My 2009 European Tour Summary.
I did something similar to this last year after the 8 US shows I attended, although that one was shorter. This is longer, about 3 and half Microsoft Word pages with the text size at 12. I don't know what that translates too on this board. Anyway, it's in the spoiler for those interested. You'll find the soundcheck setlist for the Berlin show in it, too.

Randall

Spoiler: show

August 10/11: Flew into London with Dave. Got in late. Dave wanted to line up early for the show at the Shepherds Bush Empire on the 11th, which I argued against as we had balcony tickets. Just as well we did-a girl who was unwell wanted to swap our 3rd level balcony tickets for her floor tickets. Score! No support act. Very low stage. I stood next to the stage right (house left) speakers in front of Mike. The venue was beautiful, my sightline was perfect, but the gig was kind of average. Sometimes is a great song on No Code, but I’ve heard it live a bunch of times from 2003 onwards, and it just never seems quite right somehow. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there you go. Ronnie Wood onstage early for ‘All Along the Watchtower’ was fun. Some people have criticized his solo after listening to the bootlegs, but I enjoyed it on the night. It was mixed nice and loud, and so it should be: he’s Ronnie Wood, and he looked every inch a star! Simon Townshend onstage was a bit B-list celebrity guest, and the time it took to get his guitar tuned put a few minutes of lag into the show that was unnecessary. I understand why he was there, being Ed’s mate and all, but the gig did suffer for his presence. The whole band, with the exception of Stone, seemed a bit flat performance-wise. I predicted the jet lag might affect this show, and I think I was right. Still, PJ don’t do bad shows, and I’d rather have been there than not. And PJ’s average shows are as good as some band’s great ones. No tambourine give away this night, but then, no tambourines were played. On the other hand, it was my first time hearing a bunch of songs live when I’ve been in the room: ‘Brother’, ‘Got Some’, ‘The Fixer’, ‘Soldier of Love’, ‘The Real Me’ and ‘The End’-always nice to hear some tunes I haven’t had at a gig before. ‘The End’ was Ed solo, and didn’t do much for me, but I’m not particularly a huge fan of Ed solo, anyway. After all these years of listening to the Ten Demos (I must have bought a silver bootleg CD of these in the early or mid 1990’s), I was excited to hear ‘Brother’, but I think the old studio demo is superior. The highlight of the gig, I feel, was ‘Soldier of Love’: the band seemed to consciously up its game and put a bit of passion into this one. I must confess, I’d forgotten this song even existed, and post-show, I checked my iPod and realized it isn’t on there (and this coming from someone who got the Xmas single, the commercially released red 7 inch single, and the Kosovo benefit CD back in the day the fucker was released on!). I also learned a musical lesson: ‘The Real Me’ must have the greatest bass line in all of rock ‘n’ roll. And what’s with Stone? He gave it socks. Head-banging, strutting around, the works. I think it’s the Samson effect: he’s got more energy now his hair’s grown out! This continued for the whole tour, too!

It was good to hang out pre-show and post-show: spend time with some older-time PJ heads, and meet some new ones. Jason kept filling me full of drink in the pub; the fucker. I was the right amount of drunk for this gig-buzzing, but not hammered. Well, I was the wrong side of drunk two hours before the band came on, but I was the right side of it by the time they appeared. A good show, but not a great one. A little disappointed after the gig, I brightened and said to Dave: “It can only get better from here.” How right I was.

August 12/13: I flew to Amsterdam and met Darcy. I knew a bunch of PJ kids were going to Alice in Chains in Melkweg, but while I’m a fan of the band (I got Dirt the day it came out, and was into the band when all they had released was Facelift), that band died for me when Layne did. Narrow-minded attitude? Possibly. I don’t care. It’s how I feel.

We stayed the night in Rotterdam and met Lorcan and Dave and the PJ kids (Lorcan and Dave are mates we see all time, all year round, so I’ll separate them from the general ‘PJ kids’ or ‘PJ heads’, no offense to anyone, there’s just too many of you!) on the 13th. Darcy and I went and met Warren and Edith, hung out and then got to the show around half one in the afternoon. Lo and behold, there was a whole amusement park/fairground thing going on out the front, complete with fairy floss, cafés, bars and enough fucked-up-put-you-in-a-slingshot-and-try-not-to-puke-rides you could shake a Matt Cameron drum stick at. Drink always plays an essential role in any PJ tour, and this day was no exception-a bottle of JD (which Hinny drank most of, actually) and a few beers from the fairground bars helped the day pass quite happily. The show was great, and I was impressed by Gomez, too. Nice high stage: good for the audience, shit for the photographers (up-the-nostril shots). The crowd sang their hearts out. I used to think ‘singalong’ openers were dumb (preferring moody pieces like Release, Long Road and Wash or straight out rockers like Go), but Elderly Woman… was just what this audience wanted for an opener. Maybe it’s a Dutch thing. The setlist was fabulous this night: Last Exit, Animal, Nothingman and a host of other great tunes. Daughter didn’t have a tag-that was unusual and a first for me in a live situation. A lot of people dislike Gone, but I thought it was stellar this night. A singalong setlist for a singalong crowd (Elderly Woman…, Given to Fly, Why Go, Dissident, Nothingman, Black, Better Man, Daughter, Alive and You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away): that’s a lot of singalong tunes for a single show. The Real Me was fabulous, too, particularly played so close to Love Reign O’er Me-very effective. I nearly got into a fight with a bunch of wankers on the floor, but as I tried to take one of their legs out, Keith jumped in and fairly took this big fuckers head off. Bravo. (You want to mosh, lads, get into the fucking mosh, don’t start your own off to the side-obnoxious twats [we were in front of Stone). Keith managed to knock all 5 of them over with one leap. Someone helped Keith up, but no-one helped up the others, so what does that say about them? A great show overall, as good as I’ve ever seen PJ play. I didn’t think the band could, performance-wise, give it as much energy over the course of the next few gigs as they did this night, but I think I was wrong…

August 14/15: Over to Berlin. Checked into our hostel, met Keith, and off for a walk. We got a proper meal, like you’d get in a silver service restaurant, for about 12 Euros. Lashed in a bunch of cocktails at 4.50 euros each, too. Had a lovely relaxed day and night, but my hay fever marred it a little. The next day was the Berlin show. You had to get 2 trains out of the city and then you could walk or take this tiny open-topped train through the forest to the venue for a euro. We did the latter. The promoter organized a special bar for 10 Club ticket holders. Once you had your wrist band on, you could leave the whole place if you wanted and come back later. The problem was, there was nowhere to go! The 10 Club only bar was cool, marred only by the blasting of studio PJ from hidden speakers. Beautiful venue though. I thought I could faintly hear ‘Green Disease’ in the background (that 10 Club bar music system was fucking loud!) so I bolted into the forest and sat on my own and listened to the soundcheck. A guy came past with a big dog patrolling the perimeter fence; I just waved and he walked on. Soundcheck setlist was, for those interested: Green Disease, Green Disease (instrumental), Satan’s Bed (instrumental) x2, Insignificance (semi-instrumental; Ed came in at the “play C3…” line, but then omitted the other verses and did the choruses), MFC, and Ed solo doing a partial version of Gauranteed. Sitting in the forest alone, I could hear the soundcheck perfectly, I’d legged it a good few hundred metres from the nearest anything, so I could hear it like they were playing just for me. One of those special moments to keep for myself. Magic.

Ended up the very wrong side of drunk after the gates opened, though, and as a consequence, this is a bit of a lost show for me. I was celebrating my 50th PJ show, and it got a bit out of hand, unfortunately. I can remember Ed sitting standing side stage (the spot he usually goes to for his cigarette during Even Flow) to watch Gomez, and me cringing when the audience saw him and cheered. I was embarrassed for the audience and for Ed. I also remember Why Go, Hail Hail, Light Years, Bee Girl (why do I have to remember this shit song?), Hard to Imagine, Angie/Elderly Woman…, Faithfull and Sonic Reducer. Beyond that, blank, which is a shame and something that’s never happened to me at a PJ show. I hope it doesn’t happen again. I somehow still managed to get my recording gear working-I must go on automatic pilot via years of experience!

August 16: Darcy, Dave and I got held up by a delayed flight (along with PJ’s crew) at Berlin’s Tegal airport (along with Hinny and a bunch of PJ kids). I had the hangover from Hell. Sweats, vomiting, the works. By the time we got to Heathrow and met Laurie with the hire car, the guts was OK, but the head started pounding. Painkillers resolved that little issue. We drove up to a stone circle Laurie is fond of, and visited J.R.R. Tolkien’s grave on route to Manchester. Got to Manchester, checked into the Travelodge, and then had a wee few hair of the dogs.

August 17: Went to PJ at the MEN in Manchester. A loveley sunny day, and Darcy organized for a lot of PJ kids to sign cards she’d brought. One for me for my 50th show in Berlin, one for Babs for her 70th show this night, and one for Laurie as one of the upcoming LA shows will be her 150th PJ show. A nice, civilized touch does my missus bring to these proceedings. She only found out about Mirella’s 50th show a day or two later, and she feels bad about missing her out.

The show was another barnstormer, despite the technical glitches. Ed had technical problems during the gig and Ricky Ramone got his share of side-stage abuse for it, but the tension caused by Ed’s frustration seemed to add to the gig. Lorcan said Ed threw a beer or two across the stage in anger, but I didn’t notice that. Any gig with In Hiding, Present Tense and Sleight of Hand has to be a cracker, right? Smile was played for Babs’ 70th show, and Jeff played the Hamer 12 string bass (he uses this most commonly on Jeremy and Why Go), most unusually, on Leash. He must have been going for a different sound. Long Road is always a great opener, although I can take or leave Indifference, wherever it is in the set. Another consistent, enegetic performance, even if Ed did slag this show off the next night in London. The audience was full of ignorant pricks, though judging by other shows by other bands I’ve seen in this city (Counting Crows in 2003 and 2009 and Queensryche in 2006), this seems to be the norm in this city. Quite a long night in the hotel bar after the gig. The cards got given out and many, many pints were sunk. Good fun altogether. Half the gig must have been staying in that fucking Travelodge.

August 18: Flew down to London. Tube to the O2. Like MSG last year, you could buy your merch in the foyer without having a ticket. I did this and dropped my posters and t-shirt off at the hotel, then came back. Met loads of kids again. Without a doubt, beside maybe Wembley Arena in 2007 or the MSG shows in 2008, the longest fan club queue in the history of fan club queues. It went for miles. The Ten Club must have had hundreds or a thousand pairs or even more allocated to them. Fucking mad. Didn’t bother to line up till 6pm-went drinking instead with Keith and Lorcan and a few of the heads who came over from Ireland for the gig. Another outstanding performance, with the best acoustics I’ve ever heard in 8000+ seater room in my life. Scratch that, in any room in my life. I didn’t think rooms existed that sounded this good. You could hear the delicate acoustic guitars when the electrics were playing-everything. Superb sounding room. The only complaint was the height of the stage. Too low. It was fine for me, because I was close, but if you were more than 20 rows back you wouldn’t see anything, I don’t think. Every single song was a cracker. Rats had more guts in the vocal department than the 2008 US performances I attended, and a lovely Ben intro to boot (even though Ed chuckled and said ‘I fucked it up’, before trying again and getting it right). Leaving Here I haven’t heard at a gig in years. Ed nearly sung himself hoarse during Love Reign O’er Me. Live debut of Supersonic. Release is one of my favourite openers. The audience was great. Jeff played the Hamer 12 string on Immortality, which I don’t recall him doing before. I got sick of Crazy Mary over the 20 gigs I saw in 2003, but it was really, really good to hear this again-like seeing an old friend when a lot of time has passed. (I probably heard it somewhere in 2006, too, but you get the picture). They beat the living shit out of Porch, and a nice, but not amazing Yellow Ledbetter to finish. I think they should finish with this every single night: it’s a nice way to see the audience on its way.

August 19: Darcy organized a picnic in Hyde Park. A lovely way to chill in the sun and say goodbye to a bunch of mates. A good time.

Overall, the performances, with the exception of Shepherds Bush, were consistently brilliant night after night. Usually with PJ, if you go to a run of shows, they’ll do one outstanding gig and three or four solid shows. This year, in Europe, they’re bang on night after night. I’ve never seen them play so consistently well. I spoke to someone else who’s seen nigh on 100 shows, and he said the only comparison was the 2005 Canadian tour. He’s not seen them play this consistently brilliantly since then. You Americans, Aussies, Canadians and Kiwis are in for a real treat this year. This isn’t to say the pre-2009 shows were worse than these, Christ, no. I’ve seen some phenomenal shows over the years, but it’s the night-after-night-being-consistently-brilliant that impresses at the moment. There’s still some false starts with the new tunes, but, Hell, they did false starts last year in the US on old ones, so this is OK. Last year in America, they were so loose, so many mistakes (and I can list ‘em if you want me to), they’re like a whole new band this year, and left me wanting more. Way to go fellas, roll on next year.

tldr

Spoiler: show

ya cunt!

Great, chud. Now I gotta work out what tldr means!
Edit: too long ? read, maybe?

Are you fucking serious?

I didn't know you could get 'are you fucking serious?' out of tldr.
*enrolls in English as a second language course*

too long, didn't read

I read it, and want to write something as well. Just not yet, as I'm pretty energy drained by this bad cold I have since last Friday. Darcy doesn't have to feel bad about missing the fact that it was also my 50th concert in Berlin; she did not know. And besides, only someone as nice as her thinks of surprises like that . I enjoyed signing the cards for you guys secretly We would have liked to join you for the London picnic but we had to catch our last flight back that afternoon.
With you, I share the conclusion that the band had a constant high performance. They worked hard for the money and it worked . I can't really choose a favorite, but if I have to it's Rotterdam . That whole day, including the concert, was perfect.

groetjes,
Mirella

ntcu (not transparent, couldn't understand) (and an anagram)
I read it, I enjoyed it. Thanks for the memories.

Randall forgot the anthem of the tour which was created by myself but sung with much gusto and joy by us all!!

"he's got a big gold ring that says jesus saves and he's rockin' all over the world!!'


Other than that everything there is spot on..you forgot the deadly little train up to the wulheide in berlin! I enjoyed that!! That berlin venue is probably the deadliest venue I was ever in..I went to the back during Evenflow(as ye do..shrug) to see what it was like and it was brilliant even from there..beautiful setting and I*think* my favourite Pj gig ever..I'm gonna listen to all the ones I was at and give it some thought but it's up there.. Rotterdam was incredible too though and Randall you are correct, they were consistently powerful balls out going for it every night..Shepherds Bush could have been stunning but I think we all agree jetlag and setlist brought it down some. But my dream to see my boys in a small venue is now fulfilled..my NEW dream (same as my old one though really) is to see them in the Olympia in Dublin..REM did 5 nights there..it could happen!

Great trip, my favourite of the ones I've done in fact, easily, best company, beautiful weather throughout-(this is a big factor), 13 songs i'd never heard live!! in 5 gigs!! the boys are on!! new places-never been to Rotterdam(though it's a small bit ghost town or deserted or somethin), Berlin-LOVED it! has everything going for it!, a reminder that England just can't do pubs or barstaff properly at all! in fact they're hopelessly shit at both ('i'm sure there are great pubs in Manchester, but this one isn't one of them' ) we coulda just been letting the tired&hungry get to us that night in Moon under the water though (each of us were both tired and hungry).

Happy brilliant memories. Now to start paying for it!!! and somehow working out New Zealand in November. If you build it they will come yadda yadda..

Roll on next year!!

Pussy.

I was kinda hoping them cunts in Rotterdam would come back for a round 2, when we had about 12 of us rounded up. Where them punks at?

I'm working on my blurb.

Dave, you're a swell guy, but you're seriously batshit insane if you think those songs sound even remotely similar.

I just hear it I dunno why, it's just the opening line in Unemployable and the chorus of the other sound alike to me from a guitarist point of view and in the vocal melody.. but that became the anthem of the tour..it was pretty funny

It may have been an anthem, but it ain't necessarily true ye fucking psycho!

faaaahk ooofff yew ye coont!! your counting crows fanclub membership excludes you having an opinion on real music, though Unemployable is about that level

I jest. I txtd you & Keith the anthem line that night..he replied going 'is that the slightly slower version?'

too funny

"and I like it I like it I like it I lalalalike it, lalala like here we gooooo" (thanks )

groetjes,
Mirella

Just did a quick run through.
In the 5 Euro shows we got 77 unique songs, including covers, and excluding soundchecks.
What bands does that?

Thats an incredible stat!! I got 13 songs I'd never heard live in those 5 shows but that stat there is really really impressive.

I mentioned this to a work mate today.

Her jaw dropped. So she kinda understood why I do this.

No one can truly understand until they take part in all the other stuff outside of the shows that comes with a tour, though.

Maybe not, but we enjoyed meeting some of you nutters and this write up. I also think the other half is coming round to the idea of an odyssey....