imsiobhan

Yes. Just go to the Ticketmaster/Live Nation page for the show you want to attend and select the M&G package in the Ticket Type drop down. Once you select the M&G option you want, the ticket buying process works the same way that it works for any other ticket on Ticketmaster. As for me, I'm among what seems like a lot of people who are doing Camden, Holmdel, and hideous Wantagh. I also grabbed a ticket for Hollywood Bowl -- I've always wanted to see a show there, so off we go!

I was at the show, so I'll make the guarantees for you: The setlist that's currently on the show page is accurate! Same set that they played for the last several dates on the tour.

The first three lines of that song may have been the best I've heard Chester sound live ever. Granted, my experiences are way more limited that most of you here, but still, he sounded remarkably good. As in, I literally turned to my friend and remarked, "He sounds really good." Anyhow, here's what VIP 2 passes looked like: Pretty cool souvenir. Nowhere near as cool as the hilarious Motley Crue messenger bag and travel coffee mug that came with my tickets for their Intimate Evening in Hell residency over at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino (the real reason I traveled out to Vegas), but not bad!

Yup, they definitely played Lady Picture Show.

"Shady nonsense" is an excellent description of what went on at this show. STP's show was Night 2 of a three-night event celebrating The D (hotel and casino) on Fremont Street. Uncle Kracker played Thursday night, and Kid Rock was the main event on Saturday night. The show was advertised all over the place as a free event, and it wasn't till about a week before the show that "free concert" started morphing into "VIP concert for hotel guests with very limited free viewing on the far sides of the stage." I mean, I was there, and I'm still not entirely certain what the deal was with the show. Moral of the story was that there were four viewing areas: - VIP 1: Directly in front of the stage, there was a large reserved area for VIP 1 concert goers. I don't know who you had to be to get into VIP 1, but as the article linked above accurately describes, the space was maybe half full, and maybe a quarter of the people in it cared that there was a concert happening. - VIP 2: Once word started coming out that you had to be staying at The D or its sister hotel to get tickets to this concert, my friend and I booked a room at the sister hotel. (The D was charging a hilarious $799/night per room.) That got us into VIP 2, which was behind and to the sides of VIP 1. When we arrived to the show, some never-before-mentioned $95 ticket option was available that also got you into VIP 2. VIP 2 was a lot larger than VIP 1, but was maybe one-third full? - Bleachers: A week before the show, Fremont Street Experience announced that there'd be limited bleacher seating available for $25. The bleachers were this rickety affair situated maybe 50-60 yards from the stage, towering alarmingly high into the sky. At the beginning of the show, they were pretty full. I wasn't really paying attention to when or why they cleared out, but they were maybe only half full by the time the show ended. - Free public viewing: When the night began, the free public viewing was situated way the hell down the street. Like, I'm not sure you really could have seen anything from back there. When security realized that the enormous swaths of VIP 2 would never come close to being filled, they moved the gates forward maybe 15-20 yards closer to the stage. Still horrible sight lines, but the people in front could probably actually see something. What was awful, though, is that there were two fenced-in public viewing areas, with an aisle separating them. When they decided to move everything up, they moved up one side before the other. So all the people who'd arrived early and were on the front row of the side they moved up second were now behind EVERYBODY on the side they moved up first. I saw the whole thing happen and watched this poor girl's heart pretty much break across her face while all these people streamed in front of her. Seriously one of the worst advertised, organized, and executed events I've ever attended. But anyway, onto the show: This was my fourth time seeing the band on this tour. The other three shows I saw were way earlier in the tour -- Bethlehem, Atlantic City, and Huntington. The band was a much tighter unit on stage. Chester had some pretty spectacular missed lyrics in the first three shows, but was flawless in Vegas. He was also working in some different screams and things here and there. Weirdly, though, even though they technically *played* better, I felt like they'd lost a bit of what made them so phenomenally appealing in the beginning -- just this total wide-eyed "Oh my God, this is so much FUN!" thing. Which I suppose is to be expected: The first three shows I saw really *were* the beginning of the tour, and I imagine the whole thing was probably pretty routine toward the end, but I missed all the smiles and man hugs and laughter that was exchanged during the early shows. Setlist was the same as the setlist contained in the article that Querty95k posted about the Marquee Theatre show. In my opinion, even though it's only slightly different, it's a *much* improved setlist over the one they were playing for most of the tour. One show note: The stage had a walkway that jutted a solid 10 yards or so out from the front middle of the stage. Chester spent a ton of time out there, which surprised me a bit. That being said, because of the stupid way the stage was set up, he really had to go out there to be anywhere near the crowd, so that might have been the main attraction for him. He also jumped into the crowd after the show finished and spent a ton of time chatting with people and taking pictures. He was the only guy in the band to do that. And one girly comment: Talinda was at the show, standing just a couple feet from me, and holy moley is she beautiful in person. She's beautiful in pictures, too, but really just insanely gorgeous in person. She filmed the whole last song of the show on her iPhone, which I thought was really kinda sweet! It's nice that she's still a fan even though she's seen him play a million times.

Yes, badly -- He blew the entire lyric. It definitely happened early in the song -- if it was, in fact, the first verse, it must have been the "Feelin', like a hand in rusted shame" lyric. Otherwise, it was probably the first line of the second first. It was interesting, though, because he blew a lyric in Atlantic City, and he totally cracked up about it. Like, to the point where he had trouble getting the next two lines out because he couldn't stop smiling about it. But when he blew the line in ILS last night, he yelled out "Fuck!" and looked so pissed off that Dean had to give him a reassuring, "It's alright!" He joked about it after the show on Twitter, but he was not a happy camper at the time! But yes, same set. Dean and Robert did an extended improvisation before ILS. After seeing the video from Sayerville where Dean either broke a string or had a stroke during the opening to that song, I feared he might have gone off the rails again, but it appears the extended intro was intentional last night. Someone over at Below Empty said he's not awesome at improvising. Based on the extremely limited experience of the three CheSTP shows I've seen, I'd have to agree!

This is the last one for awhile! I'll also be hitting up the Vegas show, though that one's just a happy coincidence: I'd already planned to be out there for Motley Crue's Intimate Evening in Hell on Saturday, September 28, and then STP went and scheduled a show for the 27th! I'm considering myself VERY lucky! If you're interested in pics from the shows for your awesome live guide, you're welcome to use some of mine. I've started sets on Flickr for the Bethlehem show and the Atlantic City show, and assuming I can get reasonably close to the stage tonight, I'll have a set going for Huntington by tomorrow or Thursday.

Doubt this one'll be sold out. Ticket prices for this show are somewhat higher than what I paid for the Bethlehem and Atlantic City shows (~$75 vs. $50 for GA, with reserved seats up around $125-150), and the venue started offering half-price tickets earlier this week. If the place were in NYC, maaaybe they could get away with those prices, but I doubt it out on Long Island. We shall see in a few hours, though!

You're welcome to use them! I've got tons more from the show that I just haven't had the time to edit and post, so I'll be adding to the set over the next week or two. I'll also post if I get anything decent from the other shows I'm attending. I'll be with friends at the Atlantic City and Vegas shows, so I probably won't worry about getting too close to the stage or fiddling with my camera much. But I'll be alone at Huntington, so I'm planning to arrive early and hopefully get a good view near the stage.

I've been rubber-necking on some of the fan forums, too. It really is kind of fascinating. They've got more endurance than I think I'd have in the same situation. This has been going on since May. Anyhow, agreed with the comments that there will be more interest once the EP comes out. I'm super interested, but only because I've had/will have the opportunity to see the tour. (I saw Bethlehem on Wednesday, and I'm also doing Atlantic City, Huntington, and Vegas.). And I'm a lot more interested than I already was now that I have seen one of the shows -- I thought Chester and the band completely and totally KILLED it on Wednesday, and it was absurdly fun watching all the guys so obviously having so much fun on stage. But yeah, don't think I'd care all that much that they were touring if I wasn't going to be able to hit any of the shows, and it's a pretty limited tour they're doing! I've posted some pics from Wednesday's show in Bethlehem to Flickr if anybody's interested: STP in Bethlehem, PA

I agree with the comment above. I also wouldn't be surprised if Chester's legal counsel recommended that he keep a bit of distance between himself and the band: "Three Guys Who Are Suing and Getting Sued" with Chester Bennington. I'll definitely be at Huntington and Vegas. (The Vegas show happens to coincide with a trip I'd already planned out there to see Motley Crue.) Might do Bethlehem and Atlantic City, too. We shall see.

Sure. All my photo files from the show are at home on my personal PC (I'm at the office right now.), but I'll shoot an email over with some of the best shots tomorrow!

I have lots of good pictures from the Vegas show. I haven't processed all the photos yet, but I've posted most of what I've gotten through so far to a set on Flickr. If you need the actual photo files or in some cases, versions with less intrusive watermarks, let me know which ones you want, and I'll email them to you. (The files are 7-12MB each, so I don't want to email everything!) Couple of my favorites: