Ed solo before opening bands: I Am A Patriot, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
Set list: Long Road, Corduroy, Hail Hail, Save You, The American in Me, Cropduster, I Am Mine, Wishlist, Better Man, I Believe in Miracles, Even Flow, Bleed For Me, Alive;
1st encore (acoustic): Thumbing My Way, Small Town, Black, Harvest Moon with Neil and Pegi Young;
2nd encore with Neil Young: All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan, [Peter Frampton joins on the next 3 songs] Act of Love w/Pegi Young, Cortez The Killer, Rockin' in the Free World w/Pegi Young

Wow, where exactly to start...first off, I want to say that although I love reading other peoples’ fanviews, I myself have never really been gripped with the need to write my experience down, I have always usually been content to just babble excitedly to anyone and everyone who will listen to me, but after last night, I am overwhelmingly compelled to write down what I saw, lest I forget any moment of it!

Let me start off by saying, that if you ever are concerned because you might need to go to a show alone, take the opportunity and do it! Because no one could go with me, I ended up buying just one ticket, landing myself a front row seat in the risers on Stone’s side, I was just off the corner of the stage, and had the most brilliant view all night long! Plus, I met some great people who also post on the bbs, (if you are reading this guys, I hope you had as much fun as I did!)

I unfortunately was late, so I only caught the last song of Gob Roberts’ set, but I was definitely impressed with Tim Robbins, I had no idea he was a rocker! I was told I missed Ed coming out alone, along with some fun ‘scene’ to intro Tim’s band...wish I had made it to see that, but I am sure someone else can report on that! Death Cab for Cutie were good, but I can’t lie, I was too distracted with the fact that Stone sat side stage for almost their entire set watching and grooving out to really ‘listen’ to them…. plus, then Matt came out for their last song, and that just sealed it, with my close seats and a camera in my hand, I was way to distracted to really give the openers any love, I feel bad, as I usually try to cheer for the openers, as they need props too, but man, I had never been that close to the stage to get pictures before either!

So on to the meat of the fanview, and the reason I am writing this in the first place! So when they started off with long road, I new the show was going to be interesting, as most of the shows (prev. tours) I have been to in the past have always started off with a fast and furious bang, boy was I right! They were all jumping around and kicking like they were rock star gazelles, it was fantastic! The only cover I already knew was I Believe in Miracles, but even the ones I didn’t already know got me movin’ and rockin’ out because they were just so fired up and into what they were doing! At one point, Ed gives us a silly rhyme about being in Toledo, and I think he said that they had never been there, but they did come to Toledo back in ’96, although they played a different venue. Then he gives us some stats that got the crowd booing (about Ohio’s population, job loss, and the fact that somehow we are still a swing state) before going back into the music for the rest of the first set.

And then, during the first encore break, they bring out chairs, and we all are like, it looks like we are getting some acoustic tunes, which I am totally psyched for, as I have never seen them do an acoustic set, and we are rewarded with a beautiful 3 song set, before the guys disappear and the chairs are rearranged again. At this point, my neighbor proceeds to tell me that she heard that Neil Young was here and that this must be the ‘crazy stuff’ Ed mentioned earlier in the show. I was super excited at the thought, as I was a Neil fan before I could even be a Pearl Jam fan because my folks raised me on him! And sure enough, the rumor was true, from our seats we watched as a crewmember held a flashlight to lead Neil and Peggy up the stairs onto the stage. We then were blessed by a beautiful rendition of Harvest Moon, and at that point, the show could have ended and I would have left already ready to write a fanview, but I was further rewarded by a third encore! This time, we get the rest of the boys, plugged in, and they are quickly joined by Peter Frampton! The last song, with the houselights essentially up we got rockin’ in the free world, with just a crazy long guitar-jam ending, with Neil practically baiting the young guys to keep up with him! Seeing the look on his face while he was on Matt’s riser, baiting him to keep up and follow him was just awesome! Mike was bowing to his guitar prowess and Ed just stood in awe listening to the jam! It was just mind-blowing to get to see one of the musicians that I grew up listening to, and that was a huge influence on the band that became MY BAND as I am sure everyone who reads these can understand the emphasis in my capitalization. It was practically a religious experience!

Wow, this has turned into a really long fanview, and I didn’t even really dissect each song! All I can keep thinking to myself, and saying to anyone who will listen is that it was AWESOME, and yet I know in my soul that no words can truly describe just how wonderful that show was last night.