The Pendulum/Low Light opening combo serves as a barometer for Ed’s voice (night 2 in London having been postponed 5 days prior due to vocal issues), and his voice clips on “Easy left me a long time ago.” Ed welcomes…
Main Set: Pendulum, Low Light, Last Exit, Do The Evolution, Animal, Improv, Corduroy, Given To Fly, God’s Dice, Not For You/(Modern Girl), Even Flow, Daughter, Red Mosquito, Mind Your Manners, Down, Spin The Black Circle, Porch
encore 1: Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Inside Job, Once, Better Man/(Save It For Later), Black/(People Have the Power), Crazy Mary, Rearviewmirror
encore 2: Smile, Alive, Baba O’Riley, Indifference
The Pendulum/Low Light opening combo serves as a barometer for Ed’s voice (night 2 in London having been postponed 5 days prior due to vocal issues), and his voice clips on “Easy left me a long time ago.” Ed welcomes the crowd in their native tongue, proclaiming in Italian that this marks the 12th Italian show in 8 years, but he never said, “Good evening Padova!” Evolution tests Ed’s voice, as the feral howls are absent. Addressing the crowd again in Italian, Ed recalls the June 15, 2007 show that was canceled due to weather and shares his gratitude to be back, then plays a sweet improv about feeling at home in Padova. Corduroy seems to mark the end of Ed’s vocal concerns, as he stretches his voice in a series of chants with the crowd. More call and response during Daughter, along with some denouncement of Trump’s ideals, accompanied by some very suave dancing from Ed. Trump is again invoked as Ed proclaims that the devil comes in “all different colors, not just orange,” before Red Mosquito. Spin the Black Circle is dedicated to Jack White, “a great maker of records.” Many of the small neighboring towns in Italy are called out before Small Town. Ed sings part of People Have the Power, and then improvs, on a gorgeous eleven-minute Black. Crazy Mary follows, with Boom’s organ solo riffing off “Paint it Black” before it erupts back for a blazing finish. Before Smile, Ed introduces his friend Dylan, who just moved to Italy, and then mentions he had met someone the year prior who had written a book about “our group, it looked to be a great book, it was thick, I haven’t read it because it was in Italian, but it had some great Italian words in it,” and mentions Daria and Luca and their 3 day old daughter Eleonara. Ed holds up her baby picture and dedicates Smile to her. Leading into Alive, he shares an almost-too-crazy-to-be-true story about a night out in Italy, involving limoncello, walking the streets at 4 am, drugs, and a quick escape:
[…There was] screaming and yelling, Italian swear words, and I asked my friend ‘ Who the fuck is he talking to?’ My friend says, ‘Oh, he is talking to his wife. She is at home. Oh Eddie, this woman…she is like a dog made of Satan’s sperm. She is evil and she will hate us for walking into her house at 4:30 in the morning.’ I said ‘Well we can’t do it then,’ and he said, ‘Oh no it will be fine’…so we play a little music and I climb through a small window because I did not want to be in the same room as this hellhound. I mean, she had every right to be barking, I just didn’t want it to be at me. So we sat on the roof a little longer, waiting for the sun to come up. And when it did, I was the first person in line to take the boat back. And I was so happy to touch ground and the only reason I am telling you this story is because I don’t want that to ever happen again. And I am glad to be alive.
Following Alive, the band roars straight into Baba O’Riley and then closes the night out with Indifference, Ed allowing the crowd to finish out the night by singing “I will scream my lungs out till it fills this room…”
Written by: Matthew Sellers