June 25, 2014 – Stadthalle, Vienna, AUT

Show Notes:

Ed does a call and response with the audience at the end of Long Road. The early set Black run continues here, with the crowd erupting during the opening chords. A short “We didn’t belong together” improv by Ed leads…

Show Notes: 

Ed does a call and response with the audience at the end of Long Road. The early set Black run continues here, with the crowd erupting during the opening chords. A short “We didn’t belong together” improv by Ed leads into the crowd taking over the background vocals, and Ed saying “…it’s gonna be a good night.” Matt starts off the Last Exit beat quietly before kicking in full-throttle. Mike imitates a record spinning during STBC, taking a few laps around the stage. After Got Some, Ed delivers a speech in broken German to the crowd, following it up (in English) with “…and with the rain, the thunder, and the lightning” before launching into Lightning Bolt. Amongst The Waves is introduced as:

“about the ocean…it’s about love, it’s about the oceans…it’s not necessarily about loving the ocean…its not necessarily about loving love…its about learning how to live on the ocean of love when you’re in the middle of a hurricane, and the waves are big and it doesn’t seem like you’re gonna get out of it, but you might. Don’t jump ship…don’t become the man overboard. They may never find you.” 

The crowd cheers for Stone afterwards, and Ed points out the “Stone supporters,” adding that Mike requested the band play the next song, a full-band cover of The Beatles’ “Rain”. Even Flow is introduced as “an old Alice Cooper song called ‘Cold Ethyl’.” Following his usual amazing solo, Ed asks Mike when he learned to play like that, and Mike replies “one night after taking acid and seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan.  But kids, don’t do that. Don’t do that.” To which Ed replies:

“Hear that kids, don’t do that. Don’t take acid and practice for twenty thousand hours. And don’t mix it up. Don’t do twenty thousand hits of acid and then play guitar. If there are any Austrian journalists out there, make sure to get that right. Don’t do acid and play guitar. Mike wrote this next song, and I don’t believe there were any drugs involved at all, right Mike?”

Mike confirms drugs were not involved during the creation of the next song, Sirens. After the break, Ed mentions how bad the sound was in the building during soundcheck, “the worst or second to worst sounding” building that he’s ever been in, but that the band was happy to have a full and engaged audience. Ed breaks out the acoustic guitar for Needle and The Damage Done solo, a surprise, as it’s played for the first time since 2009! Not to be outdone, the rarely played Speed Of Sound makes an appearance in the first encore as well, played for only the 6th time. After Brain of J., Ed asks if he “should get an acoustic guitar for this…the 12-string? Mandolin, is there a mandolin?” A not-acoustic Lukin follows. An impassioned Indifference ends the night, after which Ed thanks the crowd, saying “so kind…we love you, thank you so much, so kind, we had a blast…good night, goodbye” and points out a “little dude” in the front, adding “thanks for taking care of each other.”