Hammond, Indiana, July 22nd, 2006 - Festival of the Lakes Options

[Schlomo]

Didn't see a thread for this date...

Anybody know if the Festival of the Lakes is a good place to watch a show? And is Hammond a cool place to chill for a night, maybe in a car. I see it's close to Gary...

This post has been edited by Schlomo: May 23 2006, 3:34 pm

[livefan1999]

My family and I attended the Hammond concert. We had recently seen them perform at Vic's in Chicago and that show was the best I've seen for them. They were so energized and Ed did a fantastic job on vocals that night.

On the Hammond show, it was an interesting night to say the least. When we got there, the opening band, Crawpuppies, was playing. They play mostly in the Hammond area. While they obviously had some fans there, and they put out a genuine effort, they are definitely either a band young in performing years or suited more to playing bars and smaller venues. However, they put in their time during their scheduled set and then showed some true sportsmanship by hanging around at the promoter's request. Word was out that a problem has come up which was going to delay Live and that they needed to fill until Live could take the stage. They came back on and put their hearts into it, but, unfortunately, whoever was managing the sound board turned the volume up much louder than they should have. The volume was so high that people were leaving the area, complaining that they were actually having problems breathing or that their ears were about ready to give way. I spoke with a number of "regular" Live fans who were leaving and they said that they just couldn't take what appeared to be poor coordination of an event (at that point, no one knew Ed was having problems), and they would catch Live again at another show. They felt that since Live has never been known to be late, they might not even come on at all that night. So, a lot of those who might have supported Ed in singing along with him, diehard fans, had already left.

Most of the close to 15,000 fans that remained to hear Live play, had not ever heard them perform live. Many I spoke with had been fans of their recordings for a long time, but had never taken the chance to go see them perform on stage. Some were just people who knew that a big-name act was going to perform a free show, so they were there to enjoy. Unfortunately for them, and for Live, they would not get to see Ed at his best. Even with that being the case, most seemed to enjoy the performance. The reason people began leaving at the announcement that it was their last song was, in my opinion, more that people were just worn out after a confusing evening and a show which was supposed to be over by 10:00 p.m. and finished at about 11:15 p.m. Originally it was scheduled for Live to come on at 8:30 p.m., play to 10:00 p.m. and then there would be fireworks. They shot off the fireworks just before Live came on and everyone knew that as soon as Live was finished, the night was over. When Ed announced that last song and then Chad threw out the drumsticks as they were leaving, it was obvious that Ed was not going to be up to an encore, so everyone just picked up and left.

On the actual performance, no, it wasn't Ed's best and the band tried very hard to help him out with vocals and just a little extra effort on their instruments. Ed admitted up front that he was having problems and that he was going to have to "sing Johnny Cash style," maybe even "trying out for the baritone choir". He was really struggling at the beginning of the set. To sing and to even just stay focused. If you had seen them perform live before, you could tell how hard Ed was having to work to sing and to stay with it in general. He was going back and drinking more fluids than usual and his usual energy around the stage was very low-keyed. He was either wiped out by the two shots he had received or he was just totally exhausted from trying to sing when he probably should have been resting.

Everyone we went up with to the show and others in the audience overheard talking said they admired him for coming out and giving it his best. While he wasn't 100%, he still did an acceptable job. He was talking to the crowd more and joking a lot to try to keep everyone cheerful and involved. Me, I was impressed that he didn't just tell them he couldn't do it and I enjoyed all that he offered us. The rest of the guys in the band? They gave it their all with some longer than usual guitar solos, drum solo and even Patrick doing a good short solo. Patrick, Chad T and Adam K were all trying hard to fill in vocally.

I was also disappointed because all of those people didn't have a chance to see Live perform the way they usually do. Most often even better than they sound on CD in my opinion. I spoke to one young Indiana newspaper journalist who had been a Live fan since 1992 and this was his first concert seeing them live. He was rocking out during the performance, but I know he would have been even more impressed if he had seen Ed at his best. Same for those other thousands present.

My hat is off to all of them for giving it their all in a difficult situation. It impressed and touched me to see how concerned the other guys in the band were for Ed. You could tell they were very worried about him. You could also see how much Ed appreciated the extra effort those guys were putting out as he later introduced first "my brother, Adam ... my brother Chad (T) ... my brother Patrick ... and this is my brother Chad (G)". I was nervous the entire concert, thinking that Ed maybe shouldn't be out there. That he should be saving his voice. That he might hurt it even more by singing, even in a quieter, restrained fashion. But as a long-time fan, I was totally proud of his effort.

I've posted an article just below this one which was written about the event. I'm not sure, but I think it might be the young journalist I spoke with, as he was the one who gave me the website address where he planned to post something about the show. I also have a good number of photos we took at that show which came out pretty good and will try to post some some in the next few days.

This post has been edited by livefan1999: Jul 24 2006, 5:26 am