Set List: Release, Corduroy, Grievance, Gods' Dice, Animal, Red Mosquito, Nothing As It Seems, Given To Fly, Wishlist, Small Town, In Hiding, Even Flow, Light Years, MFC, Lukin, Not For You, Better Man, Leatherman, Nothingman, Do The Evolution, Insignificance, Black, Parting Ways;
1st encore: Sleight of Hand, Soldier of Love, Crazy Mary, Jeremy, Rearviewmirror;
2nd encore: Soon Forget, Baba O'Riley

Well, after thawing out from last night, I got ready for the two hour drive down to the All State Arena. I was very excited because I figured after a shorter set list at Alpine they would probably play longer tonight, and they did. The opened up with "Release" which was amazing, they hit write into "Corduroy" which is what I thought they would have opened with. The lighting was very good at the arena, and it really added to the feeling of the show. Especially during songs like "Wishlist" when they had that giant disco ball spinning. They played a good mix of songs but I was especially happy to hear a lot of new stuff. We were even graced to hear "Parting Ways" which I think they've only played once before. We were also lucky to hear the consecutive playing of "Better Man," "Leatherman," and "Nothingman." Doesn't seem like they play "Nothingman" as much as they used to so I was happy to hear it. Eddie commented on how he was happy that not just everyone survived last night but that there were as many thousands of people as there were degrees last night.

They came out for the second encore with "Sleight of Hand" and went into some more rare stuff. I was honored to hear "Soldier of Love," and "Crazy Mary" which had Ed jumping into the crowd with his bottle of wine to pass around. They ended with an extra long version of "Rearviewmirror." I got a little worried when they left the stage cause the night before they didn't come back.

Eddie did come back by jumping over a stack of amps and almost falling over. He talked a little about politics and how both candidates are sponsored by the same corporations. He used the analogy that both candidates are puppets being controlled by the same person. He then explained how the next song was for rich people, like the one's in the sky box's. He then pointed to the right and said, "look at that one with blue lights, must be cocaine in there." He got through the first verse of "Soon Forgot" and everyone started clapping. He stopped and said "rich people don't know how to keep time." He asked everyone to refrain from clapping so he could get through the song. He made it through the rest of the song and the rest of the band came out on stage. I had read that they were going to be putting a version of Baba O'Riley on a tribute album and that they would be playing it in Chicago so I was surprised when he encouraged everyone to "sing along so we could be on a record." They turned every light on in the place and slammed into Baba O'Riley. Everyone screamed the solo, and started clapping at the end. It was amazing to look around and see all the people with all the lights on. Eddie launched his tambourine into the crowd behind him and they said goodnight.

I considered it a pretty long show compared to the night before and I was honored to hear a lot of rare songs that I haven't heard before. Now I just wish they would play Sonic Reducer more...

Joe Pfeiffer