Xpression.v2

I thought I would use this time to get a little more in depth about the Staind show last night.

A few days ago, Staind posted a MySpace bulletin letting people know you could apply for tickets to a free acoustic recording they were having for their upcoming greatest hits album. On a whim, I got Joe to come online and we both applied and luckily got accepted. Even though we made the list, we still had to get their early enough since it was a first come, first serve situation. With a little hesitation about standing in line for 4 hours (last thing I want to do on my day off from work is stand like I’m at work), I met Joe at about 5:30pm and started the long wait. Oddly enough, and I’m not kidding here, the guy waiting in front of us overheard us talking and realized he lived near us. How close? Well, Joe and I live a block apart. He lives between the both of us. Dude’s name was Rob and he was very cool.

Anyway, we got there early enough so we made it in easily and sat in the 5th row (out of 10). I would say there were about 300 people in the room and Joe agrees, so it must be a good estimate. Staind came out at 9pm and everything from then on was amazing. I’m not sure if it was the setting or the fact that the crowd was smaller, but Aaron (the lead singer) actually showed quite a bit of charisma (after Rob and I had discussed how he has none lol). His interaction with the crowd was really fun and I think everyone in the room laughed at least a couple of times. At one point, John (the drummer) threw him a towel to wipe his sweat and he said “I already got one” at which point a girl screamed that she would take it. He turned to the mic and said, “That’s disgusting”. Yes, it’s one of those “you had to be there moments”, but it was cool nonetheless.

Then of course, being in New York, he decided to say “Sox Rule” (referring to Boston Red Sox) at which point the crowd went nuts and we went back and forth with him over how Boston sucks. After someone yelled out “Bucky Dent”, he replied with a smile, “Man, fuck all you mother fuckers”. It was at that point it almost felt like the band was just hanging out with the crowd instead of simply performing for us.

The show itself was very dynamic. How much so? Well, they openly admitted they had only practiced for a hour earlier in the day and were just planning on doing it off the cuff. It made the 2 hours very interesting. I’m not sure what song they wanted to play, but before settling on “Zoe Jane” for the 3rd song, Mike (the guitarist) was trying to play out the intro to another song to which Aaron kept saying “No” as he got a few chords in. We all had a laugh and Mike said he was especially pissed because they play the song almost every night. Aaron also chose to point out that Mike wrote the music for it and, thus, couldn’t remember his own song.

Aaron’s joke would come back to bite him in the ass. The 7th song played was “Something Like Me”. It was a song written for Chapter V that was left off because the band felt it would get lost in between the singles. At the start of the second verse, Aaron actually forgot the words. We all giggled, but the band played through and brought it back to the start and he was able to get it the second time around. The song itself was about life in his house and seemed to be him standing back in disbelief at what he had in his family. The line to end the chorus was “I find it hard to believe someone like you could love something like me”. That just really struck me. Maybe it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I won’t forget that line.

Staind also chose to do a few covers. They did Alice in Chain’s “Nutshell”, “Sober” by Tool, and ended with “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. I’ve never been a fan of Floyd, but I have heard the song before and his voice during the verses was eerily similar to the original.

All in all, it was an amazing show. I would definitely say it’s one of my two favorite, only second to maybe the first time I saw them live. After a night like that, I’m reminded about how much I really like Staind and how, as cheesy as it sounds, the music has really helped me through some tough times. It’s a night I won’t soon forget.

While most of you weren’t there, you can hopefully get an idea of how awesome it was. They had cameras filming all night long and I think there will be a DVD released of it along with the greatest hits album landing November 14th. If you’re a fan, you should definitely pick it up.

And, for those of you who want to know the track listing (thanks to Joe for writing it down):

1. Falling
2. Schizophrenic Conversations
3. Zoe Jane
4. Devil
5. Epiphany
6. Reply
7. Something Like Me (Unreleased, never before heard)
8. Nutshell (Alice in Chains cover)
9. So Far Away
10. Everything Changes
11. Fill Me Up
12. Sober (Tool cover)
13. Outside
14. Right Here
15. It’s Been a While
16. Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd cover)

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