Acer Arena Sydney 7/12/10

[Freypower]

It was an all around emotional night, knowing it was the last show. I will get the bad news out of the way first: they dropped Somebody, which I was surprised lasted as long as it did. I feel for the people in other cities who now probably won't see it. I didn't think it was poorly received in relation to other songs. I suppose the show was a bit long, although honestly the first half is too short & could do with something extra (I think it is telling that audience requests seemed to mainly be for NKIT & Tequila Sunrise, although one brave soul wanted Chug All Night)! They have been dealing with very conservative audiences, most of whom didn't even seem to have bought LROOE. Anyway to be fair the audience was very engaged last night.

What a difference five seats makes. I was much closer to Joe & therefore I was much closer to Glenn. This meant I got some reasonable photos - but strangely I found it hard to get many good photos of Glenn while he was singing. Once again they were blurred; particularly the ones where he was looking in my direction. It didn't take long for that by the way - about the second line of Seven Bridges Road. There were people further along in the front that he kept playing up to all night. He must have known them. He did a whole 'count' in Funk #49 to them several times (although I should not complain because I got that on the first night). At one point in HC he blew Joe a kiss during 'pretty, pretty boys' which was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. After Tim introduced him & he did the Detroit joke he said 'that always gets a laugh' & looked at me. He gave me a very sweet smile during In The City which was worth the price of admission. I couldn't get any attention from him at the end. He sang superbly & of course looked wonderful (although there does seem to be a bit more weight there). He wore that nice pale blue & pink plaid shirt in the first half & the navy blue plaid after that.

Overall the energy level was pretty high. I noticed a lot of the new backgrounds in Dirty Laundry including a couple of closeups of my beloved countryman R. Murdoch. This song seems to resonate with Australians who then promptly go out & buy Murdoch's crap newspapers next day.

Before The Long Run we were told it was 'allergy season in Australia! Geez!' So Glenn gave Don a tissue & Don wiped not his nose, but his ear. He sang a lot stronger & I could see more of his drumming, which I will maintain forever is what he should be doing. Fortunately he remained on stage for RMW.

Once you see the photos you will get how Joe was. He mooned us during Funk #49 - he leaned over backwards & stuck his head between his legs. He's great. Tim is great too.... what can I say?

That is it, I suppose, probably for the last time. I would like to thank them for touring & giving me such a great experience each night. I should not say more than that at the moment.

[sodascouts]

The PEW hitting already, eh? Wonderful that you got so much attention and that they seemed in such good spirits, even though it's a shame they dropped Somebody.

I'm so glad you weren't disappointed!

[Freypower]

I hope you like the photos. A couple of Glenn singing are a bit blurred but I kept them anyway.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2265252...th/5242616780/

[Koala]

Thanks again so much for sharing your experience and your gorgeous photos with us!

[TimothyBFan]

I see Timothy had one of my favorite shirts on. He looks so fine in it!!

I will also say thank you to you for sharing this fantastic experience with us all here on The Border. How amazing to be able to get such great seats for not 1 but 4 shows in such a short time! I'm so very happy for you.

(Right now, as I type this, Boys Of Summer is playing on the radio-pretty cool).

[WalshFan88]

Thanks for the great photos FP! I really like this one - it proves me indeed Joe is back playing Gibson Les Pauls after taking a long break and playing other guitars (Fender, Ernie Ball, Carvin, PRS, etc) instead. Looks like he was using it on "Rocky Mountain Way" on the talkbox solo. Very cool! Great pictures!

[Freypower]

A couple of other tidbits that I remembered - it has all been such a blur.

Remember the outtake of PEF from HFO Second Night when Glenn sang that sweet 'yes I do'? Well he did that again. After the last time he sang 'I get a peaceful easy feeling' he sang more softly 'yes I do'. I never thought that would happen. Also I have a live version of Lyin' Eyes where he sings 'no no' after the final chorus. Well, he did that too on Tuesday. He also did the plaintiff joke for the only time that I saw. He seemed to think the crowd was receptive enough so he said 'and as I've said, this is dedicated to....'

People who think this band is a soulless machine who all hate each other have not seen Don & Joe gleefully high fiving each other as they did at the end of BOS (I think). In fact they were all so cool I kept shouting 'DUDE' at them, not that they could hear.

I like that grey shirt of Tim's as well, & Joe's bare arms were a sight!! Don's shirt in the first half was white western style with grey stripes - I don't remember having seen it before.

By the way Austin - Joe broke a string during In The City & changed to a Les Paul. I wondered what was going on. For some reason I didn't think electric guitar strings could break (I saw Glenn break a Takamine string back in 2004). Before The Long Run Don told us about the broken string after his usual 'Joe Walsh' bit.