Episode 33: Madison Square Garden – 7/9/2003

Through 32 episodes we’ve covered emotional moments, historical moments, legendary moments. Band defining moments such as the push for Breath at MSG, Immortality with original lyrics at The Orpheum and when the stage shook during Do The Evolution. Throughout all three of these iconic moments, one of us on this podcast shrugged them off and downplayed their impact. I was worried that Matt would never get to break out and enjoy the emotions of a performance instead of critiquing the sound…

That is until this episode! We continue our coverage of the MSG series with the second night of 2003, one of the earliest show’s that Matt attended. For years and years and years Matt talked about how Crazy Mary was one of the band’s best openers, only for the band having ever done it twice. I shrugged him off and called him… Crazy… due to the song being a staple in the encore act. Low and behold we finally get to talk about it and while it has emotional impact for Matt, I find a way to make good logical sense of the decision.

Overall the band had to follow a tough act from the night before where they were greeted with special guests and rocked so hard that the stage shook. They put together a great mix of the old and the rare tracks that were uncommon in 2003 such as Deep and Glorified G and spliced in some Riot Act songs that still to this day remain rarities – including Get Right that hasn’t been played since that tour.