May 7th, 2010
Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
Noblesville, Indiana

Main Set...
Release/Last Exit/Got Some/Why Go/In My Tree/Elderly Woman/Unthought Known/Even Flow/Supersonic/Down/Daughter/Goin' Back to Indiana/Rats/Wishlist/Insignificance/Force of Nature/Jeremy/The Fixer
First Encore...
Just Breathe/Off He Goes/Given to Fly/Lukin/Better Man/ Do the Evolution
Second Encore...
Garden/Whipping/Alive/Baba O'Riley/Yellow Ledbetter

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Driving into Noblesville before the show was an eye opening experience. What happened to the amphitheater in the middle of nowhere? I think it's safe to label Noblesville as Indianapolis now, as clearly urban sprawl has conquered it. Shopping centers, restaurants and fast food like woah. A lot of stuff can happen in a 7 year period. Wow.

Very shortly after picking up our tickets (all of us in row O either center or Jeff's side) it was clear that this "storm" that had a chance of happening was actually very likely going to occur. Yikers. At least we weren't one of the "lucky" ones on the lawn.

Went into the venue, grabbed snacks and water and it started drizzling consistently so we headed to our seats. The weather continued to brew. Eventually the lawn was evacuated and there were random bouts of downpours. Not to mention some big thunder booms and some lightening. Fun! We were told that we could go back to our cars if we wanted to and re-enter the venue. Of course the majority of the lawn dwellers cleared out. Very few people were in the pavilion anyway, but whomever was in the pavilion just stayed put. No sense in going out in rain and thunder to go sit in your car.

Even with the crappy weather, there was never a doubt in my mind that the show would go on. Eventually, Band of Horses took the stage. Delayed, but finished maybe 10 - 15 minutes late.

The time between Band of Horses and Pearl Jam took forever. It was very frustrating. I joked that the venue took away the curfew charge if Pearl Jam postponed their set so they could sell more beers since they lost out on beer sales when everyone went back to their car. In truth, what happened was a huge traffic jam of people getting into the venue from sitting in their cars and therefore the backlog of people caused the delay. Annoying. Annoying. Annoying. Wah.

As we impatiently waited for the band to get their booties on stage, it was very apparent that the crowd was going to be annoying as hell. PUNTER CENTRAL. The rain delayed gave people a great opportunity to drink and once they started, they certainly could not stop.

This wasn't the WORST audience I've ever experienced but it was definitely towards the bottom. Obnoxious, drunk and all about the schtick. Our row, seriously, went to get so many beers I spent most of the show moving out of the way of these douchebags. And these were fellow Ten Club members with a around 1995 fan club memberships! Unreal! What also did not help was the VIP bullshit from Verizon. The first couple of rows were not fan club and parts of each section were also VIP instead of fan club. The guy sitting right next to me paid $200 for his ticket on Stub Hub. Sweet.

We were towards the end of the row, close to the stage and security was allowing the people on the absolute outside seats to go to the rail. The problem was, they didn't check a single ticket stub so it just became the biggest clusterfuck of annoying buttheads I've ever seen. This one girl held up a custom made (professional) sign that said, "Indianapolis Thanks You!" There were lots of pictures that were taken of the band, pictures taken of each other at the Pearl Jam show (and it was quite entertaining because none of these morons bothered to have their pictures taken with the band/stage in the background).

This show made me want to write a book called, "An Introduction to the Punter Dance." First, in order to be a punter, you have to wear a baseball cap, sandals and hold a beer in each hand. It's mandatory. There are a few key moves that make you King Punter. 1. Grab your head/hat with both hands and look down at the ground. This music is intense and you can not even contain it. 2. Raise your right hand in the air to point to the music to act as if you know all these songs. You feel it in your soul, but you really truly don't know this song because it's not Alive but you need the cred here, so - when in doubt, point. Special bonus points if you point at a completely inappropriate time. 3. Look down at your Blackberry at least three times per song. Everyone needs to know you are at this show.

Un. Believe. Able.

The thing that burns me the most about a punter crowd is that Ed doesn't even recognize it and usually, they get a good show out of the deal. "Man, this crowd is great!"

Ok, enough bitching about d-bags.

I don't think anyone would've pegged this as a Release show. Of course, we all thought maybe the "obvious" but more obscure Wash --- it would've been perfect. I'll take Release to open any day of the week, man.

To verify that this wasn't going to be a shit show, next song was Last Exit, then into Got Some and Why Go. Rock and roll, baby.

Overall, a very good main set with some interesting ones thrown in A very Ten-core show. Good for the punters. They were on their best behavior [for punters] so they deserved it if they deserved anything at all. Goin' Back to Indiana was pretty short, but it was sweet, though I'm not sure how many people this affected since I think a large portion of patrons were from Chicago. Rats came right afterword which was a total "YES!"

Encore started with Just Breathe (not a surprise), though Ed is starting to wuss out because he needed a chair. Stand up, old man.

Off He Goes was dedicated to his friends (from Chicago). Nothing like singing a song about being an asshole to your friends :-P

Garden was great to hear. I gotta say, looking back at the set list, it's sorta looks "eh, good, but not the greatest" but it really was a good, solid show (haha if they threw some Crazy Mary in there, too, it might've been a different story). Hello? They did play Lukin and Whipping.
 
 

05.08.10

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