http://www.twofeetthick.com/tft/cc2008e ... n#08/07/08

08/07/08 - New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark, NJ
set: Walking the Cow, Trouble, Don't Be Shy, Around the Bend, I Am Mine, Dead Man, Sometimes, I'm Open, Man of the Hour, Unthought Known, Driftin', Masters of War, Setting Forth, No Ceiling, Guaranteed, Far Behind, Rise, Elderly Woman..., You're True, Soon Forget, Forever Young, Porch
first encore: Society (with Liam Finn), Throw Your Arms Around Me (with Liam Finn), Growin' Up, Lukin, Let My Love Open the Door, Arc
second encore: Hard Sun
TFT Notes: After "Walking the Cow", Ed indicates the he was going to choose between the next two songs but that he'll "just play them both", playing Cat Stevens' "Trouble" and "Don't Be Shy". There are tolerable shouts from the crowd, to which Ed says maybe later they'll have "a little question and answer". Someone asks "What are you drinking?" and he tells a story about drinking a lot the night before and coming up with a new song at 5AM that day. He uses a few analogies - "fruit that's not yet ripe and "pants that need to be hemmed" - and plays a new song (three verses, three choruses) with one chorus repeating "Nothing left..." After "No Ceiling", he puts a guy in the front row on the spot and asks him if he has a question and the guy asks "Can I request a song?". Ed jokingly responds that he intended to give him an answer to a question, not give him a song. He makes a song request but Ed continues with "Guaranteed" (the fan actually requested "Man of the Hour" which ... had already been played). After "Rise" Ed grabs a guitar, strums a few (familiar) chords, and shakes his head realizing "I think I just played 'Turning Japanese' (The Vapors)". He comments that of all the songs that could have channeled through him, he's going to figure out why it was that song. Prior to "Elderly Woman...", Ed says it's "not requested but by request" and says that it's the middle of the show and encourages the crowd to stand up for a "seventh inning stretch", leading to a rousing version with Ed letting the crowd sing most of the lyrics. Following "You're True", Ed says after soundcheck he was walking around the venue and walked all the way up to the 4th tier (the venue has orchesta seating, then four vertically-tiered balconies) and recalled how he saw his first concert at the very last row in the top balcony (Springsteen at the Auditorium in Chicago). He mentions that because of the steep balconies he wasn't going to play as many sad songs "to prevent jumpers". He continues by mentioning he woke up and read his "first bad review" in the New York Times (of the August 5 show) that called him "brooding" and "righteous" and - after stating how Exxon/Mobile had $11 billion in profits while people couldn't afford gas - that he's "right" not "righteous". "Forever Young" is dedicated to everyone whose birthday is today. Coming back from the first encore, Ed praises the venue saying that he gets asked a lot of questions at various events like barbecues and is always asked "where is the best place to play?" and for now on he's going to say "Newark". Getting back to the Q&A, Ed asks for another question and one fan's asks "What are the lyrics to 'Yellow Ledbetter'?". The crowd roars in approval and Ed says "Wait ... you mean there's lyrics?" He then proceeds to tell the story surrounding the lyrics, saying it was written around the time of the Gulf War when "Papa Bush" was President. He knew an "alternative-looking" friend from Seattle who received a "yellow letter" when his brother died in the war. Ed was walking with this friend and there was a flag hanging from a porch on a house along the road. When the friend acknowledged the flag patriotically, the people seemed to not reciprocate his homage ("but they don't wave") because of his appearance. Bordering on tears, Ed wraps up the story and plays "Growin' Up" because of the Bruce Springsteen / New Jersey connection. "Hard Sun" closes the show as the theater's centerpiece - a large, spherical, gold/silver, illuminated chandelier - is lowered slowly over the crowd.

good stuff, always like the reviews on twofeetthick

yellow ledbetter uncovered

For those of you who were wondering:

Ed is so righteous with his badass mother f*ing ukelele!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/07/arts/music/07vedd.html

great review to a great show. some highlights for me:

-the yellow ledbetter story obviously. when the dude asked what the lyrics to ledbetter were i started cracking up. i didnt expect a story about it. its been my fav pj song for most of my life so hearing the story about it was really cool.

-i am mine, dead man, sometimes-great run of songs. sometimes might have been my favorite song of the night, loved how he incorporated that bass drum thing

-the new song. holy shit, how did he write that at 5 am and then play it that night? unbelievale. it was great

-the into the wild stuff sounded great. favs were guaranteed and society. i also liked man of the hour on that little guitar thing, and i dont even like that song

-growin up. i love anytime ed does bruce

non show notes:

-i saw some young girl having a seizure

-nicest bathrooms ever, i did contemplate pissing in the sink though. while we were bullshitting in line some dude was talking about how he's a noobie and this was his first pj-type show. he called ed his new jim morrison and seemed really impressed w/ the show. its always cool to see new fans fall in love with ed's music

-the old bitch infront of me w/ the stupid glow in the dark things on her hands/ankles/head. this broad was probably older than ed and annoyed everyone around us b/c she kept standing up and waiving her flow in the dark things everywhere like ed was gonna see her. my buddy said something to her and her dude and she got all pissy. i told her ed wasnt gonna see her and didnt know who she was and she got even more pissed, it was hysterical. by far the oldest groupie ever.

great show. totally different vibe than a pj show, but it was awesome.

The Yellow Ledbetter story was definately the highlight. I hope the 10C allows an mp3 pf the story to circulate - it's a must hear.


Unluckily for me I sat in front of the biggest asshole in the building - the one screaming requests between every single song - he screamed Footsteps almost everytime, but since he thought Crazy Mary was a uke song he screamed that when Eddie was holding the uke. He also found it necessary to throw in a comment or two at the start of every song and often talked over Eddie's talking. Too drunk. I tried my best to ignore him, however, his dickhead power was too much for me to ignore.

that dude was annoying at first, but by the end of it his persistance was hillarious. people around me jokingly started yelling footsteps by the end of the show.

You sat by that guy? I'm sorry...
I felt bad for the people behind the couple in the front orchestra that kept standing up the whole time when everyone else in the building was sitting. I'm sure the people behind them wanted to see Ed, not some guy's rear ^_^:: I'm all for being excited, but you don't have to block everyone else's view.

Does anyone know what happened sometime near the beginning.. I heard a really loud thump from the first balcony in the back, and a bunch of people went "ooohhh...." Did someone fall? Or run into a chair? When ed mentioned that he didn't want anyone to jump, I said "I think someone already did."

Sorry for anyone who was sitting by me when I yelled "This is better than sex!" when he introduced the Into the Wild section.
I had an obnoxious moment. And... Ed Ved solo IS better than sex, I must say. heh

Oh, also did anyone catch when, during the first verse of Somtimes, Ed forgot the lyrics and just said "something, something" instead? I cracked up. He's so funny sometimes.

someone was running up the steps and fell...loudly.

i thought the "something, something" was during soon forget

How lame is that guy who requested Man of the Hour after it had already been played? Imagine you have Ed's attention and all you can do it request a tune that was played 5 songs ago. What a fuckin' turd burglar.

dude posted on the pit that he requested in my tree

Um it could very well have been. I was writing down the setlist and I didn't write when it happened, but now that you mention it ... I think it was soon forget.

In any case: heh

What was with "this song is called setting forth" starting, and then saying the same thing again? Did he start to play another song? I wasn't sure why he restarted.

he fucked up the begining of it so he had to start over

i sat 3rd row, dead center. the previous two solo shows, i didn't think my seats were too bad, but 3rd row was something else. i also thought that there was less crowd bullshit at this show than the others.

ed teared up during the ledbetter story, that was pretty powerful. i'd write more, but i'm off to radiohead. i just wanted to say that i thought the random seating was a bit of an exaggeration after talking to several people about where everyone was ending up, and last night i had to check my tickets against the seating chart twice just to make sure. props to the 10C ticket envelope stuffer

i should have known better to post that because the info that he requested MOTH was second-hand. i was just caught up in NJPAC-euphoria last night.

Now let's get to the juicy stuff. i saw Tim Robbins and Kenny Mayne. Were there any other BFFs there last night?

Edit: a very drunk Kenny Mayne.

hehe I must have been writing it down and not listening >_< fail!


Yeah, the part where he almost teared up made me sad b/c I didn't want to see Ed cry... be a righteous broody dude w/ a badass ukelele, yes, but cry... no.

an eyewitness of the setlist just told me the song was listed as "Unthought Known" . play of words on "unknown thought". that is ssssso EV =)

great reviews and stories
cant wait for Milwaukeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

but i must say, I HATE the people who yell out random song requests...
ESPECIALLY when they request a song that gets played every night anyway.

I remember some idiot near me at Sleater-Kinneys 3rd to last show yelling out Little Mouth afteR EVERY FUCKING SONG for the whole set, until they got to Lets Call it Love...

Id much rather hear what the band wants to play, but thats just me...
Ive got plenty of boots from plenty of bands where someone yells out a song that wasnt intended to be played, so then the band attempts it and it comes across rather crappy... (think Satans Bed in 2003 was bad? Ive heard worse from other bands when they attempt the off beat request... Ive got an Elvis boot where someone requested Burning Love about 2 years after he stoped playing it... Elvis gives it a go... stops after one verse saying "I never did learn the words to that one... lets do something else" with the band laughing along right with him...)