Notes: |
Zwan and Queens of the Stone Age on my campus. This was a great show, probably the best show to come to
Illinois State University during my time there. The whole day was fantastic...I cut class to see if I could sneak into the soundcheck, to no avail. I was however able to ascend up to the top level of Braden to listen through the door. For the record, they played "Baby Let's Rock", "Yeah", "Spilled Milk", "Come With Me" and maybe one other song. Then, my friend and I went record shopping, where we ran into Billy and his entourage, who were buying records. I approached him nervously, thanked him for coming back to Normal (SP played there at least four times back in the 90s), to which he responded "it's all good, man", and I got him to sign the poster I so conveniently had tucked away in my coat pocket. By the way, he's really tall!
Then, it was back to campus for the show. Since I had friends on the entertainment committee, I was able to score pit tickets, so I was about six feet from the stage. Totally awesome. Queens of the Stone Age blew my mind. They came on and Nick announced to the crowd "We're Queens of the FUCKING STONE AGE!" and took off from there, and my god, were they LOUD. I thought my chest was going to collapse during "Song for the Dead". They were absolutely awesome, though. I talked to the people who catered the show and all they remember was Queens stumbling around in a daze backstage asking where "the real catering" was.
Zwan were good, but for me it was bittersweet to see Billy Corgan for the first time with Zwan, since I was never able to see the Pumpkins. "Mary, Star of the Sea" was tremendous, "Spilled Milk" was loud and awesome, and everyone actuallystayed silent during "Friends as Lovers".
Billy and Jimmy seemed to really be enjoying themselves, as opposed to the other members of the band, who looked totally bored. It was a fun night.
Enjoy this recording; I'm not sure I've ever actually traded it out, though I scored the ticket for the taper himself. Good times.
matt, February 21, 2007.
|