Halloween was our 3rd concert night in a row.

Weezer @ Hammerstein.

I have to say, the costume creativity factor was quite high with the crowd.

Light Bulb man was annoying because he was like 9 feet tall and lit up blocking part of our view… but there were some great costumes…. and quite a few “team” costumes like Peter Pan, Captain Hook + Tinkerbell…. Wayne and Garth…. Mario, Luigi and Toad. I saw a David Bowie that was nicely done.

We got to Hammerstein just as the 2nd opener played their song I know. It sounded like the radio version. They were a 2 person band with a synthesizer playing the other parts of the track. “Meh”

Weezer played a good set (Lethy got the setlist, as usual!). Rivers had a ton of energy, he never stopped moving.

They invited fans on stage to undress them from their costumes during Undone. I can only imagine how sick of playing that song they must be and they’ve gotta constantly be coming up with new ways to keep it fresh.

Rivers did the “Island in the Sun” loop-prepping again like he did at the Hartford show. It was cool to see the sound guys scurrying around and analyzing wave peaks to make sure they timed the loops right.

Near the end they did a cover of Lady GaGa’s Pokerface. It was hard to tell if it was a farce or not.

Hopefully pictures from Ken to follow!

Night #2 was pretty epic too!

Maybe it was the drain of commuting to MSG for concerts and the lack of sleep, etc but night 2 didn’t quite live up to night #1.

All told, it was still awesome.

Aretha was a diva… she didn’t share the stage particularly well.

Jeff Beck was insanely talented, but honestly there is only so much instrumental jamming I can tolerate.

Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was an awesome surprise. Their rendition of Foxy Lady was pretty good.

Metallica sounded really good. Their time with Lou Reed was awkward. Ozzy was great, sadly he only played 2 songs. At his age and being used to his TV persona moreso than his stage persona, it was awesome to see how much energy he still brings. Ray Davies of the Kinks was a nice surprise.

U2 closed things out. Bruce Springsteen came out with Patti Smith for a song. Which they played twice. Because Patti was off beat. On a song she wrote. Twice. Everyone kinda felt bad for her.

Later, mid-song Black Eyed Peas joined U2. Bono stole Fergie’s parts of that song.

Then when Mick Jagger came charging out, there seemed to be more energy again. Mick and Fergie had a little back and forth thing going on which seemed like they were having a lot of fun.

Night ended on an odd note where the house lights were off and nothing happening for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. It seemed like there was a chance there would be another encore… but then there wasn’t.

Oh well. Here’s the setlist!

Jerry Lee Lewis:

“Great Balls of Fire”

Aretha Franklin:

“(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” (band instrumental)
“Baby I Love You”
“Don’t Play That Song (You Lied)”
“Make Them Hear You”
“Chain Of Fools” (with Annie Lennox)
“Theme From New York, New York”
“Think” (with Lenny Kravitz)

Aretha Franklin encore:

“Respect”

Jeff Beck:

“Drown In My Own Tears”
“People Get Ready” (with Sting)
“Freeway Jam”
“Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”
“Let Me Love You Baby” (with Buddy Guy)
“Big Block”
“Rice Pudding”
“Rough Boy” (with Billy Gibbons)
“Foxy Lady” (with Gibbons)
“A Day In the Life”

Metallica:

“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“One”
“Turn the Page”
“Sweet Jane” (with Lou Reed)
“White Light/White Heat” (with Reed)
“Iron Man” (with Ozzy Osbourne)
“Paranoid” (with Osbourne)
“You Really Got Me” (with Ray Davies)
“All Day and All Of the Night” (with Davies)
“Stone Cold Crazy”
“Enter Sandman”

U2:

“Vertigo”
“Magnificent”
“Because the Night” (with Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith)
“Because the Night” (second take, with Springsteen and Smith)
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (with Springsteen)
“Mysterious Ways”/”Where Is the Love?” medley (with Black Eyed Peas)
“Gimme Shelter” (with Mick Jagger, Fergie)
“Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” (with Jagger)

U2 encore:

“Beautiful Day”

It was pretty much as fucking epic as you can imagine by looking at the list of artists and the setlist.

Here is Thursday’s setlist:

Jerry Lee Lewis

“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On”

Crosby, Stills and Nash

“Woodstock”
“Marrakesh Express”
“Almost Cut My Hair”
“Love Has No Pride” (with Bonnie Raitt)
“Midnight Rider” (with Raitt)
“The Pretender” (with Jackson Browne)
“Mexico” (with James Taylor)
“Love the One You’re With” (with Taylor)
“Rock and Roll Woman”
“Teach Your Children” (with Raitt, Browne and Taylor)

Paul Simon

“Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes”
“Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard”
“You Can Call Me Al”
“The Wanderer” (with Dion)
“Here Comes the Sun” (with Crosby and Nash)
“Late In the Evening”
“Two Kinds of People” (Little Anthony and the Imperials a cappella, Simon offstage)
“The Sounds of Silence” (Simon returns with Art Garfunkel)
“Mrs. Robinson”/”Not Fade Away” medley
“The Boxer”
“Bridge Over Troubled Water”

Simon and Garfunkel encore:

“Cecilia”

Stevie Wonder

“Blowin’ In the Wind”
“Uptight (Everything’s Alright”
“I Was Made to Love Her”
“For Once In My Life”
“Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”
“Boogie On Reggae Woman”
“The Tracks Of My Tears” (with Smokey Robinson)
“Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)” (with John Legend)
“The Way You Make Me Feel” (with Legend)
“The Thrill Is Gone” (with B.B. King)
“Living For the City”
“Higher Ground”/”Roxanne” medley (with Sting)
“Superstition” (with Jeff Beck)

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”
“Hold On, I’m Comin’ ” (with Sam Moore)
“Soul Man” (with Moore)
“The Ghost of Tom Joad” (with Tom Morello)
“Fortunate Son” (with John Fogerty)
“Proud Mary” (with Fogerty)
“Oh, Pretty Woman” (with Fogerty)
“Jungleland”
“A Fine, Fine Boy” (with Darlene Love)
“Da Doo Ron Ron” (with Love)
“London Calling” (with Morello)
“Badlands” (with Morello)

Springsteen encores

“You May Be Right” (with Billy Joel)
“Only the Good Die Young (with Joel)
“New York State of Mind” (with Joel)
“Born To Run” (with Joel)
“(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” (with Joel, Moore, Fogerty, Love, Morello, Browne and Peter Wolf)