REM put on (another) amazing show Thursday night at Madison Square Garden! After the magical night in the rain at Jones Beach a few days earlier, I was hoping that I would not be disappointed after the MSG show. However, the boys came through with a show that every bit as good as Jones Beach. In fact, the setlist may have been BETTER! We got DRIVER 8, HARBORCOAT, DON’T GO BACK TO ROCKVILLE AND PRETTY PERSUASION all in one show! A video of Driver 8 from that show is below.
Living Well is the Best Revenge
These Days
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
Bad Day
Drive
Hollow Man
Ignoreland
Man-Sized Wreath
Leaving New York
Disturbance at the Heron House
Houston
Electrolite
(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville
Driver 8
Harborcoat
One I Love
Until The Day is Done
Let Me In
Horse To Water
Pretty Persuasion
Orange Crush
I’m Gonna DJ
——————–
Supernatural Superserious
Losing My Religion
Begin The Begin
Fall On Me
Man on the Moon
Just a great way to end a great REM week!
Some final notes:
The National were AWESOME! I am now officially a fan. Check them out, buy a cd. I definitely will!
Now that Top Chef is over and there is a month to go before Project Runway starts again, the only reality show I am watching is Hell’s Kitchen. Last night, the field of 4 was reduced to 3 when Gordon Ramsey sent Jen packing. And it was about time! In my opinion, she should have been knocked out weeks ago but I guess she made for good TV so she was kept in a little longer.
I now think Petrozza will win this. It seems Ramsey really likes him as he is always cracking jokes to him about his sloppiness even though he likes his cooking. I think Corey and Christina are a little erratic to not be one of the next to be knocked out (I’ll predict Corey out next, leving Petrozza vs Christina final).
My amazing REM weekend continued on Sunday as my wife, two month old son and I celebrated part of my first Father’s Day by going to the Michael Stipe and David Belisle signing of Belisle’s new REM photography book titled Hello at McNally Robinson Bookstore on Prince Street in SOHO.
We got there around 5pm for the 6pm signing athe book and saw that there were around 40-50 people online already in front of us so we joined the line., It was a realy beautiful day in NYC so it was very enjoyable waiting outside watching people walk by. As we were waiting, I was flipping through the book and must say that there are some GREAT photos in there. As a huge REM fan, I loved the behind the scenes photos Belisle took with his access to the band.
About half hour after the signing started, we got into the store and approached Stipe and Belisle, who were signing at this long table. Both were very nice to the people getting the books signed. I must admit that I was a little nervous approaching Michael Stipe since I have been such a big fan for many years. However, he was very nice. As my wife and I were walking away from the table, having gotten our books signed, Michael noticed the stroller my wife was pushing and looked at my son, who he called “lovely” and he wished us all the best. That may have been a bigger moment for me than the signing itself.
The fans on the line were great. Some very big REM fans, including many who are traveling to many places to see them this tour.
Another great event to continue REM week(end). Now, it’s on to MSG for the show on Thursday.
I have been excited for the last few weeks as the REM show at Jones Beach was approaching. I knew that they have always put on a great show and armed with my sixth row fan club seats, I knew I was in for a great night, and it was in more ways than one.
We got to the theater around 7pm, just around the time The National were taking the stage. Got to our seats and admired the amazing view we were going to have. The National were really good. I really liked their 45 minute set even thought I didnt know anything about them besides having heard the name in the past. I will definitely be checking out more of them.
Modest Mouse followed. I didn’t know much about their music and then it hit me when they hit the stage that it was Johnny Marr’s band. We listened to a few songs but then decided to hit the restroom before REM took the stage as I expected a two hour set from them. This is where the evening takes it’s twist. As I am heading back to the tunnel that leads to the seats, my wife and I spent a few minutes talking to a friend who was getting some snacks. Suddenly, we see LOTS of people coming out of the seat area and into the tunnel that leads to the area where the snack areas are. We thought Modest Mouse had finished but it sounded as if someone was still onstage. We were in a covered area and then I notice that it is POURING with some intense thunder and lightning in the uncovered area so it made sense that people were looking for cover before REM.
A few minutes later we heard this loud explosion that sounded like it came from the theater so we all assumed lightning hit nearby. We find out that lightning actually hit the THEATER itself. The theater was evacuated until the storm passed. We end up waiting in an area under the stands for an hour. During this time, we were hearing that the show was going to go on and REM were planning on going on around 9:45. That became 10:00pm as they made an announcement over the louspeaker after an hour.
The crowd was let back into the arena at 10:00pm and it was still raining hard but the lightning had passed. We get to our seats and accepted the fact that we would get drenched during REM as it didnt look like the rain was close to subsiding. Then, a friend who was sitting a few rows behind us, came to us with two ponchos which she had found at the stand that sold t-shirts. This was a LIFE SAVER! With this, I was ready to fully enjoy REM and that I did.
REM came out around 10:20 and played one of the best sets I have ever heard them, or anyone else for that matter. They started with a cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” and went into South Central Rain. These songs were obviously not on the setlist but the band played them due to the conditions and the crowd loved it. Then they proceeded over the next two hours to play songs from all parts of their catalog. The setlist they had planned to play and what they ultimately played can be found on murmurs but the list included:
These Days
Living Well is The Best Revenge
What’s the Frequency Kenneth
Man sized wreath
1,000,000
South Central Rain
Ignoreland
Hollowman
Welcomee to the Occupation
Houston
Electrolite
horse to Water
one i Love
Let me In
Bad Day
Orange Crush
I’m gonna DJ
_______________________________-
Supernatural
Losing my religion
End of the World as We Know it (This was spontaneous and “unrehearsed”).
Fall on Me
Man on The Moon
The band was full of energy and the crowd was also. Michael Stipe showed why he is one of the greatest frontmen around as well as one of the greatest songwriters of all time. I do not recall the last time I had such a good time at a show once REM started and I am really looking forward to seeing them Thursday at Madison Square Garden!
It looks like Chelsea’s bringing in Scolari to be manager has started an avalanche of rumors about which players will be following him to Stamford Bridge. Today’s summary of the British tabloids lists names headed to Chelsea such as Fernando Torres, Kaka, Ronaldinho, and Ribery. Of course, take them with a grain of salt.
Today is a good Euro 2008 matchday as the “group of death” gives us Italy vs Romania and Holland vs France. One of my closest friends is Romanian and other friends are Italian so I am torn here as to whom I would like to see win. I guess I’ll stick to just rooting for Greece.
While it’s only Thursday, I am already excited about the weekend coming up. Saturday night I will be going to the REM show at Jones Beach. REM are probably the band I like most after U2 and I always get really excited when they come around. Sunday, besides being Fathers Day, Michael Stipe will be doing a book signing along with photographer David Belisle , who is releasing a book of REM photographs he has taken, at a bookstore in SOHO. I have already reserved my book for the signing and look forward to meeting this atrist that I have admired for so many years. That is just the beginning of a great week as Thursday I will attending REM at Madison Square Garden.
Today one of my favorite shows, Top Chef, had its season finale. The winner was Stephanie, who was strong throughout the season especially the last few weeks. Throughout the season, I thought Richard Blaise was going to win as he seemed the best chef but he definitely “choked” in the finale. This kind of reminded me of Michael Knight on Project Runway two seasons ago, who was strong all through the season only to fall apart in the finale, giving the win to Jeffrey. If Richard did not win I thought Antonia would be the winner until she was surprisingly knocked out the competition last week.
i LOVE the Bravo reality shows. I am addicted to Top Chef, Project Runway, the Real Housewives of New York City and even am looking forward to Flipping Out even though that guy annoys me.
I also love watching Hell’s Kitchen on Fox Tuesday nights. This season has been interesting in that while there are only 4 chefs left, I have NO IDEA who Gordon Ramsay will select as the winner since there has been no clear favorite to emerge yet as Rock did last year. Some days I think it’s going to be either Chritina or Corey while other days I think Petrozza will sneak into the winner’s spot without any drama. I guess we’ll see in a few weeks.
While I love watching soccer, I also love the summer transfer market and especially the rumors that start appearing in the various papers throughout the world. We see lots of big names in these columns. It seems the biggest issue now is who will coach Chelsea. I personally thought Frank Rijkaard would be a good fit, but they seem to want one of the Italian coaches such as Ancellotti or Mancini. Scolari is also mentioned as a possible manager especially now that his future is uncertain.
UPDATE: That was quick. Scolari to Chelsea is official. It will be interesting to see who he brings in and more important who will follow Mourinho at Inter.
Greece got off to a terrible start in Euro 2008, losing 2-0 to Sweden. The reports state Greece looked dull. I went off to a meeting at 4pm and the score was tied 0-0 and came back to my cube to a 2-0 deficit. Now, I would like Spain to defeat Sweden on Saturday assuming Greece can beat Russia. This would cause Spain to clinch a spot in the second round, making the game against Greece next Wednesday meaningless to Spain.
First real post will be about Euro 2008 since I am a HUGE soccer fan.
Greece begin defense of their Euro 2004 title today against Sweden. This is a tough group with Spain and Russia as well but they could easily advance to the second round and as 2004 showed us, anything can happen from then.
Greece comes in having gone undefeated in qualifications (I believe they are the only team in the tournament to go undefeated in qualifiers). I LOVE these tournaments and the sense of pride in their ancestral countries that it brings out in people.
I’ll update this post after the game.
Update: 0-0 at the half! No real flow to this game thus far. Sweden had some good chances. Greece defenders holding their own against Ibrahimovic, and Larsson.
