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| May 2, 2003 Chicago Concert Review |
| Written by ME, your lovely webmaster. ;) |
| This was the 5th stop on matchbox twenty’s More Than You Think You Are Tour 2003. It would have been the 6th show, but they cancelled the April 29 Fargo, ND show. And I’m also not counting the April 16 club show in LA because they played under their alter ego (Catbox Honey). My seat was in Row 11, center! The first opening band was Maroon5. They began at 7 pm and ended at 7:20 pm. They only played 5 songs. No one in front of me was standing, so I got an awesome view! Maroon5 were excellent. A lot of jumping around, hehe. You might know their song, “Harder To Breath.” Sugar Ray went on stage at around 7:40 pm and left at 8:30 pm. I wasn’t expecting to like them, but they were so much better than I thought! SR had a very interesting stage set-up, including a bar. Mark McGrath, the lead singer, told us what not to do if you’re drunk: Drive and use the phone. hehe. They did a bunch of their hits, like, “Fly,” “Every Morning,” and “When It’s Over.” They also did a few new songs, like, “Mr. Bartender (It’s So Easy),” and “Chasing You Around.” During “Fly” (I think), Mark went off the stage and ran to about the halfway point on the floor, and stopped by an SR fan. He let her sing a line. Then I saw him run back, and onto the stage. A little more than half-way through their set, Mark goes, “Oh, I know what it is. You guys are waiting for matchbox twenty!” And the crowd screamed. Fun. Around 9 pm, it was finally time for matchbox to get on stage. It was great, because all of a sudden, the lights went out and you could see the guys walking on stage! I will never forget that. Set list (not in order, sorry): Real World- Rob said hi to a girl in Row 7. That was cool because I know her! 3 AM- Huge crowd pleaser. Adam jumped around a lot. Back 2 Good- What can I say? Fantastic! Adam was sitting on a high stage behind Paul. Sometime during the song, Paul threw a drumstick at Adam. Adam tried to catch it, but he missed it and started laughing. Busted- Wow. If You’re Gone- Just Rob singing and Kyle playing the electric guitar. They re-worked the guitar part, so it sounded completely different. Different, but great! Mad Season- On the screens, they showed clips from the video (just the parts when they show the screaming fans). Bent- On the screens, they showed clips from the video (the parts when Adam is driving the car, hitting things, and eventually hits Rob.) For a little part of the song, Rob went onto a high stage behind Paul. Feel- The best damn rock song ever! Rob said he and Kyle wrote this song in a parking lot. Disease- Lots of red light. Awesome. Bright Lights- Rob played the piano. On the screens, they showed New York City. Unwell- Kyle played the banjo for the beginning. On the screens, they showed the changing wallpaper from the video. Cold- They opened the show with this song! All I Need- Cool song. At the end of it, Rob went over to Kyle’s mic, and they sang, “She loves me, yeah yeah yeah.” Hand Me Down- Paul played the piano. Tony Adams, a drum tech, played the drums. Rob was talking about Tony and called him a guitar tech by accident. And Rob was like, “What the fuck, you’re a drum tech! What the hell are you?!” Could I Be You- Paul wrote this song. Rob played the piano. I love this song. Downfall- On the screens, they had phrases like, “What’s so funny?”, “Do you trust your pets?”, and “Are you more than you think you are?” Soul- On the screens, they showed a yellow silhouette of a women dancing. You’re So Real- Last song before the encore. In the middle of the song, they all stopped and it got kinda dark. Rob just looked around. Then all of a sudden, they jumped back into the song. Jet (Paul McCartney and Wings cover)- Was not expecting this. This was the 1st time they did this song so far this tour (not counting the Catbox Honey show, in which case they did). I don’t know if you’re familiar with the song, but several times in the song, it goes, “JET!” Whenever it was time for that part, Rob would point to a section and they’d have to yell out, “JET!” Rob pointed to my section a lot. hehe. Also, Rob was saying how he felt old because he was talking to this one kid, and the kid was like, “Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?” Encore (in order): (after You’re So Real, they only took about a 2 min break before the encore) So Sad So Lonely- Now this was awesome. Rob moved around a lot on stage. Changes (Bowie cover)- Rob said he’s always wanted to live out his rock and roll fantasy of playing a Bowie song in an arena. They did a great job on this song. Long Day- Rob went on the high stage again. He moved around a lot. He let the fans sing, “It’s me, yeah well I can’t get myself to go away.” That was fun. Push- The last song. Rob kneeled down and started singing to a girl in the front row. Somehow, she got onstage. Rob did not seem to pull her up. She started dancing around him. He seemed kinda scared and moved to the other side of the stage, while Adam moved in to shield Rob from the girl until security got her off. After they finished Push, Paul came out from behind his drums, turned his back to the crowd, and threw his drumstick! I was so close to catching it. The girl right behind me caught it. At least I saw it up close! You would never have known that Rob was feeling a little sick on Wednesday and Paul’s hand was broken. |