Tour Comments & Oslo, Stockholm & Philly reviews Options

[chazeye]

I’ve been lucky enough to see Live 3 times already on this tour. Checking out a show in Europe has been something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, so it was beyond cool that I could finally make a vacation work logistically with a couple of these shows. Anyway, here are some observations on this entire tour so far, and my take on the shows I’ve been at....

Tour Random Thoughts:
I’m happy to see longer sets around two hours are now the norm.

It’s great the band is representing all of the albums and brought back tunes like Rattlesnake and Iris and Mirror Song and Simple Creed into the set.

I love the fact that the encore sets are changed up each nite, and also love that the show lengths are varying. This keeps things interesting. I’m bummed the June 9th Copenhagen epic was one of the Scandinavian shows I picked to miss, but that’s life. It still brought a smile to my face reading about it.

I dig changing up the opener between Simple Creed and Rattlesnake…..I think it’d be cooler if they added Otter Creek and Where Fishes Go to this mix, too.

I wish they’d make the effort to change up the songs and sequence of the core set nite to nite. This is my biggest gripe. I’d think the band would get bored of the same routine and same songs in the exact same order every nite……it’s just too monotonous to me. But what they’re doing with the encores is progress!

I still wish they’d make more of an effort to play more of their catalog. Too many tunes are played at every show. Don’t get me wrong………..I love All Over You, Selling The Drama, Dolphin’s Cry, Heaven, Lightening Crashes, I Alone, Lakini’s Juice, They Stood Up For Love, White Discussion etc. ………these should be the core of the set. Just saying they don’t all need to be played at every show mainly to make room for other tunes never heard!! More SS, V and BOP please!

The SFBM tunes are mixed nicely into the set…..Show, Mystery, Wings and Sophia all translate well live and are very good songs. I can’t get into The River, but maybe it’s me.

I love this band, and it’s phenomenal to see they’re still at the top of their game and relevant all over the world!...............onto some show thoughts….

Oslo - Rockefeller - June 6:
This was the kick-off of the European leg of the tour (and 2-nite stand in Oslo), and it more than met my expectations. Rockefeller was a small club and a great setting for a show, and I was close to the stage (smaller than the TLA or Trocadero for anyone familiar with these Philly venues). The soldout crowd was juiced up…..it was kind of an old school 90’s show with a large part of the crowd jumping up and down and freaking out. It was insane when they kicked into their second tune – All Over You. The crowd didn’t keep it at this level all nite, but it stayed high energy and was great. It’s been at least a few years since they’ve played in Norway, and the joy / longing on peoples faces was something I won’t soon forget. The band was jet-lagged (per Ed), but you’d never know it. In all, the crowd and the venue were both awesome and it wound up being one of the best Live shows I’ve ever attended of the 50+ I’ve been to over the years.

Stockholm – Arenan – June 8th:
On the flip side from the Rockefeller in Norway, Arenan was once of the worst places I was ever at to see a show. It was just this ugly, huge gymnasium / warehouse. If you weren’t in the front 1/3 of this place, you wouldn’t even be able to see very well. Anyway, we fought for a decent vantage point in the over-packed crowd, and I was shocked the sound was OK (pity the folks in the back……..they couldn’t see and I bet the sound was bad). I was hoping they’d mix the set up from the Oslo show I saw, but it was almost identical except for the addition of Voodoo Lady in the encore….and, no Overcome tonite. They opened with Simple Creed at both places. Since Sweden is home of the famous Smorgasbord, I thought the band would open with Rattlesnake given the first line of the song! (Yes, this is the nonsense that goes through my head…at least it did when I was waiting for them to take the stage). Anyway, it wound up being a solid show. The energy didn’t match Oslo, but that was simply due to the venue. The band was great and did what they could, and the lovely Swedish girls around me helped with the atmosphere.

Philly – Electric Factory – May 13th:
Since this took place a month ago, I won’t go into much detail. BUT, I had a blast at this show along with about a dozen friends. I purposely stayed away from the discussion boards so I wouldn’t know the set beforehand, and loved the Rattlesnake opener and the addition of tunes like Iris and Mirror Song. It was my first show since 2005, and was simply a great nit and celebration with people close to me that also love this band.