Great show on Sunday night (but pity about the t-shirts)
By columl - Posted on July 1st, 2007
A great show tonight on night 2 - I really enjoyed the new material (accelerate; man sized wreath etc.) and the classics from the past. Michael in very talkative form and seemed appreciative of everyone's patience. He described it as "an exercise in terror for the band".
One very minor complaint is how the merchandise was organised. There was only one stall so those upstairs had to wait until after the show to join a lenghty queue. 25 minutes later I got to the front only to be told that all of the Rehearsal T-shirts were sold out!
However, that couldn't spoil the pleasure that was Rehearsal Night 2.
I also thought it was great. New songs very promising - especially happy to note that MEM backup vocals seem to be featured on a couple (at least live versions). Was blown away by Wolves Lower (wanted to see live since I've known it - for almost 20 years) and Sitting Still. Along with I've Been High, that made for 3 of the songs on my dream set list! These Days and Heron House were incredible too.
I was in the reserved seating and was a little disappointed that no one up there really wanted to stand during the show. Also would have been nice to be able to buy merch before the show, but the line after the show really didn't take as long as it looked (I almost left but decided to wait it out and it maybe took 10 minutes).
My son was in the circle on Saturday and they stood up when the band came on but security told them to sit down so that may be why.
Back in front of my desk now, after a 24 hour dash over to Dublin from Romsey in Hampshire.
What a brilliant day !
Met up with Dave from Scotland, who sold me the ticket, and consumed far too much "black stuff", but no too much to spoil a great evening seeing the band.
The vibe I got from the stage was that they were having real fun, and that transferred over to the audience.
The new material was really interesting, and sounded good on first listening.
Pete Buck seemed to be organising the "rehersal", and I think this is apparent in the songs as well.
Overall a great night.
Have a great time all those people going to see the three remaining nights.
I know, I know, 'THIS IS NOT A SHOW,' but hey, gonna refer to it as a gig, if that's okay with everyone! It was a brilliant experience, quite different to the usual live affair. The guys seemed really at ease and relaxed. Had fantastic interaction with the audience, even taking questions at one point! The new songs need a little polishing, of course, but on the face of it, are very promising. Disturbance at the Heron House was such a treat. Probably the greatest live song, I've seen (it's one of my fave REM songs, so you can imagine how excited I was when Michael announced it!). Overall, a great, great night. I only hope I get to see the boys in such an intimate venue again in my life.
Enjoy the hell out of it, everyone going on the last nights!