Sloan

The show last night was the best I've seen the band play - they seemed much more relaxed and into the set list as opposed to their stint at the Bowery last May. They even converted my buddy who attended his first show last night and left the wondering why he has never heard of Sloan before.

Great show guys...as usual! I loved hearing the older stuff especially Before I Do, Deeper Than Beauty & Penpals!!! Oh, and the Rush covers were great too...I was laughing the whole time. Watching a band screw around on stage is a blast! I also thought The Redwalls put on a good show and was a perfect opening act for Sloan.

ROCK ON!!!

I thought it was one of the best times I've seen them- they played almost 2 hours. Excellent! Highlights for me were Coax Me and False Alarm.

Setlist

Losing California
Underwhelmed
Live On
Lines You Amend
All Used Up
Coax me
Money City Maniacs
Before I Do
People Of The Sky
Try To Make It
False Alarm
Suppose They Close The Door
Friendship
G Turns to D
Everything You've Done Wrong
Rest Of My Life
Good In Everyone
Encore
"Rush Tribute"
Deeper Than Beauty
Sensory Deprivation
Chester The Molester
Penpals
Anyone Who's Anyone
If It Feels Good Do It

*'Other Man' was supposed to be played in the encore but due to the "Sloan Request Time" my friend and I started by writing Chris a note to play "Chester" it was cut. Tee Hee.

I will write something more in depth tomorrow. I just got home from work.

I was lucky enough to meet all 4 of them Tuesday night, and they are just complete sweethearts. :)

Thanks again guys!
<3 Melissa

So after what appeared to be the longest wait EVER Sloan finally came to New York this spring!!! I haven't seen them since last year (which seemed like so long ago even though I saw them a gazillion times in different places). I stole most of the free Sloan buttons on the tables and the "A Sides" promo cards lol.
We were right in the middle of Chris' and Jay's spot on the stage after me realizing I have always been on the Patrick side of the stage. We stole Sloan promo posters from the wall. They are awesome.

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Sloan came on a bit after 10.....waltzed out to "A Sides Win". So great. Really reminded me of the beginning of "The Lines You Amend" video. I could see the setlist but I reallyyyy didn't want to ruin things for myself. I like not knowing what exactly is going to be played. They opened with a Patrick tune "Losing California" and then went into Chris' "Underwhelmed." I believe this is the first time I've ever heard them do these two songs live. This is why I love the new greatest hits records so much. You never know what songs are going to appear. "Live On" was next (a great Patrick song as always.) Jay took the mic, for one of my favorite songs of all time..."The Lines You Amend". The crowd sing a long was really awesome with it. Patrick sung the newbie "All Used Up" which was awesome and then they went into "Coax Me." During this time my friend and I decided to really root for "Chester" to be played. Its such a great song we've always wanted to hear live. "Money City Maniacs" was up next....rocked the hell out as usual. This is alway such an amazing energenic crowd pleaser to hear.
After this, Andrew came out from behind his drumset and switched to guitar to sing us a song. Jay of course then moved to the bass and Chris moved to drums. Andrew sung a nice little treat..."Bells On"!!! Damn it was good. He followed it by one of my other Sloan favs, "People of the Sky." Murphy was gonna kick some ass if people didn't sing along with that one! Everyone moved back to regular positions as Chris then played another newbie, "Try to Make It"...What a great song to play live. Its so upbeat. Then Jay followed it by singing "False Alarm," which was another sweet Jay tune to hear that night. "Suppose They Close the Door" was next which I was kind of surprised to hear. I've never heard that one live either and man I was pretty impressed. The Patrick tune "Friendship" was up next followed by Chris' "G Turns to D"...both really awesome songs to hear live especially back to back. "Everything You've Done Wrong" was then played. OH MY GOD. I know they haven't played this song for quite a while until this tour, and I was really rooting to hear it. I love the fact that they don't have the horns and have to use their vocals to do the parts. The crowd was really into it. "Rest of My Life", another great Chris tune was played next. I always love hearing that one. Then they went into "Good in Everyone" which is such classic Patrick.
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Then there was the encore....I turned to my friend, and was like "WE NEED TO HEAR "CHESTER" " I know they rarely ever played it, at least since around "Navy Blues" circa 1998, and they played it last week once to see how it went...they never did it again. So I take out the first half of the train schedule I had printed and wrote "PLAY CHESTER <3 MELISSA AND MARIBETH". We take this note and put it right on the foot of Chris' mic stand.
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Chris and Patrick came out and Patrick sat down on the drums while Chris took up the guitar. He then jokes about playing Rush songs. He tries to make Patrick play "Tom Sawyer" and he wasn't really doing to good on the drums with it. So then they went into "Deeper Than Beauty." AWESOME. This is of course a BIG crowd sing a long and mid point Chris asked Patrick if he wanted to continue playing this song or go back into Rush. They went back into "Deeper". They then played Rush's "Spirit of Radio" which was actually really cool and bizarre and man it was really enjoyable. You could see Jay laughing on the side of the stage. Then Jay and Andrew came back out. Chris moved to drums, Andrew went onto guitar, played "Sensory Deprivation" one helluva song to hear live.
Before that Chris started playing the drums and singing "Tom Sawyer". Too funny!
When Chris went back to his mic, he looked down and saw the sign. Picked it up, taped it to his back! Didn't know if he did this to just tape it on his back, but I think it was cue for them to play the song. They all kind of nodded, and then THERE CAME "CHESTER" I ALMOST DIED. No piano any longer of course, just regular instruments. SO DAMN AMAZING I COULDNT HAVE ASKED FOR ANYTHING BETTER OR COOLER TO HAVE HAPPENED. This started a bit of "Sloan Request Time"... they started talking over songs they could play, and then approached the crowd with a poll of what we wanted to hear. This went on for quite sometime and Patrick claimed "It doesn't matter, they all sound the same!" They played "Penpals" (AWESOME!) and "The Good in Everyone" (DOUBLE AWESOME!)..."Other Man" was supposed to be played but was cut I believe due to the requests, and they ended the show with a kickass version of "If It Feels Good Do It."
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I couldn't have asked for a better night. Great songs, Amazing band...and then it actually got better. The show ended a bit after midnight. There was no way we were going to make the 12:20 train home so we decided to stay around, the guard told us where Sloan was going to come out.
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So we were hanging out inside the bar, close to the door. Didn't want to miss them if they came out.
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All of a sudden, JAY walks out of the door and was just a complete sweetheart to talk to us. He had a box of bandaids (Aww) and asked our names, signed our poster (mine had some Spanish quotation going on!) lol and then took a picture with us. He said "Don't mind me if I smell a bit" and my friend went "Its okay, I do too" and he replied "I didn't want to say anything" lol. Jay is such a cutie :)
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Then all of a sudden Andrew walked out with his Cowboy hat and Rio de Janero bag (looking mighty fine). I personally freaked. I think I kind of scared him because I said his name quite loud. He was like "Hey!" shook our hands, talked a bit, signed our posters and took a crazy little photo with us. Can't wait to see that pose!
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Chris came out just before we were going to leave to catch the train. I didn't realize he was coming out of the door and literally SCREAMED his name. I scared the crap out of him and he may have fallen back into the wall in fear. We talked to him for a while and brought back the memory of the fact I called him "My own personal Jesus" last year which he found to be quite amusing. He then made another Depeche Mode reference asking me "You just Cant Get Enough". I took a picture with him because I was sad I didnt' have a camera the last time we met. The guard took it for me. We then told him we were the ones that requested "Chester" and he was like "OH! I really don't know that song too well" and then sang us some of it, asked what the second verse was, mumbled it and it was like the greatest thing ever because he started singing it to us. Chris is so cute and funny!
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We were leaving, bummed not to have met Patrick, but just our luck as we were walking out of the club, Patrick was getting off of the tour bus!!! We were like "AHH PATRICK!!" and after he got off the phone (We didn't know he was on the cellphone so we didn't do it on purpose!) We took a picture with him as well and when my friend couldn't work the camera he told me to call her a "Dumbass" which I did of course. We talked with him a while and he asked if we were there the night beforehand. While leaving he told us "Beware of that puddle, there is urine in there!" and told us to get home safely. Aw how nice!
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BOTTOM LINE:
Sloan are such sweethearts. I love that they took the time to speak to 2 crazy girls, who love their music so much they wouldn't miss it for the world. Words cannot express my love for Sloan and their music.
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We raise our glasses to Sloan.....the BEST BAND EVER TO WALK THE EARTH.
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Thank you for everything! You've made our lives.
Love Melissa :)

SLOAN PICS WHAT UP
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antimusicsong/sets/457154/

(these are from both nights at the Bowery)