 seats. (Sidenote: In looking up the Scott Stadium site I discovered that it has the completely ridiculous full name of "the Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium".) If you're going to the Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium to see U2 (I really hope Bono works the whole name in. "Hello, Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia! Are you ready to rock!?!"), they aren't allowing you tor bring anything into the stadium not even a bottle of water. All the better to get you to buy those tiny $4 bottles they'll be selling. And the bastards don't even serve beer!
If you have never seen U2, you really must. They are a legendary band at this point, one of the biggest bands in rock history and one of the few bands left that can do a huge stadium show and do it well. And the stage for this one is the largest stage OF ALL TIME. The previous largest stage, the Stones' Bigger Bang tour stage, could fit UNDERNEATH this one. It should be a site to behold.
I will be there on the field with the rockers who don't mind standing and going nuts for hours on end. I have seen U2 on each tour since the Joshua Tour, except for the last tour, so the layoff has me rather excited to see them. I have been avoiding pictures and setlists so as to keep the show as much of a surprise as possible. So I have come up with my dream setlist. My rules: At least one song from each album, 25 songs and in order of where they should be in the show. Feel free to contribute your own setlist in the Comments field. Here we go:
No Line on The Horizon - from album No Line on The Horizon (They usually start with a song from the latest album and I think this one will make a good opener.)
Vertigo - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Hello! Hello!)
I Will Follow - Boy
Where The Streets Have No Name - Joshua Tree (No pauses between the first four songs. Come out banging!)
Sort of Homecoming - Unforgettable Fire (A breather. Great bass line from Clayton.)
Surrender - War (Been listening to War a lot lately and this one just seems to stand out. No New Year's Day or Sunday Bloody Sunday. Overplayed.)
Pride In The Name of Love - Unforgettable Fire
Even Better Than The Real Thing - Achtung Baby
Gloria - October
Bad - Unforgettable Fire
Exit - Joshua Tree (A great song that just builds and builds until it explodes. Was phenomenal in the Joshua Tree show. Watch Rattle & Hum if you forgot.)
Until The End of The World - Achtung Baby (Some of Bono's best lyrics. He takes the point of view of Pontius Pilate speaking to Jesus.)
Elevation - All That You Can't Leave Behind
Angel Of Harlem - Rattle & Hum (Perhaps their funnest song. Great horn lines that would have to be pre-recorded or played on keys.)
Stay (Faraway So Close) - Zooropa (When I worked overnights at the radio station, I used to crank this one way up. Perfectly captures that half-awake/half-asleep dream world of 2 AM.)
Love Is Blindness - Achtung Baby (Some of the Edge's best work at the end of this one. Really jammed it out at the end of the Zooropa show.)
Red Hill Mining Town - Joshua Tree (Just something different to play off of this album.)
The Saints Are Coming - single (w/Green Day) (This would be killer live.)
Do You Feel Loved - Pop (A great song with another great Clayton bass line. Listen to it again. You'll thank me. Really nice production on this one too.)
Moment of Surrender - No Line on The Horizon (This one is standing out early for me as I learn the new album. Will probably have a new fav from the album after seeing some of the songs in concert.)
Bullet The Blue Sky - Joshua Tree (The Edge as Hendrix, all squawling semi-controlled feedback. Off the charts.)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - single (A great song from a lame movie. The movie also gave us "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal. Listen to that one on the headphones. Beautifully sung by Seal and produced by Trevor Horn.)
Please - Pop (I think this one of their best songs ever. No shit. This album also had one of their worst songs ever ("Miami").)
Beautiful Day - All That You Can't Leave Behind (A great, feel-good song. And they gotta get the lights all rainbowy at the proper moment.)
Ultraviolet (Light My Way) - Achtung Baby (A great closer. They must bust out the mirror ball for this one.)
Its getting late now since I took 15 minutes out to watch the Phils win the NL East for the third year in a row (GO PHILLIES!). That list took longer than I thought it would too. Had to get just the right order and seperation between the slow songs. But since it took so long, I'm going to quickly run down the weekend's events in Richmond.
Thursday night, if you can't go to U2, to the National and check out jam band Disco Biscuits. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Big Gigantic and tix are $25. As their name would imply, Disco Biscuits tend toward the dancey, electronica side of the jam band universe. Here they are at the Fuji Rock Fesitval in Japan this year:
The Austin City Limits Music Festival will be broadcast for FREE on iclips.net starting on Friday at 12:30 PM, then Saturday & Sunday at 11:45 AM. They are still working out some of schedule but highlights include Avett Brothers, Coheed & Cambria, John Legend, Medeski, Martin & Wood, STS9, The Dead Weather and you're sure to find a new favorite band in there too.
Jamie McLean & DJ Williams Projekt are at the Capital Ale House on Friday night. Show starts at 10 and its $6 to get in. Jamie is the guitarist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and if you like classic rock, blues and such you'll dig him. Here he is performing in July:
Steve Kimock and his new band Crazy Engine will be at the Canal Club on Saturday night. Doors open at 8 and the opener is the Jesse Chong Band. Tix are $20. Some jam band aficionados worship the ground Kimock walks on. I've found him to be good at jammy and jazzy stuff but he doesn't really rock much or get a dancable groove going at least in past bands I've heard him with. I tend to find his solo stuff a might sleepy. Maybe that's changed with Crazy Engine. Keyboard great Melvin Seals is in the band so that should definitely add some soul. Here they are at the All Good Festival this year. Look for Phil and Angie in the audience. GET WELL SOON YOU TWO! I can't lose my concert buddies for any reason.:
Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers will be at The National on Saturday night. Wonder if you may see Kimock stop by with Hornsby or vice versa as they were bandmates in the Grateful Dead offshoot, The Other Ones. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. No opener, Bruce and the band will do 2 full sets. Tix are $35. Here they are doing a song from their latest album "Space Is The Place":
Sunday, "A Taste of Carytown" 6th Annual Food & Wine Festival will take place in Carytown from noon to 6. Tix are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate.
Sunday, the Richmond Roots Music Sessions "tour" stops at Legend Brewery. This series is leading up to the Folk Festival next weekend. At Legend will be Eden and John’s East River String Band (old timey blues duo from NYC) - with - Slack Family (bluegrass). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 5 PM.
Also Sunday, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer will be at Modlin Center for the Arts. However that one is sold out so you if you don't have tix you're out of luck.
Monday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions will be at Gibson's Grill with Fight the Big Bull (multi-musical jazz blowout) - with - Miramar (brazilian love duets) & DJ Rattan. Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 8 PM.
On Tuesday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions is at Plaza Bowl with Jesse Lege (cajun dance band) - with - Gypsy Roots (django Jazz and gypsy music) & Horo (bulgarian dance troop). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 7:30 PM.
Finally, also on Tuesday, guitar great Robin Trower will be at The National. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener 3borne and tix are $20 in advance, $23 day of show. Here's one of my favorite Robin Trower songs (had it on a K-Tel album!), Too Rolling Stoned:
Have a great weekend and I'll see you at U2! Bono, feel free to use my setlist.
Tony Jordan
If you have never seen U2, you really must. They are a legendary band at this point, one of the biggest bands in rock history and one of the few bands left that can do a huge stadium show and do it well. And the stage for this one is the largest stage OF ALL TIME. The previous largest stage, the Stones' Bigger Bang tour stage, could fit UNDERNEATH this one. It should be a site to behold.
I will be there on the field with the rockers who don't mind standing and going nuts for hours on end. I have seen U2 on each tour since the Joshua Tour, except for the last tour, so the layoff has me rather excited to see them. I have been avoiding pictures and setlists so as to keep the show as much of a surprise as possible. So I have come up with my dream setlist. My rules: At least one song from each album, 25 songs and in order of where they should be in the show. Feel free to contribute your own setlist in the Comments field. Here we go:
No Line on The Horizon - from album No Line on The Horizon (They usually start with a song from the latest album and I think this one will make a good opener.)
Vertigo - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Hello! Hello!)
I Will Follow - Boy
Where The Streets Have No Name - Joshua Tree (No pauses between the first four songs. Come out banging!)
Sort of Homecoming - Unforgettable Fire (A breather. Great bass line from Clayton.)
Surrender - War (Been listening to War a lot lately and this one just seems to stand out. No New Year's Day or Sunday Bloody Sunday. Overplayed.)
Pride In The Name of Love - Unforgettable Fire
Even Better Than The Real Thing - Achtung Baby
Gloria - October
Bad - Unforgettable Fire
Exit - Joshua Tree (A great song that just builds and builds until it explodes. Was phenomenal in the Joshua Tree show. Watch Rattle & Hum if you forgot.)
Until The End of The World - Achtung Baby (Some of Bono's best lyrics. He takes the point of view of Pontius Pilate speaking to Jesus.)
Elevation - All That You Can't Leave Behind
Angel Of Harlem - Rattle & Hum (Perhaps their funnest song. Great horn lines that would have to be pre-recorded or played on keys.)
Stay (Faraway So Close) - Zooropa (When I worked overnights at the radio station, I used to crank this one way up. Perfectly captures that half-awake/half-asleep dream world of 2 AM.)
Love Is Blindness - Achtung Baby (Some of the Edge's best work at the end of this one. Really jammed it out at the end of the Zooropa show.)
Red Hill Mining Town - Joshua Tree (Just something different to play off of this album.)
The Saints Are Coming - single (w/Green Day) (This would be killer live.)
Do You Feel Loved - Pop (A great song with another great Clayton bass line. Listen to it again. You'll thank me. Really nice production on this one too.)
Moment of Surrender - No Line on The Horizon (This one is standing out early for me as I learn the new album. Will probably have a new fav from the album after seeing some of the songs in concert.)
Bullet The Blue Sky - Joshua Tree (The Edge as Hendrix, all squawling semi-controlled feedback. Off the charts.)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - single (A great song from a lame movie. The movie also gave us "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal. Listen to that one on the headphones. Beautifully sung by Seal and produced by Trevor Horn.)
Please - Pop (I think this one of their best songs ever. No shit. This album also had one of their worst songs ever ("Miami").)
Beautiful Day - All That You Can't Leave Behind (A great, feel-good song. And they gotta get the lights all rainbowy at the proper moment.)
Ultraviolet (Light My Way) - Achtung Baby (A great closer. They must bust out the mirror ball for this one.)
Its getting late now since I took 15 minutes out to watch the Phils win the NL East for the third year in a row (GO PHILLIES!). That list took longer than I thought it would too. Had to get just the right order and seperation between the slow songs. But since it took so long, I'm going to quickly run down the weekend's events in Richmond.
Thursday night, if you can't go to U2, to the National and check out jam band Disco Biscuits. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Big Gigantic and tix are $25. As their name would imply, Disco Biscuits tend toward the dancey, electronica side of the jam band universe. Here they are at the Fuji Rock Fesitval in Japan this year:
The Austin City Limits Music Festival will be broadcast for FREE on iclips.net starting on Friday at 12:30 PM, then Saturday & Sunday at 11:45 AM. They are still working out some of schedule but highlights include Avett Brothers, Coheed & Cambria, John Legend, Medeski, Martin & Wood, STS9, The Dead Weather and you're sure to find a new favorite band in there too.
Jamie McLean & DJ Williams Projekt are at the Capital Ale House on Friday night. Show starts at 10 and its $6 to get in. Jamie is the guitarist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and if you like classic rock, blues and such you'll dig him. Here he is performing in July:
Steve Kimock and his new band Crazy Engine will be at the Canal Club on Saturday night. Doors open at 8 and the opener is the Jesse Chong Band. Tix are $20. Some jam band aficionados worship the ground Kimock walks on. I've found him to be good at jammy and jazzy stuff but he doesn't really rock much or get a dancable groove going at least in past bands I've heard him with. I tend to find his solo stuff a might sleepy. Maybe that's changed with Crazy Engine. Keyboard great Melvin Seals is in the band so that should definitely add some soul. Here they are at the All Good Festival this year. Look for Phil and Angie in the audience. GET WELL SOON YOU TWO! I can't lose my concert buddies for any reason.:
Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers will be at The National on Saturday night. Wonder if you may see Kimock stop by with Hornsby or vice versa as they were bandmates in the Grateful Dead offshoot, The Other Ones. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. No opener, Bruce and the band will do 2 full sets. Tix are $35. Here they are doing a song from their latest album "Space Is The Place":
Sunday, "A Taste of Carytown" 6th Annual Food & Wine Festival will take place in Carytown from noon to 6. Tix are $15 in advance and $20 at the gate.
Sunday, the Richmond Roots Music Sessions "tour" stops at Legend Brewery. This series is leading up to the Folk Festival next weekend. At Legend will be Eden and John’s East River String Band (old timey blues duo from NYC) - with - Slack Family (bluegrass). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 5 PM.
Also Sunday, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer will be at Modlin Center for the Arts. However that one is sold out so you if you don't have tix you're out of luck.
Monday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions will be at Gibson's Grill with Fight the Big Bull (multi-musical jazz blowout) - with - Miramar (brazilian love duets) & DJ Rattan. Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 8 PM.
On Tuesday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions is at Plaza Bowl with Jesse Lege (cajun dance band) - with - Gypsy Roots (django Jazz and gypsy music) & Horo (bulgarian dance troop). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 7:30 PM.
Finally, also on Tuesday, guitar great Robin Trower will be at The National. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener 3borne and tix are $20 in advance, $23 day of show. Here's one of my favorite Robin Trower songs (had it on a K-Tel album!), Too Rolling Stoned:
Have a great weekend and I'll see you at U2! Bono, feel free to use my setlist.
Tony Jordan
Monday, March 30, 2009
U2 - 10/1 in C'ville
U2 will play at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville on October 1. Various pre-sales (U2 fan club, UVA students, and John Paul Jones Arena "Keeping Up With the Joneses" members) will start tomorrow. Tickets go on-sale to the general public on Friday, April 3rd at 10:00AM at the Scott Stadium west box office, online at www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling 1-800-745-3000. Tickets for this event will be $252.00, $97.00, $57.00, and $32.00 plus service charges. A limit of 4 tickets per transaction will be permitted.
I checked the ticketmaster site and while they have a venue map showing the stage, they don't show which prices match which seats. From U2's previous tour announcement, I am guessing the $32 seats are upper sections of the upper level, $57 are GA, $97 are first level and lower section of the upper level, and the $252 are the "Red Zone" seats (see the venue map) and closest lower level seats. But don't hold me to that.
I checked the ticketmaster site and while they have a venue map showing the stage, they don't show which prices match which seats. From U2's previous tour announcement, I am guessing the $32 seats are upper sections of the upper level, $57 are GA, $97 are first level and lower section of the upper level, and the $252 are the "Red Zone" seats (see the venue map) and closest lower level seats. But don't hold me to that.
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