PiL Hot in Pittsburgh

[Joan D]

May 14th was a great night in Pittsburgh. I am so happy that we went to see John & the guys he has playing in PiL now. I'm not great at concert reviews, but I'll share some of the experience & my thoughts:

First, I have to say that Joe is right - Club Zoo is not the greatest concert venue. It isn't very big - which is good as you won't be far from the band no matter where you are - but the old warehouse type structure means you can't see the whole stage unless you are right in front. There was probably a better view from the upper balcony, however, they were charging an extra $10 per person (though they were giving you "free" water bottles) if you went up to the balcony. We opted to stay close to the entry for various reasons & that put us rather far from the band. While I would have liked to have been closer, it got so hot throughout the evening that I'm not sure I would have made it being in a crowd near the front of the stage. I have no idea how the band handled it. Good thing we got a bottle of iced tea - Bob would have loved a nice cold beer - but Club Zoo is an under-21 club.

Anyway, in spite of the venue, the show was fantastic! We arrived at the club around 7:15pm (doors were to open at 7pm). John's tour bus was just pulling in, he managed a little wave to the people in line as he was entering the stage door. Rambo came back out to talk with some of the crew briefly. Wish I had of thought to catch a picture for you Liz. He has some colorful design on the back of his head - but he was up the stairs & back into the hall before I could really focus on what it was. Thought it might have been some kind of animal.

The band started about a half an hour late. They seemed to be not happy with the lighting. The end result was that while they had a spot on the back of the stage that picked up the drummer, Lu was hidden behind the equipment and there wasn't a separate spot light on John at the front of the stage. Maybe he asked to have it off since it was so hot in there.

John seemed in a pretty good mood, though, the crowd was not as lively as he would have liked (go figure). Some of his comments throughout the evening (paraphrased to the best of my aging memory):

• At the beginning: "I heard your team lost - hopefully this will make it better" [For those not into hockey the Pgh Penguins lost to Montreal Wednesday night & lost the bid for a repeat on the cup. Interesting to note that last year around this time (i.e., hockey playoffs) we went to see Coldplay - same night as one of the Pens' games. When Chris Martin tried to get the crowd to chant during the concert, everyone started yelling "Let's Go Pens" & he was totally confused - "What the hell are you talking about?" At least John did HIS homework on the town's sports before the show.]
  
  
• Regarding the venue: "I know this is the steel city, but no one told me it would be as hot as a steel mill in here."
  
  
• "You are very quiet - is it because of the heat or because you are stunned by my beautiful self" (The crowd of course indicated the latter & John said we were all liars.)
  
  
• Not sure what was said to him from the crowd, but his response was "I'm currently unavailable" and then he continued to say something about being innocent & virginal.
  
  
• At the start of trying to get the crowd to sing along with Sun: "Pittsburgh, you have no rhythm. That's why I'm up here & you are out there." (I think we did get some better with coaching from him through the rest of the song. )
  
  
• Religion: "I hate all religions", "Do you have a Priest Problem in Pittsburgh", "The priests are coming - hide your children", "And the Lord said Let There Be Bass. And there was bass." (And we all "felt" the song as well as heard it).
  
  
  

The crowd finally got into Sun and then was singing along with Bags, Chant and Rise. John seemed to come back for the encore with even more energy (maybe he had stepped outside & gotten some fresh air).

Have to say that I was kind of in a fog of happiness throughout the evening. I'm not even totally sure of the set list. When they started I thought that maybe I should write it down (I'm such a geek), but then decided I should enjoy the show & just let it happen. I wish we had recorded the whole show to play it all back. I enjoyed it all - hard to pick highlights, but maybe "Warrior", "Albatross", and "Rise".

One of the best things - my "significant other" (Bob) who was not so excited about going to the show (but said he would go because he knew I wanted to) really enjoyed it! Bob ended up bouncing & singing along during the show. He found "Flowers of Romance" to be hypnotic and said he never expected that he would have enjoyed a PiL concert. He loved the unique sounds the band achieved & says they sound like no one else. He is right.

There were a lot of people hanging around outside after the show; I'm assuming they were waiting for John to come out to get back on the bus. I considered asking Bob to wait & I guess we might have been able to get a photo or two. But, our friends who went with us were leaving, and it had been a great evening already so we walked back to our car in the cool evening air.

May not have been a great hockey night in Pittsburgh, but it was a great PiL night. So happy.

My suggestion - try really, really hard to get yourself to one of these shows. You won't regret it.

Joan

[Snoogans4Jay]

May 15, 2010 10:42:54 GMT -5 Joan D said:

May 14th was a great night in Pittsburgh. I am so happy that we went to see John & the guys he has playing in PiL now. I'm not great at concert reviews, but I'll share some of the experience & my thoughts:

First, I have to say that Joe is right - Club Zoo is not the greatest concert venue. It isn't very big - which is good as you won't be far from the band no matter where you are - but the old warehouse type structure means you can't see the whole stage unless you are right in front. There was probably a better view from the upper balcony, however, they were charging an extra $10 per person (though they were giving you "free" water bottles) if you went up to the balcony. We opted to stay close to the entry for various reasons & that put us rather far from the band. While I would have liked to have been closer, it got so hot throughout the evening that I'm not sure I would have made it being in a crowd near the front of the stage. I have no idea how the band handled it. Good thing we got a bottle of iced tea - Bob would have loved a nice cold beer - but Club Zoo is an under-21 club.

Anyway, in spite of the venue, the show was fantastic! We arrived at the club around 7:15pm (doors were to open at 7pm). John's tour bus was just pulling in, he managed a little wave to the people in line as he was entering the stage door. Rambo came back out to talk with some of the crew briefly. Wish I had of thought to catch a picture for you Liz. He has some colorful design on the back of his head - but he was up the stairs & back into the hall before I could really focus on what it was. Thought it might have been some kind of animal.

The band started about a half an hour late. They seemed to be not happy with the lighting. The end result was that while they had a spot on the back of the stage that picked up the drummer, Lu was hidden behind the equipment and there wasn't a separate spot light on John at the front of the stage. Maybe he asked to have it off since it was so hot in there.

John seemed in a pretty good mood, though, the crowd was not as lively as he would have liked (go figure). Some of his comments throughout the evening (paraphrased to the best of my aging memory):

• At the beginning: "I heard your team lost - hopefully this will make it better" [For those not into hockey the Pgh Penguins lost to Montreal Wednesday night & lost the bid for a repeat on the cup. Interesting to note that last year around this time (i.e., hockey playoffs) we went to see Coldplay - same night as one of the Pens' games. When Chris Martin tried to get the crowd to chant during the concert, everyone started yelling "Let's Go Pens" & he was totally confused - "What the hell are you talking about?" At least John did HIS homework on the town's sports before the show.]
  
  
• Regarding the venue: "I know this is the steel city, but no one told me it would be as hot as a steel mill in here."
  
  
• "You are very quiet - is it because of the heat or because you are stunned by my beautiful self" (The crowd of course indicated the latter & John said we were all liars.)
  
  
• Not sure what was said to him from the crowd, but his response was "I'm currently unavailable" and then he continued to say something about being innocent & virginal.
  
  
• At the start of trying to get the crowd to sing along with Sun: "Pittsburgh, you have no rhythm. That's why I'm up here & you are out there." (I think we did get some better with coaching from him through the rest of the song. )
  
  
• Religion: "I hate all religions", "Do you have a Priest Problem in Pittsburgh", "The priests are coming - hide your children", "And the Lord said Let There Be Bass. And there was bass." (And we all "felt" the song as well as heard it).
  
  
  

The crowd finally got into Sun and then was singing along with Bags, Chant and Rise. John seemed to come back for the encore with even more energy (maybe he had stepped outside & gotten some fresh air).

Have to say that I was kind of in a fog of happiness throughout the evening. I'm not even totally sure of the set list. When they started I thought that maybe I should write it down (I'm such a geek), but then decided I should enjoy the show & just let it happen. I wish we had recorded the whole show to play it all back. I enjoyed it all - hard to pick highlights, but maybe "Warrior", "Albatross", and "Rise".

One of the best things - my "significant other" (Bob) who was not so excited about going to the show (but said he would go because he knew I wanted to) really enjoyed it! Bob ended up bouncing & singing along during the show. He found "Flowers of Romance" to be hypnotic and said he never expected that he would have enjoyed a PiL concert. He loved the unique sounds the band achieved & says they sound like no one else. He is right.

There were a lot of people hanging around outside after the show; I'm assuming they were waiting for John to come out to get back on the bus. I considered asking Bob to wait & I guess we might have been able to get a photo or two. But, our friends who went with us were leaving, and it had been a great evening already so we walked back to our car in the cool evening air.

May not have been a great hockey night in Pittsburgh, but it was a great PiL night. So happy.

My suggestion - try really, really hard to get yourself to one of these shows. You won't regret it.

Joan

WOW, what an incredible review. Joan you ROCK. I feel like I was there. John I think is a hockey fan though I could be wrong. Even so, yes he always knows what is going on and that is part of why we love him, he does not live in a cocoon like so many performers seem to. Boy do I ever understand that "fog of happiness", I felt it too and loved every foggy moment. I am happy and impressed as I expected to be that John and PiL won over Bob as a possible fan of at least that night. I like to think that it is a gift of John's to be able to completely disarm those with good heart in the audience. He has a way of putting nay sayers either in their place or on their seats cheering (not that Bob was ever a nay sayer but you know what I mean). I loved your description of Religion as well as John's. Religion could be so wonderful for mankind and yet it has done nothing but divide. Rammy had something carved in his hair? Creative little guy I wish you had gotten a picture. I love how in charge the little Raminatrix is

I wish I had been there, but now thanks to you, I FEEL like I was. Thank you so much Joan! ;D

[Joan D]

Regarding Rammy's hair - I am sorry that I didn't get a picture. I didn't notice the back of his head until he was heading back into the building. Once I noticed, he was just moving too fast to get the camera back & snap a shot. But he had the design shaved in & it was in muliple colors. He seemed to be in a very serious mood, so even though we stepped aside to let him back up the stairs into the buidling, I just didn't have it in me to say anything to him. Still, nice to know that John has such a good friend watching his back.

[Joe]

Great review, certainly better than any that we'd get in our local paper, if we get one at all. Thanks for posting it!

[Joan D]

I found another review of the Pittsburgh concert online today that I enjoyed reading & thought some of you might find interesting as well.

"Suavity's Mouthpiece: John Lydon Shows Pittsburgh Its Place in the Sun -- PiL Live in Pittsburgh

John Lydon Shows Pittsburgh Its Place in the Sun -- PiL Live in Pittsburgh
Saturday, May 15, 2010 at 8:07pm

'CAN YOU IDIOTS DANCE?'
The humidity is, at first, just annoying. Packed up against the front rail in the close confines of Pittsburgh's Club Zoo with a bunch of urine-smelling strangers, my city's own, my personal space is very quickly machine-gunned down as the venue begins to swallow hordes of punks, addicts, underage jailbait, some (but very few) concerned parents, and most surprisingly of all, hippies. 'Never trust a hippie,' John Lydon once said.

They are late coming on. I'm stuck pressed against the railing watching indifferently as a 21 year-old with a mohawk hits on two scantily-clad 15 year-old girls who had come to the club to dance but found out there was a concert going on that evening. Boy, were they in for a surprise. As I waited, they deferred their attention from their hopelessly horny suitor to me, 'What kind of music is this?' 'IT'S ROCK AND ROLL,' the mohawked dunce answered. 'No,' I said flatly, 'PiL are definitely NOT rock and roll.' I turned back to an actually WORTHWHILE conversation led by a gentleman who, like me, had had significant knowledge of Johnny 'Rotten' Lydon's work. There were definitely DECENT people at this gig, I can admit that; however, as the night would progress, I'd find this harder and harder to believe.

Before entering the venue, I had the good fortune of meeting and having a satisfyingly in-depth conversation with Mr. Lu Edmonds, multi-instrumentalist who had been part of one of PiL's most (daresay I) commercially fruitful lineups. To call Edmonds a backing musician or even a guitarist is a great understatement. After witnessing the textures that he would conjure into being that evening -- along with fellow musicians Bruce Smith and Scott Firth -- WITH (not FOR) John Lydon, it is my firm stance that anyone with half an auditory nerve for digesting passionate sound can realize upon listening INSTANTLY why PiL are so vital to music as a past, present, and future. Mr. Edmonds and I discussed his current project with fellow strings-players Justin Adams and Ben Mandelson -- a multi-culturally-flavored platter of sound dubbed Les Triaboliques. He seemed surprised that I had heard of his other group, which is always a shame. The work that Les Triaboliques are doing is VASTLY significant; like PiL, though, because it is deemed 'different' by "purveyors" of popular music, not quite enough people are willing to turn an ear. I suppose this is the reason "square-pegs-in-round-holes" like myself exist. Isn't that what friends are for?

The next time I see Lu Edmonds, he is onstage clutching one of his arsenal of exotic stringed-instruments, looking on with a degree of anticipation very much proportionate to my own at his current employer, Mr. John Lydon. Yes, Public Image Limited is a COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY, not a BAND. And sporting the suit-jacket-clad physique of a strong, sea-faring Irishman in his early 50s, pale, scrawny Johnny Rotten of the early Sex Pistols days is all grown-up, and Mr. Lydon means no-nonsense business. He makes this clear, opening PiL's 2010 set with the recognizable -- yet, thoroughly updated and never more explosive -- "THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG." With indescribably powerful (yet not unwieldy) poptones, Lydon is inside free enterprise. There is no doubt that the band is playing PiL songs -- but the sound is far from hackneyed jaunts down memory lane that so many reunion tours tend to be. The music is brand new, arrangements fiddled-with and restructured by extremely skilled musicians have borne the fruit that has been so often PiL's repertoire -- UNIQUE SOUND. The most important part of this tour is that the songs played do NOT sound like the songs on record. The aspect of improvisation that made PiL (in)famous to begin with is carried on in this breath-taking new incarnation.

Despite the stifling growth of the humidity, the audience responds in gratitude...most often to the "signature songs." Oh, Pittsburgh. So much to answer for. Hopefully Mr. Lydon was at least able to see one wild-eyed, bespectacled maniac shouting the lyrics of the lesser-known "USLS1," "BAGS," and the Lydon solo material "PSYCHOPATH" and "SUN" right back at him. He'd fucking better have.

Which brings me to a vital point: Pittsburgh, don't try to out-punk Johnny Rotten. You WILL die trying. I noticed that the fool who screamt, "FUCK YOU, JOHNNY!" was also the one who started the mindless mosh that ensued during the encore "PUBLIC IMAGE." Rapidly becoming a reluctant participant in the violence, I was fortunate enough to manage a punch to the stupid offender. You don't stick two fingers up to your friends. And as John has been reiterating at several venues on the current tour, 'John and the boys are your FRIENDS.' Wow. That's just...NOT the current state of the music industry. Thank god for PiL...

...or perhaps not. Scott Firth's electric stand-up bass begins it's ever-brooding climb through the decibels as "RELIGION" ensues. Skin is LITERALLY given the feeling of crawling by the power put out by that bass. And just when you think your heart is about to stop? Lydon drones into the microphone to the sound engineer, beckoning for more bass in a poignantly biblical fashion: 'And he said, 'LET THERE BE BASS,' and behold, THERE WAS BASS.' "RELIGION" received a more deafening response from the audience, surprisingly enough, along with the 1989 single "WARRIOR," a response which I wasn't expecting. Then again, "WARRIOR" does include the defiant chorus that very much can be used to describe John Lydon as an individual: 'I'LL NEVER SURRENDER.' What I can say in response to Johnny Rotten -- today, a day after one of the most enlightening experiences I'm sure I'll ever have -- is, 'Please, never do.' Thank you for a night that cannot be fully expressed with words. Heaven knows, growing up and living here, I've never had many of those. Isn't THAT what friends are for?"

[Snoogans4Jay]

Wow, what a great review!! Thanks so much for posting that Joan . As to the guy that started the violence and insults, I can't understand why people go to shows to behave like idiots.