Janet Jackson in Buffalo

\ by

janet jackson – buffalo, ny – aug 10, 2001

carolyn came to visit, and paid for half my ticket, to see janet jackson. i dont like pop music, but whatever. she’s a jackson.

i don’t like pop music, but i hate r&b even more. 112 opened. they sucked. 4 black boys singing r&b songs. yeah, did not enjoy that at all.

janet came on around 9. opened with “come on get up” from the new cd. we had really super good seats, right side of the stage, row 7, so we could see perfectly (i wish i had seats that good for people i really like). the show was entertaining. the stage was cool, the chorography and visuals were cool. for a pop show, it was good. not sure how much she lip synched. carolyn didn’t think she lip sycnhed anything, but i disagree. when singers wear the head set microphones many times it’s so they can lip synch. all pop stars do it. “you ain’t right” sounded way too produced to have been sang live, but who knows.

highlight for me was “rhythm nation”…lowlight was the fact that she cut out “if”. i’m figuring that everybody there would have loved to see “if”. she could have cut out any one of the new songs, in my opinion, to leave in “if”….or she could have cut out “come back to me” (if that’s the song she played, i can’t remember). of all the songs she played, i would think it was a no brainer to leave in “if” but nooooooooooo she had to go cut it out. blah on her. for “would you mind” janet brings a boy onstage, straps him to a crucifix type device, and mounts him…yeah this kid was so turned on, it was so funny. i mean what guy wouldn’t be when janet is all covered in black vinyl and mounting you…even gay guys would be turned on by that LOL.

setlist:

Come On Get Up
You Ain’t Right
All For You
Love Will Never Do (Without You)
Trust A Try
Come Back To Me / Let’s Wait Awhile / Again (medley)
Runaway / When I Think Of You / Miss You Much / Escapade (medley)
Son Of A Gun
Got ‘Til It’s Gone
That’s The Way Love Goes
What Have You Done For Me Lately / Control / Nasty (medley)
Alright
Would You Mind
***If & Black Cat -cut cuz of psuedo illness***
Rhythm Nation / The Knowledge (medley)
Doesn’t Really Matter
Someone To Call My Lover
Together Again

so overall, it was a good, fun pop show.

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged:

Rolling Rock blog

\ by

back from rolling rock. the weekend was fun. camped at a KOA in a motorhome. i’ll comment a bit on the fest.

oleander – same as artvoice
tantric – whatever
staind – good, aaron is boring on stage tho. the 2 guitarists are nuts. aaron yelled at the ppl throwing mud, and they stopped. aaron had crowd sing most of “outside”.
incubus – i hate incubus, i still hate incubus
deftones – good. chino is funny.
live – awesome. very impressed. ed is really sexy on stage. new song “deep enough” was really cool…their new sound is sorta rap-rock…different
stp – awesome as always. scott got naked, which is always a bonus 🙂

general impressions: as a festival it seemed better done than k-rockathon. they planned for 5 min set changes. we were like no way…try at least 15 min. they were damn good though, because they had a 2 sided rotating stage. so while band was performing, other band was set up on other side of stage. THIS SHOULD BE DONE AT EVERY CONCERT. the Deftones and Live set changes were so fast no one realized the band was actually there. Live was so fast, they started playing, and no one was paying attention figuring it was the roadies checking stuff. Everything there seemed to go really well.

now my email is broken, fuck geneseo. i need to get it cuz i’m expecting some…like the kid from kitchener i met at EC and the guy who sent me hate mail…

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged:

Rolling Rock Fest

\ by

rolling rock fest – latrobe, pa – aug 4, 2001

danielle’s family headed down to Pa on friday afternoon. we camped in the motor home for the weekend at a koa. camping sucks, but it wasn’t that bad. i avoided taking a shower however. whatever.

saturday morning we woke up and it had rained. the sky was overcast, and before i had looked at the weather and it was supposed to be thunderstorms all day. that was good and bad. good because it would have been cooler since it had been mega hot the days before. i didn’t know what to expect there, and i didn’t want to roast. storms would be bad because we’d be stuck in the rain, and it would be muddy, etc. it didn’t rain.

so we drove to a mall, and took a shuttle to the fair grounds where the fest was. we got there around 11. i tried to sell 4 extra tickets that i had gotten from joe, but no luck. so we went inside, walked around the vendor area for a bit, then went and sat in the bleachers on the right side of the stage. the grounds were muddy, so everyone was a mess. we stayed on the bleachers the entire day. the sun eventually came out and it got hot, and somehow danielle got sunburned even tho we were sitting under a roof. but whatever. the people out in the field were muddy and hot and ick.

well when we sat down in the bleachers this really shitty band was on. we thought they were the winners of a battle of the bands contest, and we were wondering who the losers were… turns out they were Clyde, voted the best NYC indie band…right, they fucking sucked. Oleander was on after them. They were the same as at Artvoice in june. Tantric was next, they were whatever. I only know 1 song, it was good i guess. Didn’t overly impress me. Staind was on after Tantric. People started throwing mud, Aaron yelled at them, then someone threw a smoke bomb on stage. Staind was good, Aaron is boring on stage though. People broke out into a huge mud war after that behind the sound booth.

Incubus followed Staind, but they should have gone on before. I hate incubus, I still hate incubus. I guess, for them, they were good. Deftones were after that. They rocked. Chino is nuts. Yah they were good. Live was after Deftones. Holy shit, they were fantastic. I was super mega impressed. I expected a good show, and they delivered. The new songs they did sounded good, the old stuff sounded good, the songs i didn’t know sounded good. Ed was really great. It was just super good.

stp was the headliner, so they closed the show. awesome as always. They played for an hour and a half I think. Maybe not. I don’t know. setlist :

Coma
Vasoline
Meatplow
Big Empty
Piece Of Pie
Sour Girl (Acoustic)
Creep (Acoustic)
Days Of The Week (Acoustic)
Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart
Long Way Home
Hollywood Bitch
Interstate Love Song
Plush
Down
Dead & Bloated
Sex Type Thing

scott got naked during sex type thing. that’s always a good thing. the set sounded awesome. it was all good.

overall the show was really good. it seemed really organized, and happy. the mud people scared me because i thought they were going to start throwing mud into the bleachers. they also found big pieces of plywood, and i’m like shit, please not another wood stock. but things were ok. the mud people basically kept to themselves, only involving a few people on the outside of the mud circle. i was really impressed with the set changes. the time schedule said 5 minute set changes, and we were like, yeah right. but they did. they were head of schedule for most of the day. they had a 2 sided rotating stage, so while one band was performing, the other side of the stage was being set up for the next band. The Deftones and Live set changes were so fast, the band came out and no one was paying attention. Live started and everyone figured it was roadies checking guitars until everyone realized no, it really was the band. Every concert should have a 2 sided rotating stage lol. the fest’s main bands started at 12, and it was done by 7:30ish.

so after the show, took a bus back to the mall, went back to the campground, etc. left early sunday morning for home. it was cool. dunno if i’d go again, it would depend on who was playing. but it was good. best festival i’ve been to.

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

Econoline Crush at Playdium

\ by

econoline crush -playdium -missassaugua, ontario – august 2, 2001

thanks to dan and joe again.

Joe invited me as part of his guest list allowance to go to the show. so of course i wasn’t going to pass that up. we went up there with 2 of his friends, got a bit lost, found it eventually. the playdium is like a big fun center. there’s mini golf and gokarts and stuff.

So we found the bus and Dan was outside so we talked to him for a big, johnny came out to say hi, got a hug, talked a bit. they left to get ready for the show, we went inside during smoother. Smoother i guess is from Hamilton. They were really young. not bad, but not my thing.

now i was supposed to meet heather at the show, by the bathrooms, at 8:45 because Dan had initially said they were playing around 9. Well i didn’t find any bathrooms, and they went on around 8:15. Not good. So i tried to look for her during smoother, and during EC and after but never found her.

The show was good, except it was too hot, and this fucknut kid messed everything up. They were supposed to do 16 songs, they did 11. After Wicked they left the stage, and this kid came out onstage and did his thing about thanks to these ppl and the playdium and that EC would be signing autos at the booth in 5 min. THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO AN ENCORE U RETARD! So he totally fucked things up and ruined the end of the show, which was the best part of the set. I got Trevor’s setlist from the roadie. here it is

sparkle and shine surefire
sinking
you don’t know what it’s like
flamethrower
all that you are
trash
my salvation
make it right
tdm
wicked
encore that wasn’t played:
by the riverside
the devil you know
home
burnt
may i go

they never play burnt! grrrr so we were pissed about that. in the crowd we were standing with a couple of other people we know from buffalo, and some other ppl who are always on the guest list. We were all waiting for the encore, and were like wtf…

so after they did the autograph thing, and me and Joe waited around in there looking for heather, but then we got kicked out by security. So we went back to the bus and sat on the curb there. a few other kids showed up at the bus and we talked to them. EC came back changed, came out and did their thing with the fans. took a few pictures of this kid from kitchener and various band members, Joe and trevor and me and Dan only 6 pics tho so won’t be developed for a while. The band was pissed about the fucked up encore thing, and the kid who did it was there and apologized to them and felt really bad. BUT SO WHAT U RUINED THE REST OF THE SHOW! grrrr. but yeah, we hung around and talked to Johnny for a while more, more hugs, then they had to leave cuz they were flying to Regina.

Dan said they were going to Regina, i responded, where’s that. He thought i was insane that I didn’t know where it was, and i’m like HELLO IM NOT CANADIAN! and hes like oooh yah i forgot u guys are from america. hah.

So it was cool, sucks about the encore and not finding heather, but oh well. it was still good.

Posted in: Concerts, Econoline Crush \ Tagged: ,

Econoline Crush @ K-rockathon

\ by

econoline crush – k-rockathon – vernon, ny – july 22, 2001

i’m not going to say much about this show.

first: big thank you to Dan from EC and the rest of the band

second: big thank you to Joe – the coolest guy on the planet, and no longer “some kid joe” haha since he didn’t like that title in my previous write ups of EC shows.

third: big thank you to Eric

if it wasn’t for eric we wouldn’t have gone to the show, because he wouldn’t have mentioned that Joe had 3 extra guest passes. the trip to k-rockathon was a spur of the moment thing. Saturday Eric was like, wut u doing tomorrow, nothing, Joe has extra passes, I’m so there! Eric and mary already had tickets, so me and adrienne took 2 of joe’s guest passes.

it took an extra long time to get to Vernon, cuz of the non moving traffic in mile 3 from the racetrack. we didn’t move for 20 minutes at a time. Joe called dan to make sure we weren’t going to miss EC’s set, since that’s the only reason why me Joe and Adrienne were there. We ended up getting there just in time, cuz they switched bands around. so, we get our guest list stuff, and figuring the passes were going to be tickets to get in, we were shocked to find guest/photo access cloth passes. boy hits car was supposed to be on, we lost Eric and Mary in the crowd and since we didnt want to be up front for them we went to walk around, decided to see where we could go with the passes, and ended up in the back stage area where all the busses for all the bands were parked.

one thing *AND IM NOT COMPLAINING* is that it was kinda weird to be backstage at a festival where i couldn’t give a rats ass about any of the other bands. there were tons of band people walking around, and i almost never recognized any of them. We saw drummer from crazy town, various members of their crew, various members of drowning pool as Joe told me, boy hits car and cold…i recognized the singer from Cold…that was it…i cant even imagine what it would be like, for me, to have a pass like that at a festival where i liked the other bands playing LOL. trevor mentioned playing K-rock a few years ago and Orgy was there too, and I’m like omg i’d die…hah…i wouldn’t know where to go and who to talk to. Except that Orgy ppl are bitches sometimes so haha….

ended up not actually seeing EC’s set, because guards said we didn’t have the right kind of pass to be standing in front of the stage, so we listened from behind, leaning against crazy town’s bus.

EC setlist:
sparkle and shine
surefire
you don’t know what it’s like
trash
my salvation
wicked/head like a hole

my salvation sounded different. they might have added some kind of sample, or it could have just been that were were listening from behind. can’t tell. during EC’s set a group of drunk boys came up to us and asked me if could let them on to the bus (crazy town’s bus) and I’m like no sorry. And he’s like is anyone letting anyone on, and I’m like no. And he’s like, that sucks, and I’m like yeah I’m sorry, and he’s like do you know them. And i start laffing and I’m like NO! lol…he thought i was like, someone important or something that i could let them on a tour bus. It was funny. then one of the drunk guys shook our hands.

i think that’s where I’m going to stop talking. I feel kind of weird writing down every minute of what happened during the afternoon. I’m not sure why. if u really want to know, contact me, i can tell u because I’ve written it down for my personal use. I just don’t think it’s right for me to publish everything that happened on my site. It’s nothing bad or incriminating, no “lets get high and have an orgy” or anything like that at all. The guys in EC are really great, and super nice. It was a totally awesome afternoon. i feel bad that Eric and Mary didn’t get to come with us. Joe got them a poster signed by the band.

few comments, and i hope I’m not overstepping my personally set boundaries, but we’ll see:

1. i thought it was really amusing to hear most of the guys talk about how everyone at the festival sounded the same, and that how most of the new bands out now sound the same, and how much they hate it LOL

2. trevor seems to be a big fan of STP. trevor likes Dave Navarro’s new album, Dan doesn’t hah. Dan liked my purse.

3. i asked mark if it was hard to get his pants off, realized that he could take that the wrong way, and justified my question by saying how i have a pair of pants like that (some sort of leather product) and after just being in the audience i can’t get them off. he said yeah, the pants weren’t gonna come off too easily.

why do i keep capitalizing Dan’s name but no one elses…..?

4. talking to trevor about music videos, i said something about how i just download them. then i was like “oops i didn’t say that” and trevor said he didnt care about the whole napster downloading mp3s thing….take from that what you will but don’t quote me. lol

Papa Roach had 3, possibly 4 tour busses. We didn’t see Staind’s bus. Crazy Town had their bus, and a crew bus…. while we were there we got to hear boy hits car, drowning pool, and i think Cold.

ok i think I’m done, so once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH to the guys from EC and everyone else who helped make my day so incredible.

no pictures…i didn’t feel right about it. There is one coming of me and Joe by the bus, mark might be in it cuz he was coming off the bus, gotta finish the roll, have 23 pictures left lol. maybe someone on the EC board took some i can steal, and maybe i’ll scan my pass….

Posted in: Concerts, Econoline Crush \ Tagged: ,

Edgefest in Barre

\ by

edgefest – barrie on – july 1, 2001

We (me, danielle, adrienne, eric and david) headed up to the great white north on sunday morning with eric’s friend and a bunch of other people following us. got there, went in, walked around the 2nd stage and the tents a bit before settling on the grass at the main stage for the rest of the day. the weather report was 72 and mostly cloudy. well it probably was 72 but it was way windy, so it was freezing. had 2 shirts and a jacket on all day (still got sunburned, even tho i had sunblock on and it was cloudy). Danielle froze, she had shorts on.

so we spent most of the day at the main stage. first band was project wyze…they absolutely sucked. rap rock piece of shit band, 2 “singers”…they were just terrible. after that was…bif naked? i think. i know they played so they were next. chick singer, boring, i slept through most of it. gob was next i think, not my thing. also sat through big wreck and finger eleven. whatever. went to get food after finger eleven, was in line a long time and missed most of 3 doors down. then was the tea party followed by tool.

The tea party rocked. i was disappointed that they opened with “temptation” and it didn’t sound great. i dunno, it was good, but i expected the song to be way louder, or something. i dunno, just didn’t do anything for me, and i love that song. They premiered 2 new songs that they’re working on, the first one rocked, it’s called “lullaby”. the second one was more mellow, they called it a pot smoking song I think, forget the name of it. that one i didn’t like as much but it was cool. They inserted “cashmere” inside “save me” and “paint it black” inside “sister awake” for the finale. i forget the rest of the set, they played about an hour i guess.

tool was incredible. couldn’t see alot of it cuz of people standing in front of me. stage was mostly dark, they had a screen playing graphics and video, which maynard stood in front of and was silhouetted on it the whole time. They sounded so good, perfect, and maynard was on, as always. he is one of the most incredible singers i’ve seen. He sings so effortlessly and it’s just so great. Setlist was: The Grudge, Stinkfist, 46&2. Schism, Sober, Parabola, Lateralus. They played about an hour. highlight for me was “sober” cuz i love the ending of that song, and it sounded spectacular. They closed with “lateralus”, and i love the ending of that song too. a friend went with a guy who taped it, so probably will get a copy at some point.

took an hour to get out of the parking lot. Got home around 3:30. thank god i switched my day off to be monday.

no pics, no point.

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands, The Tea Party \ Tagged: , ,

Econoline Crush, Buffalo again

\ by

econoline crush – june 24, 2001 – buffalo, ny

another lovely EC show in buffalo hehe. This was for the Artvoice Street Festival. There were a bunch of bands playing on like 4 stages, but on the main stage was Oleander and EC and other crap bands we didn’t stay for. Anyway, we headed out got there right after Treblecharger. I heard they sucked. We decided to walk around cuz all the busses were behind the stage. So we walked through bus land and over to were a crowd of people were. They were all getting autos and pics from Treblecharger. Big deal. But Johnny and Mark were standing around too. So we went over to talk to Johnny. He was like “hey guys” haha. So he signed my poster and Adriennes cd book, and we stood around talking to him for like 20-30 minutes. Mark came over to us too and signed stuff, and hung out talking for a while. He was like hello again, and i was like yeah welcome back. Trevor walked by and we waved to him, then he went to the bus, and then later Mark left. Johnny stayed for a while longer talking, it was rad. We left to get a spot for Oleander while he was talking to some old dude.

So Oleander played, wow. They were alright. The singer guy jumped down into the crowd (not crowd surf or dive or anything) and almost wacked this girl with his guitar. So then he gave the roadie the guitar and just hung out singing in the crowd. It was kinda cool. If I liked them it would have been cooler haha. So they played for 40 min or so. We got in front for EC. They came on a bit after 5. They opened with TDM which was a shock (ok so not really, because when we were talking to Johnny we were standing by his drum kit, and the setlist from the night before was still taped to the carpet thing, and so we saw it, and he said they were doing a different setlist but still opening with TDM). So that rocked. Then it was X3, Sparkle and Shine, Surefire, Sinking, Trash, My Salvation, Home, Make It Right, You Dont Know, and Wicked once again with the Head Like a Hole insert They played the typical songs, nothing out of the ordinary. It was a short set, like 40 min. So that rocked. Not sure if those songs are in the correct order or not….whatever

So after we left the crowd and went back to the busses but then Eric and Mary wanted to leave so we did. Oh well whatever.

Meanwhile I’m getting a nice tan on my left arm from being outside alot the past 2 weekends LOL. only the left arm tho, so i look lopsided.

from Trevor’s tour diary: “Buffalo Street Festival

The Buffalo street fest had a very diverse and mostly Canadian line-up. Blue Rodeo, 54-40, treblecharger, EC and Oleander. It was great to see all those bands. Greg from treble joined us for our morning coffee and shared road stories from his current tour. The guys from Oleander were kind of wondering how it was that they ended up being the only American act on the bill. We hadn’t hung out with 54-40 in years. It was good to see Matt and Phil et al. Keeping the Vancouver vibe alive. They’re releasing a kind of greatest hits record in the US this summer on Nettwerk USA.

The show was great! Buffalo has always been and continues to be a great town for us to play. Thanks to everyone at the Edge and Bruce and his family. The day wouldn’t have been the same without them. We’d also like to thank Erin for the cool book of EC photos and art.

T “

Posted in: Concerts, Econoline Crush \ Tagged: ,

Depeche Mode in Toronto

\ by

depeche mode – toronto, on – june 16, 2001

I had gone up to Toronto on thursday to attend the American Psychological Society conference with my professor. I had my name on two posters being presented on friday. So after the whole conference stuff I went to Carolyn’s for the rest of the weekend. Eric, Amanda and Danielle came up on Saturday afternoon. We spent the day downtown, had dinner, then went over to the Molson Amphitheater for the show. It was mega hot. We took a street car to Ontario Place, but it let us off way far away. So we had to walk over to the place, but we followed those people who (it turns out) went a really long circular way to the theatre. So we get there, and go through the gates and get in this line that is there. Then we’re told that’s not the GA lawn line. So this guy from the park takes all these people who were in line through the park to where the entrance to the lawn was. It was so hot. haha. So then we had to wait in the line for a while, and then we were let in. We had a pretty decent spot in the middle of the lawn, near the front…It was far away, it was lawn, so whatever.

Poe opened. She was good. I saw her before in 1996 at Edgefest. She was 200 times better than PJ Harvey. Sounded better, songs were better, she was way more entertaining. I think she played a shorter set than normal. I guess Canada has an 11 rule, that concerts must be over by 11. Carolyn said Poe usually played 45 minutes, and she seemed to play about 30 or so. Whatever.

The show was great. Very impressive. I didn’t know what to expect really. They had really cool lighting effects, these fluorescent light things, that they used for some songs, and then just a generally good lighting setup. They had screens behind the band that showed some videos at times. One was rain and water drops, another was 2 goldfish and a shark (we were all waiting for the shark to eat the fish but it never did), they played the “its no good” video during the song. Overall it was a really good show.

Setlist:
Easy Tiger – Dream On (Live Instrumental Acoustic)
The Dead Of Night
The Sweetest Condition
Halo
Walking In My Shoes
Dream On
When The Body Speaks
Waiting For The Night To Fall
The Bottom Line
Breathe
Freelove
Enjoy The Silence
I Feel You
In Your Room
It’s No Good
I Feel Loved
Personal Jesus

Encore:
Home
Clean
Black Celebration
Never Let Me Down Again

Posted in: Concerts, Other bands \ Tagged: ,

U2 in Buffalo

\ by

U2 – buffalo,ny – 5-31-01

Incredible show. I don’t even know what to say. Carolyn and I had seats in 300 level behind the stage. We had a perfect view of the stage, even if it was from behind. The stage was heart shaped, with people inside and outside the heart. PJ Harvey played first. I dunno….I guess she was good. I don’t like chick singers, all the songs sounded the same, I so don’t like that kind of music, and it was boring. But if you like her, I guess she was good. U2 came on at quarter to 9 ish. They started “Elevation” with the house lights on, which was cool. After that they played um…”Beautiful Day”, then “End of the World” and then I think “Mysterious Ways”….ok so I totally don’t remember the set list, I’m trying to find one….They played a really good mix of old and new stuff I thought. I was only unfamiliar with 2 songs, that I guess were from Zooropa, which I’ve only heard once, and of the 2 songs I know from it, I don’t think I’d even be able to recognize them…

At one point in the show Bono started talking about how the 3rd show they ever played in the states was in Buffalo, opening for Tallas (Tollas?), and it was on the night that John Lennon died…then he started singing “In My Life” by himself. He dedicated “In A Little While” to Joey Ramone. I missed the dedication to Michael Hutchence, I don’t think he did one, but he has in every other show so maybe he did and I wasn’t paying attention.

They did 2 encores…one, maybe the 1st one, was “Bullet The Blue Sky” that had an intro (I was told, we couldn’t see the big screens) of Charleton Heston talking about guns, and a little girl picking up a gun…I think some people missed the point they were trying to get across, that guns were bad, cuz a kid was on the radio talking about how he agreed with the Heston thing…

Um…I dunno what to say. It was just an amazing show. Bono brought 3 people on stage at different points. During “The Fly” he brought this girl onto the catwalk and laid her down on stage. I couldn’t see this part too good, but what I saw, Bono was laying/sitting on her, and she was laying/sitting on him for a while. Then he stood up and stood over her laying on the cat walk. I’d have died…what a concert memory.

woo hoo I just found the setlist…

Elevation
Beautiful Day
Until the End of the World
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
In My Life/Stuck In a Moment
Kite
Gone
New York
I Will Follow
Sunday Bloody Sunday/Get Up Stand Up
In A Little While
Desire
Stay
Bad/40
Where the Streets Have No Name
Pride
Encore(s): Bullet the Blue Sky
With or Without You
The Fly
One/She’s a Mystery to Me
Walk On

It was so worth the money…the hassle of not having tickets, trying to find tickets, buying shitty tickets LOL….it definitely places in the top 5 concerts I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it quite knocks off NIN toronto…it’s close tho…i think it doesn’t place in top 3 because the top 3 have alot more personal meaning to me, even though the concerts/shows themselves weren’t as good. Pure music/performance wise, this show is #2 after NIN….but overall, it’s probably #4….definitely need to see them again (from a better position haha)

this is the buffalo news review from buffalonews.com….

Musical Mission
Bono and U2 deliver a message of faith
By CRAIG SEYMOUR News Pop Music Critic 6/1/01

Irish rockers U2 brought its blazing brand of secular gospel to the HSBC arena Thursday night, marking the first time the band has played Buffalo since 1987. The band was on a singular mission to restore the audience’s faith in the importance of rock, humanity, of life itself. A large chunk of the two hour show paid tribute to the group’s late friends and fallen rock icons. Bono paid homage to John Lennon, who was
murdered on the night of U2’s first gig in Buffalo, by singing a verse from the Beatles “In My Life.” He also worked bits of classics by
Marvin Gaye (“Sexual Healing”) and Bob Marley (“Get Up, Stand Up”) into the set.

The band performed “Stuck in a Moment That You Can’t Get Out Of,” from their latest album, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” which is
dedicated to ex-INXS fronman Michael Hutchence who committed suicide in 1997.

And the Southern Soul-inflected “In a Little While” was delivered by the band in recognition of New York’s own Joey Ramone, the former lead
singer of the seminal punk group the Ramones, who died from cancer last month. Bono stated that “In A Little While” was the last song that Ramone listened to before dying. “Now when I hear this song, I don’t hear it as a song about a hangover. It’s become a gospel tune. That’s
how cool Joey Ramone was.”

This song represented one of the night’s many moments that were devoted to the importance of people needing each other. “If I crawl/will
you be there,” he crooned like an Irish Al Green.

He introduced his bandmates before bringing them down front for a rattling version of “Desire.” And there was something touching about him
delivering introductions for people whom everyone in the audience knew. It served to represent another of the night’s inspiring themes: Don’t
take anything you hold dear for granted.

It was called the “Elevation” tour, and the band’s intent was to uplift and enlighten. (Although, given the $130 tickets, $45 T-shirts and $20 programs, the tour’s name had an unintentional double meaning.) Even the background music played before the show had a spirit raising theme: Jackie Wilson’s “(You’re Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher,” Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground,” and Curtis Mayfield’s “Move On Up.”

The stage had a breathtaking simplicity. It was a hollow heart made with curved red catwalks. You almost expected to see a fashionista strut down the stage, and indeed Bono did ape the moves of a male supermodel at one point in the show. The earnest set-up could have come off as corny, but the stylish design made it work.

Fans stood in the middle of the heart and also surrounded the stage. And the people on the floor seemed to enjoy being physically close to a band with whom they’ve felt such a close emotional connection.

Despite initial concerns about the show’s general admission seating policy, the crowd was very well-behaved. There were some body surfing incidents. At one point, Bono even had to tell a particularly hefty crowd surfer: “You weren’t designed to fly, friend.” But, overall, you’d see more pushing, shoving and beer-spilling on any given night on Chippewa.

The last time U2 played Buffalo, Bono was having vocal trouble, but he was in fine form Thursday night. He growled, crooned and even worked up some sanctified falsetto swoops. His voice has the intimacy of a storyteller. He doesn’t so much sing a song as weave a heartfelt tale.

The rest of the band was also in top shape, as evidenced by the Edge’s propulsive guitar licks; Adam Clayton’s throbbing, sometimes funky, bass; and Larry Mullen Jr.’s steady, unfussy drumming.

Opening act P.J. Harvey delivered several hard driving tunes from her latest album “Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea,” which is all about falling in love. “Do you remember your first kiss,” she sang on “One Line,” with her voice sounding as edgy and straight-forward as the music. And the black and white projection of Harvey on the overhead monitor only added to the raw power of her set.

A lot of the thrills in U2’s show came from the backdrops and light displays. Large drapes that evoked skyscrapers came down during “New York City.” Rays of light splayed like blooming flowers. And the video screens showed silhouetted dancers swaying during “Mysterious Ways,” and flickering images of gun violence and grief during the impassioned “Bullet in the Blue Sky.”

Although U2 played their other social change anthems “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love,” which was followed by an impassioned plea from Bono on forgiving Third World debt, the night wasn’t really about politics. It was less about changing the world than treating life and other people more preciously….

Posted in: Concerts, U2 \ Tagged: ,

Econoline Crush @ Showplace

\ by

econoline crush – may 8, 2001 – buffalo, ny

Yay this show was awesome as well. We were late again, no surprise, but doors didn’t open on time, and there was no one there (it was kind of pathetic) so we had no problem getting up front. So we waited a bit outside in the drizzle, then got in, and me and Danielle went to the bathroom. Well Johnny was standing near the door to go upstairs, so we walk by and he’s like “Hey”! so I go “Hey” and wave. So we go and stand up near the barrier, and suffer through the two crappy opening bands (Agent Me and Velour). There was NO one there. It gives Buffalo a bad name, when a band as good as EC has no one show up to their show. No one promoted the show though, it wasn’t even on the marquee of the theatre. Whatever.

So EC came on around 10. Opened with Surefire like always. It was awesome. The people who were there got into the show, so that was good. Trevor was jumping around on stage and his earpiece/black box thing fell out of his pocket during the song. So after, he was trying to make it work, and was like “I think I broke it” so the stage hand guy had to come out and was fooling around with it behind his back. When the guy finished, Trevor was like “thank you for adjusting me” totally being sexual, so everyone screams, and he’s like “ok now you guys are being sick”. So they’re doing their thing on stage, and between songs Trevor was talking about hockey, and how the Sabres were 10 minutes away from going to the next round. So then after another song, he asked for an update on the score, which had gone to 2-2. Then someone shouted “Fuck the penguins” and Trevor responded “No, fuck the leafs!” It was pretty funny.

Well Trevor kept having problems with that ear piece thing, it fell out of his pocket a bunch more times, and just came unplugged a few times, so he was getting a bit irritated at that. During some song Dan saw me and acknowledged me. I am getting the complete set list sometime soon, I don’t know the order but they played Surefire, Sparkle and Shine, All That You Are, The Devil You Know, Trash, Sinking, My Salvation, Flamethrower, Make it Right, You Don’t Know…,By The Riverside, TDM (accompanied by much pelvic thrusting and mic stand humping) and Wicked with the NIN insert…and then Home and Razorblades and Bandaids for encore. It was so awesome, because they came back out and played Home (which I had asked Ziggy to play), and then before Razorblades Trevor said something about how they had gotten requests for those songs, and they dusted off this next one, and they played Razorblades. It was awesome. It helps that Razorblades is one of my all time favorite songs from any band in the world. It was so great, but by then Trevor was really grumpy about the continued ear piece problems. They were supposed to play May I Go too but didn’t.

So the show ended, and we waited around to get stuff signed again. Mary wanted to go outside, so we went outside for a while. Ziggy and Mark came out to the bus, then went back inside and said they’d be down soon. So then we were tired of waiting outside (and tired of the 2 drunk girls trying to get on the bus, and the one who decided to pee on the curb) so we went back inside and were standing around with everyone by the upstairs door. So Ziggy came down and was talking to these people he knew, and Mark came down. We didn’t want to bother them but after a while this guy went over and asked for them to sign stuff. So that kinda broke things open. Ziggy came over to us and he’s like “hey i know you”. So he signed my TDYK cd book, and I was like “thank you so much for playing Home” and he said “well we got the request for it, so we took it to the board and got it played.” So then Mark went and disappeared to the bar, with those people they knew, so we waited around there and Trevor came down. He signed stuff for people, and he signed my book, and I asked him for a picture, and he said sure, and then I asked him if he’d stick his tongue out in the picture. Trevor laughed and was like “oh now you’re just getting sick”. So he gives me my book and puts his arm around me for the picture, and I’m like, tongue. And he’s like, yeaaah ooook. So we get the pic and I’m like thanks, and he tickled my back LOL. So I’m standing there and he’s signing stuff for other people, and he’s like “I like your Bowie shirt” (I had on my purple and silver sparkles David Bowie -Ziggy Stardust shirt on). I didn’t realize Trevor was talking to me, and I thought he said Bowling, but people were looking at me, so I was like “What?” and he’s like “I like your Bowie shirt, it’s cool” And I’m like “oooh, cool thanks, I thought you said Bowling shirt, and I was like I’m not wearing a bowling shirt.” So Trevor laughs and is like “Well Bowie likes Bowling”.

So then Trevor did his thing and left for the bus. Then I wanted to go find Mark so I went back down to the bar with Mary and Danielle, and he’s like “hey I know you”. He signed our stuff and apologized for being dazed haha. So then we went back to the hallway to wait for Johnny and Dan but then the theatres guards kicked us out because they wanted to close. So we went outside to wait, because Joe had said they were coming out in like 5 minutes. So we waited, then Eric said Johnny was in the door way so we just went back inside again. Johnny was talking to someone else, who didn’t have a pen, and Johnny asked him if he had a pen, he said no, and then Johnny saw me and since he had used my pen a million times over the past 3 days he was like “oh I have a pen right here” and took mine. So he signed our stuff, got a pic with him. He like put me in a death grip, I almost fell over haha. Then went to talk to Dan. He’s was like hey. He signed our stuff, got a pic with him too, then I went to claim my pen back from Johnny. We left soon after that.

Mad cool 3 days. I love these 3 day concert binges, but then you get way bored the next day hahah.

Trevor’s Tour Diary entry – “The second show was a club date at the Showplace Theatre. This venue is a great place to see a show. It is unfortunate that the current management didn’t see fit to change the marquee or advertise the show. We had the faithful following at the show but it could have been so much better. Word of mouth made the day but it’s disappointing to know that if more people knew the show would have been sold out.

Enough venting, the crowd that was there was phenomenal and it was that energy that made the show come together. We got to talk with the people from HITZ and the EDGE. There was an impromptu after show meet and greet where we signed CD’s etc. All in all Buffalo was a blast and I hope we get back there soon.”

Posted in: Concerts, Econoline Crush \ Tagged: ,