Quick Thoughts on the MSG shows:

Every tour I see a couple of shows, and every tour I think, 'they're not gonna take me to the same place I got to last time - they can't keep doing it, I've seen too many shows." And every tour they still manage to do it. In '06 it was Grand Rapids, and this year it was the MSG shows. Seeing MSG showswas one of the few things left me to do re: PJ, and I'm really glad I did.

Hard To Imagine was beautiful, always is, always will be. This was my holy grail, never-thought-I'd-see-it-live song for so many years, and now I've been lucky enough to see it 4 times - once a year in 05, 06, 07, and 08. It's such a personal, naked song, and anybody who complains PJ is overplaying it on this tour should be summarily taken outside and shot. Emotionally, lyrically, and musically, this is the kind of song that exemplifies so much of what PJ is about, and I'm so glad the band seems to finally be realizing that it's one of their strongest songs and is treating it as such.

Other Night 1 highlights were Who You Are, W.M.A. (finally!), Leash, a gorgeous Present Tense, and a soaring Love Reign that made me finally decide it's worth having Boom in the band if for no other reason than they wouldn't have done this song. I'm really glad PJ is playing Rockin and Baba O' more sparingly and relying on new covers...Love Reign certainly holds it own (and maybe exceeds them in terms of emotional power) with either of the two above songs and it gives the 'staple' covers a chance to become fresh again. The 1st encore run of Love=>W.M.A.=>Leash was definitely a high point of the show (the gospel singers were great and enthusiastic.) Indifference was beautiful and reflective with the house lights on, although its weird hearing such an intimate song and being able to see the whole audience, if that makes any sense.

The big surprise in Night 2 was the return of the original Garden. Thank God is all I have to say. I saw the original Garden back in Manchester on the Binaural tour and was so moved by it; then they debuted that chopped-up bastardized version in '06 and I thought, "way to suck the beauty out of the song." For once, they listened to me hehe, and I'm so glad to hear the original version re-emerge. It was one of the top moments of Night 2 for sure, and hopefully it will remain an occasional setlist popup in its original form for the rest of this tour and in years to come.

Rats kicked ass, and both C.J. Ramone and Ace owned their guest slots. Night 2 was a real Mike night (kickass Go, by the way), and he and the whole band looked like they were having such a blast during Black Diamond. Pretty gutsy of them to play that for the second time ever at MSG, and they totally pulled it off.

Bottom line is no matter how many shows you've seen, catching a couple of shows a tour in a great venue is always worth it when it comes to PJ. I think AndySlash mentioned it...there's something about turning around and seeing thousands of people sing their hearts out to lyrics that saved my life as a kid like "I'll ride the wave where it takes me" that just gives me a joy and hope for the world that can be very difficult to find these days. Thanks again for more special moments PJ, and I'll see you in '09.

-Lima

ps. for those interested in this kind of stuff, and because I don't have anywhere else to brag about it hehe, catching W.M.A., Rats, I'm Open, and Who You are on this MSG stand means I've finally now seen all of Ten, Vs, Vitalogy, No Code, Binaural, Riot Act, and Avocado. If those fuckers would play No Way and ATY next time I see them I'd be able to run the table. Only took me 40 shows.

Impressive. I've only heard all of Vs.

Beautifully put. I attended both nights. They were my 5th and 6th shows. I agree completely. Especially about HARD TO IMAGINE. This was my one "must hear live before I die or the band retires" song. Really never thought I'd get to it. But... anyway... well put. Thanks for the post.

...and now Avacado.

Excellent review.

I have not heard HTI...and I was really hoping they'd play it as an opener in WPB, but they opened with "Oceans" which is a rare play and my fav PJ song, so I wasn't disappointed.

"I'll ride the wave where it takes me" has always been the most powerful lyric in my life, being a surfer of 22 years and of course the true meaning of the words.

You were at Copenhagen, right? You're telling me you managed to get similar emotions in NYC compared to what happened back in Copenhagen?

I dunno, I haven't been able to attend any of these US shows, but if they're able to manage to repeat the emotional torrent that was Copenhagen, I'd be friggin amazed.

Copenhagen was absolutely a totally unique experience, given the emotional significance of the show. The only show I've seen that was more powerful than Copenhagen was Seattle 2 '00 , the tour-closing show where they played Alive for the first time since Roskilde. Everything about that show was just on another plane, and Copenhagen was in the same ballpark as that show, although it was slightly less raw because 7 years of healing time had elapsed.

So the Copenhagen show is in a unique category along with just a couple of other shows in the band's history. But if you ask me whether I had moments in Grand Rapids '06 (the magnificent first encore, in particular Parting Ways=>Hard To Imagine) and the MSG '08 shows (Release and Garden from night 2, Love Reign from night 1) which approached the peak level of emotional resonance and intensity that PJ can deliver when they're at they're best, the answer is absolutely yes. That's the amazing thing about this band...they can still bring you to that level on any given night, no matter how many times you've seen them.

double post