Jason was coming home from vacation in Lake George, and I was heading to Rochester to see the Dreaming, so we met up in the city to go to the show. A yummy dinner at the original location of Sticky Lips BBQ was followed by a visit with Eric and Tiff to see their new baby Nathan. A quick but nice visit, then to Montage for the show.
I’ve really been waiting 12 years or so to see Chris Hall and/or Stabbing Westward or the Dreaming. Somehow I never saw SW back when I got into them, even though they were still together at the time. Montage is a tiny little place, that was ridiculously loud. We got there later, missing most of the openers. I don’t know who was playing when we walked in, but I thought, that sounds like The Edge guitar, specifically “I Will Follow” and the singer introduced a song that “everyone would know”, and proceeded to play “Pride”. Ok so I had the wrong U2 song, but I was right about the guitar tone ha. Got some drinks, socialized with Joe a bit, said hi to Johnny Haro who plays drums for the Dreaming now.
Aside from the show being so loud, it was pretty decent. The band sounded good, though their songs start to sound the same after a while. I was impressed with Chris Hall’s voice, as many many many of those 90s guys I used to like can’t sing for shit anymore. He sounded right on, hitting all the notes he should be. After the show I bought their new cd Puppet and Chris signed it. He was like “you guys looked so bored during the show, which I’m sure is how I look when I’m at a show, but…” LOL I had to explain that they weren’t Jay’s style, but that I had waited a long time to see them, I just don’t dance sooo. There were at most 40 people there, and it’s hard to hide in the crowd when there isn’t one….
No setlist, and I can’t even begin to guess at it. But they did play SW covers: What do I have to do, Shame, Sometimes it Hurts (which Chris started acoustically), and Save Yourself…maybe another one, I didn’t recognize the song so it might have been from their 4th record (so far away? yeah that’s on the 4th, so I don’t know it). They also played their cover of Depeche Mode’s It’s No Good.
Ok so this setlist is from Chicago but Joe says it’s accurate except they didn’t play Waking Up Beside You (that’s a shame…)
Puppet
Breathing
End In Tears
What Do I Have to Do? (Stabbing Westward cover)
Set Fire to the Rain (Adele cover)
There Will Be Blood
Waking Up Beside you
Make It Go Away
Every Trace
It’s No Good (Depeche Mode cover)
Bullet
So Far Away (Stabbing Westward cover)
Ugly
Fight For You
Shame (Stabbing Westward cover)
Encore:
Sometimes It Hurts (Stabbing Westward cover) (acoustic)
Save Yourself (Stabbing Westward cover)