Pendulum starts off on the wrong note, but it doesn’t sidetrack the song. Low Light is powerful leading into a fast, shouty Sometimes, with Ed asking “…are you laughing here, dear god?” Matt is on fire during Lightning Bolt, driving…
Main Set: Pendulum, Low Light, Sometimes, (Interstellar Overdrive)/Corduroy, Lightning Bolt, Mind Your Manners, Animal, Deep, Sirens, Even Flow, You Are, Given To Fly, Infallible, After Hours, Spin The Black Circle, Rats, Lukin, Last Exit, Rearviewmirror
encore 1: The End, Yellow Moon, All Those Yesterdays, Just Breathe, Mother, State Of Love And Trust, Why Go, Porch
encore 2: Better Man/(Save It For Later), Wasted Reprise, Life Wasted, Black/(We Belong Together), Alive, Rockin’ In The Free World
Show Notes:
Show Notes:
Pendulum starts off on the wrong note, but it doesn’t sidetrack the song. Low Light is powerful leading into a fast, shouty Sometimes, with Ed asking “…are you laughing here, dear god?” Matt is on fire during Lightning Bolt, driving and muscular. Mike solos over Stone’s lead as well, to great effect. MYM keeps getting faster, played at a breakneck pace tonight. Ed says that the last time they played Portland was a benefit for “the Pacific Northwest School…am I saying that correctly…the Northwest School?” and then jokes “no, don’t embarrass me in front of all these people, just go with what I’m saying…I don’t know what the FUCK I’m talking about…” Sirens is dedicated to Tomas Young and his wife Claudia, who are in attendance, and it includes a long acoustic reprise at the end with Ed really going for the vocal inflections and the crowd loud, leading Ed to utter “thank you for that” quickly afterwards. He sees a couple of people in the crowd and calls them out:
“…what’s that thing you’re doing there, there’s like two confetti machine people here, nice! I was wondering what you symbolized…it’s like, they’re the military-industrial complex and they’re tearing money and throwing it up in the air…are we paying you money to do that for the whole show? We should…thanks! It’s making it exciting for me, you’re picking really good spots…”
He continues, pointing out the Yankees hat on the fan, causing the crowd to boo, and joking about the rivalry between the Yankees and the (non-existent) Portland baseball team, “it’s a crazy one I know, I just can’t remember…,” and adds “we’re going to play another new one” leading into Even Flow. Matt has a tremendous drum solo on Even Flow, a full minute long, Ed exhorting the crowd immediately after “…come on! He did that for you…” and shouting out “Matt fucking Cameron!” before the very end instead of Mike. He points out after that while everyone yesterday was celebrating the “pilgrims stealing Indians’ food, whatever that thing is,” they were giving thanks for Matt on his birthday, leading to the Cameron-penned You Are, the first performance since 2011. Ed asks for the lights up, pointing out a fan with a hat and a “Luv Co.” shirt, and Jeff interjects “that’s Concert Dave!” Ed says Jeff has the only other Luv Co. shirt and teases Jeff, “do you know ALL these people?” Infallible is “for Earth.” Lukin is started but abandoned before Ed starts singing. He runs through the riff a couple of times and then teases “you know, when you hear the song played and you hear the technicalities involved, it’s very intense…” He continues, talking about how he hates when people from Seattle call Portland “P-town,” adding “but Portlandia, I think that’s great…which is funny because this song came to me while having a bit of chamomile tea at the feminist bookstore,” and Lukin is restarted. Jeff and Matt highlight a frenetic RVM jam. After the break, Ed wants another bottle of wine and jokes “give that one to that little kid, he looks like he’s five years old or something.” He adds that Jeff noted there hasn’t been a Portland crowd this good since 1992 or ‘93, “and you figure that was a while back so most of those people are dead, this is like a new crowd, a new generation.”
To start the encore, The End is played by Ed solo and by request. Just Breathe is dedicated to Jason Baldwin of the West Memphis Three, also in attendance, who’s getting married soon. The crowd makes their feelings known on the “Mother” lines about running for president and trusting the government. Everyone sings Happy Birthday to Matt, with Ed asking Janet Weiss from Sleater-Kinney to count it off and pointing out Matt’s kids Ray and Josie and wife April before starting Better Man. Over the Wasted Reprise chords, Ed talks about all the friends they have there and thanks everyone, adding that Tomas Young had left, having decided that he didn’t want to continue on, moving to Portland, “the end of the Earth for happiness.” He continues, talking about how he mentioned Dick Cheney in Oakland and someone thought he should have moved on, leading Ed to rant passionately about Cheney and getting worked up about Tomas’ condition, closing with:
“…there are some things that even if you forgive you should not forget, just so we don’t let them happen again…we can’t let that happen again…and if Tomas sits there, all of fucking…34 years tomorrow, he’ll be 34 years tomorrow, and now I think he weighs about 65 pounds, look, if he can go through all this, and that makes a difference towards this never happening again he’ll be alright with the whole situation, he will have felt like he died a life…lived, and something that made a difference and it’s all up to us to make his life make a difference, thanks for listening.”
Stone starts Alive instead of Black and stops, the band going into jazz mode and Ed adding “I’m good either way…Portland jazz alley…come on it’s Matt’s birthday, let’s play some jazz…” Prior to Rockin’, Ed asks for reinforcements, calling on Corin Tucker, Carrie Brownstein, Peter Buck, Scott McCaughey, and Janet Weiss to help “take it home,” an impromptu Sleater-Kinney reunion onstage.