October 27th, 2013
1st Mariner Arena
Baltimore, Maryland

Setlist. . .
Pendulum/Hard To Imagine/Elderly Woman/Lightning Bolt/Lukin/Corduroy/Mind Your Manners/Given To Fly/MFC/Sirens/ Habit/Daughter/Wishlist/Present Tense/Spin The Black Circle/Let The Records Play/Setting Forth/Unthought Known/Rearviewmirror
Encore 1. . .
Yellow Moon/Man Of The Hour/Nothingman/Waiting For The Man/Better Man/Do The Evolution/Blood/Porch
Encore 2. . .
Once/Love Reign O'er Me/Black/Alive/Rockin' In The Free World

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Flew out to Baltimore the day of the show. Even though it is not uncommon in my adult life to fly to a show...I gotta say, it feels weird. Why does it feel weird? I don't know --- I flew to shows in 1998. Flying to shows in 2013 shouldn't feel any different. But it does. Nevertheless, landed, went to hotel (near the airport) to drop off stuff.

After experiencing two shows with a bit of a belly, I was a bit more prepared. My mom experimented with taping my feet with KT tape and I also purchased a maternity back brace. Think my body is gonna hold me back at a PJ show? Hell no.

Stopped off at Dick's to get more KT tape (my mom had used cotton tape on me so I took a shower and wham --- it was pretty much off) and then we headed to downtown Baltimore. Was amazed when we made it to the venue and discovered the lack of a merch line. What? No line wrapped around the venue? Did all the "fans" retire? Strange! Met up with Britney and TJ and decided to get out of the "cold" (balmy 60ish degrees) and spent some time in a Dunkin Donuts...and eventually made our way to a chicken place for dinner - hey they had a veggie burger and a crazy bitch that sat next to us, it was perfect.

We hung out at the restaurant until it was time to go in. Britney and I tried out the PJ green screen to unsurprisingly find that it wasn't working worth a damn. Received a variety of results including my coat showing the graphic, having no legs and pretty much just seeing our faces. Par for the course...par for the course.

I had purchased some 300 level (gasp) seats on Ticketmaster (try buying two shows at once and I bet one of the two shows you'll likely say f it and just buy something). They were side stage (Mike side/Jeff side), row B. I said I didn't care, we were in the door. Getting inside the venue, I continued to not care. It was an old building - but SO cool. Spacious, yet small. Somewhat intimate...I was geeked. No behind the stage seating either - I like this!

We tried to sit in some seats that weren't ours on Stone's side but were quickly kicked out - so we ended up making it to our seats only to discover row A was not sold and no one was allowed to sit in row A...we had no chairs in front of us. We also had aisle seats - woo! The view was actually quite good. The couple that set next to us were very nice (and later Mike found out the woman was 13 weeks pregnant) - both of their first show (throughout the show, the guy would comment to me, "that is so much better live than on the album!" Let The Records Play sparked that comment.)

Was obvious that the show was going to start with Pendulum...so the real question was song two...
Hard To Imagine!!! So perfect! I will never ever get sick of this song.

Elderly Woman warmed the casual fans up.

Casual fans...quite a few in our section (no surprise). When Mike and I stood up, the people behind us (somewhere) said, "You've got to be fucking kidding me!"
Nope. Not fucking kidding you. The pregnant lady is going to stand.
The ENTIRE show.
In the 300 level.

Lightning Bolt led us into a fire-y Lukin. I remember thinking, "Ok, this is a gooooood show."

Corduroy rocked the house and led us into Mind Your Manners...and it appeared the crowd really enjoyed Mind Your Manners.

Then it was time for a little Yield --- Given to Fly and then MFC (!)

Sirens followed and then along came...Habit! Again, another thought of, "Wow, this show is sooooo good!"

Daughter brought forth a first song tribute to Lou Reed (who had passed away that day) with the Daughter tag including Ed singing Walk On the Wild Side...Ed had mentioned it was a very tough day.

Wishlist took us into Present Tense (yes! again --- what a great show!) Then came the vinyl tribute with Spin the Black Circle (McCready was running in circles around the stage) and Let The Records Play. Setting Forth was the only song that I was like, "Yeah, this show could do without...but it's ok because it's short."

Unthought Known and Rearviewmirror closed out the main set.

First encore started with Yellow Moon (such a great song, especially live)...and with Lou on the mind of the band, Man of the Hour came next. Nothingman continued to the "man" songs (2 of 4 in a row)

Then came a Lou Reed cover, Waiting On The Man --- which sounded great and the crowd was into it, participating with enthusiastic clapping (at least in the beginning and then Ed had to encourage everyone towards the end.)

Better Man was the final "man" song and the first encore finished with a huge burn: Do The Evolution, Blood(!) and Porch.

Second encore started with Once and a wonderful rendition of Love Reign O'er Me. Black and then Alive...and I think at this point, Ed introduced the band but did not say anything about Jeff. I thought he missed Jeff but then I thought maybe I missed it --- but it was confirmed later when many people brought up Jeff stormed off the stage after Rockin' in the Free World (I did not see this occur). Outside of the Jeff pout, Ed had pointed out some guy in the 300 level in a yellow shirt --- straight back, mind you --- at some point during the show, noting how he was rocking out hard. Right before Rockin' in the Free World, Ed talked to Pete and then announced he wanted this rock out guy to make it to the stage during the song. That guy rocked out hard...kind of silly to have him on stage for as long as he was. I was just amazed by how old the guy actually was because from the distance (before he made it on stage with cameras on him), he looked young. I guess we all look that way at PJ shows now...young at a distance (haha.)

Overall, GREAT show. Maybe it doesn't translate so much on paper, but it was a great crowd and a great setlist. Not omg-amazing, but still very solid and very rocking.
 
 

10.28.13

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