Widespread Panic/Allman Brothers Band at Northerly Island Chicago September 1, 2009

Allman Brothers Band

Done Somebody Wrong
Don't Keep Me Wonderin'
Woman Across The River
Hot'Lanta
Stand Back
Revival
Only You Know And I Know @
Feelin' Alright @
Dreams
The Sky Is Crying $
You Don't Love Me $
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed

Encore: Melissa
Trouble No More

@ = w/ Dave Mason, guitar and vocals
$ = w/ Buddy Guy, guitar and vocals
_______________________

Widespread Panic

Disco >
Henry Parsons Died
Bear's Gone Fishin' >
*Ride Me High >
Jam
Diner >
Angels On High
#Just Like A Woman >
#@Turn On Your Lovelight
*Papa's Home >
*Jam >
Drum Solo >
*Climb To Safety >
*Papa's Home >
*Space >
*@North
Encore:
*@Bowllegged Woman

* With Derek Trucks On Guitar
# With Greg Allman On Organ and Vocals
@ With Warren Haynes On Guitar

Allman Brothers Band/Widespread Panic at Northerly Island Chicago September 2, 2009

Widespread Panic

Send Your Mind
Walkin' >
Jam >
Makes Sense To Me
Pigeons
*Mercy >
*Jam >
*Rock
C Brown >
Love Tractor
Weight Of The World
I'm Not Alone >
Barstools
Provin' Ground
Last Straw
#Me And The Devil
#Last Dance

* With Derek Trucks On Guitar
# With Warren Haynes On Guitar
_____________________

Allman Brothers Band

Statesboro Blues
One Way Out
Ain't Wastin' Time No More
Rocking Horse
Midnight Rider
Leave My Blues At Home
And It Stoned Me @
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry @#
Black Hearted Woman
Southbound #$%
(Call It) Stormy Monday %
Mountain Jam
JaMaBuBu
Mountain Jam (Reprise)

Encore: Whipping Post

@ = w/ John Bell, guitar and vocals
# = w/ John "JoJo" Hermann, keyboards
$ = w/ Dave Schools, bass
% = w/ Jimmy Herring, guitar

Pearl Jam at The United Center in Chicago - August 23, 2009 (Night One)

Photo Credit PJ Preston, from Flickr

Set List for Night One
________________
Long Road (Merkin Ball)
Corduroy (Vitalogy)
Why Go (Ten)
God's Dice (Binaural)
Dissident (Vs.)
Small Town (Vs.)
Sad (Lost Dogs)
The Fixer (Backspacer)
Given to Fly (Yield)
-Happy Birthday To Mike Richter-
Comeback (Pearl Jam)
Evenflow (Ten)
Save You (Riot Act)
In Hiding (Yield)
Man Of The Hour (Man of the Hour single, Big Fish soundtrack)
Insignificance (Binaural)
Got Some (Backspacer)
Spin The Black Circle (Vitalogy)

1st encore
Love Reign O'er Me (The Who - Quadrophenia)
Life Wasted (Pearl Jam)
The Real Me (The Who - Quadrophenia)
Alive (Ten)

2nd encore
The Needle and The Damage Done (Neil Young - Harvest) - performed by Vedder solo
Rats (Vs.)
Supersonic (Backspacer)
Smile (No Code)
Rearviewmirror (Vs.)
Yellow Ledbetter/Star Spangled Banner (Jeremy single/Lost Dogs)

Pearl Jam at The United Center in Chicago - August 24, 2009 (Night Two)

Photo Credit PJ Preston, from Flickr

Set List for Night Two
__________________
Hard To Imagine (Lost Dogs)
Corduroy (Vitalogy)
In My Tree (No Code)
Last Exit (Vitalogy)
All Night (Lost Dogs)
Nothingman (Vitalogy)
The Fixer (Backspacer)
Even Flow (Ten)
Present Tense (No Code)
Whipping (Vitalogy)
Not For You w/Modern Girl, by Sleater Kinney tag (Vitalogy)
Daughter w/Another Brick In The Wall part 2-Pink Floyd tag (Vs.)
Brother (Lost Dogs/Ten Reissue)
Gone (Pearl Jam)
Got Some (Backspacer)
Do The Evolution (Yield)
Alive (Ten)

1st encore
No More (Vedder - Body of War Soundtrack) - performed solo
Comatose (Pearl Jam)
Grievance (Binaural)
Black (Ten)
The Real Me (The Who - Quadrophenia)
Porch (Ten)

2nd encore
Wasted Reprise (Pearl Jam)
Better Man w/Save It For Later tag (Vitalogy)
Crazy Mary (Victoria Williams)
State of Love and Trust (Singles soundtrack/Ten Reissue)
Fuckin' Up (Neil Young - Ragged Glory)
Yellow Ledbetter w/Star Spangled Banner (Jeremy single/Lost Dogs)

Out on the Porch, PJ Covers Fuckin' Up & the National Anthem

PJ rocks the middle of Porch.



Pearl Jam covers Neil Young's Fuckin' Up from Ragged Glory. You'll see Jeff Ament and Mike McCready switch bass & guitar around 3:35 into the video, and less than 30 seconds later, Eddie will don a spiky blond wig tossed to him by a member of the crowd.




Mike McCready plays the end of Yellow Ledbetter and segues into Star Spangled Banner to close the second of two amazing nights of Pearl Jam in Chicago

PJ Tix, Pics from Night Two

I'm Still Alive... Taking to the Air

Jump!

Six Songs in the Second Encore...

Yellow Ledbetter

Them Crooked Vultures - August 9, 2009 - Metro, Chicago

Concert review: Them Crooked Vultures at Metro
http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2009/08/concert-review-them-crooked-vultures-at-metro.html

The term “super group” gets thrown around way too often in rock, but in the case of Them Crooked Vultures, it applies. The group consists of the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl on drums, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme on guitar, and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones on bass and keyboards. The trio made its international debut and capped off Lollapalooza weekend in Chicago with a 75-minute performance that began at midnight Monday at a jam-packed Metro. Grohl discussed his hopes for the group as many as four years ago, and the three have been working on an album in Los Angeles this year. But the music has been a mystery; none of the tracks has leaked on the Internet, and the group’s future plans are shrouded in secrecy.

After debuting a dozen songs at Metro, the group made it very clear that it’s not only for real, but also has the chance to be the exception to the super-group rule. Most of these Frankenstein projects usually end up being less than the sum of their parts, but Crooked Vultures sounded like it was on to something fresh, invigorating and just plain nasty. Grohl is in many ways the linchpin. One of the great drummers in rock, he was the man who put the wallop in Nirvana, and also anchored the finest Queens of the Stone Age album, “Songs for the Deaf” (2002). His work on this night was astonishing, a clinic in brute force and finesse that was exhilarating and exhausting to observe at close quarters. Homme handled lead vocals and guitar, and was unusually clear-eyed and affable, playing with more precision than he usually musters in Queens. And Jones, whose music with Led Zeppelin is an obvious touchstone for both his bandmates, was a huge presence with his variety of four-, six- and eight-string basses, a match for Grohl’s power and a counterpoint for Homme’s melodies. The group was rounded out by Queens alumnus Alain Johannes on guitar.

The set’s foundation was hard rock and hard edges, with Jones and Grohl going toe-to-toe in the engine room. Homme played more with texture and layering sounds on his guitar, the first memorable riff showing up four songs into the set on “Dead End Friends.” His high vocals were often bolstered by harmonies from Grohl, Johannes and even Jones. There were a couple of red herrings: “Bandoliers”” flirted with tenderness (Homme introduced it as a love song) and “Interlude w/ Ludes” came off as a prank, with Jones on keytar and a shimmying Homme in lounge-crooner mode.

Otherwise, it was wrecking ball time, with the arrangements sometimes taking several turns before resolving. Two epic tracks stood out. “Daffodils,” which hinted at psychedelia with reverb effects on the vocals and a massive bass tone, was capped by a Jones piano solo. And “Warsaw” ebbed and flowed, winding down to a low-key guitar-bass exchange before building back up into a slamming finale. History tells us that super groups usually don’t last very long. But at least this particular one is off to a rousing start.

Them Crooked Vultures set list at Metro:

Elephants
New Fang
Scumbag Blues
Dead End Friends
Bandoliers
Mind Eraser (No Chaser)
Gunman
Daffodils
Interlude w/ Ludes
Caligulove
Warsaw
Nobody Loves Me

Led Zeppelin Ballet (interpretation of Everyman)

Laura and I went to see a ballet featuring the music of Led Zeppelin on Friday at the Vittum Theater on Noble Street. It was an interpretive dance rendition of Everyman. Obviously, I went for the Zeppelin, but I did enjoy the way the music was employed throughout the performance. Some were probably more of a stretch than others, but most songs perfectly suited the mood that was being portrayed. The director was smart to use instrumental renditions of the songs in certain places so that the lyrics didn't distract. Especially effective in this regard was Kashmir, by Bond.

Below, you can see which songs were used for specific scenes and read a synopsis of the ballet. Some of the songs were edited in various ways to shorten them and emphasize specific sections. For example, the solo in No Quarter was excised, but featured prominently in an edited Since I've Been Loving You.

A bit more about the play, which apparently dates to the 15th century (this differs from the date given in the synopsis in the photo above) and could be derived from an older Latin play called Homulus, can be found here on wikipedia.

The Tragically Hip at The Vic Theatre, Chicago - May 27, 2009

I haven't been able to obtain a setlist yet, but I hope that I'll track one down soon. The previous night's set was posted by 5pm the next day.

Very entertaining show. I had never seen The Hip live before, although I had listened to several bootlegs after downloading and burning them for Matt and Thom, so my familiarity level was higher than it otherwise might have been. Gord Downie is definitely a dynamic performer and great to watch. The songs I didn't know were strong, and those I did were great. As I note in one of the posts below, I did a little listening before the show to some tracks on the band's website and came across a new favorite - Yawning or Snarling, which I hoped to hear at that night's show. Fortunately, I heard that one as well as some other favorites, like Hundredth Meridian, New Orleans is Sinking, Blow at High Dough, and Little Bones. A high concentration of those favorites appear on Up to Here and Road Apples - burned copies of which Matt furnished me with at JCC back in 2001. At some point, I need to actually buy some Hip, but I'm so behind on listening to music I already own that it's hard to justify too many new purchases.

Downie seemed to have a great rapport with the crowd, which I was kind of wondering about ahead of time, since my impression is that the band's following in the US is not as intense as in Canada, except perhaps in cities close to the Canadian border, like Buffalo. A quick glance at their tour itinerary confirms that most dates are scheduled in the Northern United States, Canada, with a few shows on the West Coast. The Vic is a small place - a capacity of about 1,300 or so, and although I don't believe the shows sold out, there was a closely-packed and energetic crowd on hand. There were several good-natured hockey references made because the Blackhawks were facing elimination that night against the Red Wings (the Hawks lost in overtime), with Gord remarking once, "hey, zero-zero, Hawks lead!" and someone in the crowd replying "we'll take it!" (see the video of It's a Good Life... below).

The pictures and few videos I took have already been uploaded below, and they will probably be more interesting than anything else I have to say, so proceed...

TTH

There's a pretty clear shot of the bass drum below in the picture of Baker on the slide, and you'll notice there's something extra there.
Apparently it's a Yamaha SubKick, used to capture a better representation of what the drum actually sound like live.
I had never seen one before.

Acoustic Hip

Bassist Gord Sinclair and rhythm guitarist Paul Langlois switched instruments for the first portion of the brief acoustic set.

Mini-Acoustic Set Continues

One Night in El Paso...