Triumphant are the Angels

LOCATION: Hotel Versilia Torino, Torino
Tonight's show: Torino (Palaisozaki)

Setlist: Go, Corduroy, Animal, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Comatose, Severed Hand, Marker In The Sand, Parachutes, Unemployable, Big Wave, Gone, Wasted Reprise, Army Reserve, Come Back, Inside Job, Do The Evolution, Rearviewmirror

1st Encore: Jeremy, Lukin, Better Man, Black, Tremor Christ, Alive
2nd Encore: Blood, Even Flow, Baba O' Riley, Indifference

Finally! Torino lacked the drama and problems that have plagued the start of the first three Italian shows for me. Can I get an Amen?!!

I met up with Ignasi and we took the tram to Palaisozaki. Once there, we picked up his 10c tickets and made our way to the 10c line. I had contemplated going up in the front today, but I saw there were a lot of people on the line and knew that I would have a difficult time getting on the rail. I would never make it in the middle of the crowd, so I thought I'd stay out. I ended up running into Jess and met the rest of her travel crew, Steve and Karen. I was psyched to hear that she had finalized the rest of her tour plans and would definitely be going to Prague and Berlin. She and I have really hit it off and I'm looking forward to our friendship.

When they let us in, everyone on the line made their way onto the floor, but Jess and I had already decided that we would try to sneak into two seats on the side of the stage because the view would be better for us. The arena was gorgeous. It's been the second most beautiful venue after Verona. It must have been built for the Olympics because everything was new, clean and modern with plastic seats lining the entire venue. Security was extremely tight and trying to get down the aisle into the seated area was not as easy as it had been before. We thought it would be best if we found two people who wanted to trade their seats for two floor tickets. After asking around for a while, we finally found a couple who were willing to trade. I know it sounds odd--why would anyone want to trade their fan club ticket for a seated one? Jess and I are under 5'4 and we have absolutely no view on the floor unless we are on the rail. Tour exhaustion has been really setting in and we were relieved that we would be on the side with an awesome view rather than on a tight, packed floor with no view.

After trading we met up with Bowman and Dolan, the poster guys! Jess is good friends with both of them and I was really happy to meet them since I've heard so many great things. Bowman is such a character and Dolan is the nicest guy. Dolan said he'd talked to Mike before the show and said they'd be playing the new album in its entirety tonight. He didn't know if it would be all in a row or if it would be split, since Ed was still working on the setlist. As anyone can imagine, Jess and I were really excited to get a little inside scoop on tonight's setlist!

Ed performed The Who's A Quick One with MMJ during their set, and once they were done, we made our way over to our seats. Once there, we noticed there were a few empty seats further down and so we ended up in the third row (Mike's side).

Tonight they opened with Go again! Other than Verona, I haven't gotten a slow opener and I'm really hoping for one. The crowd was into the first few songs, and even after Milan's overwhelming reaction, which will be difficult to top, I was enjoying watching them get into it. The floor seemed a lot safer than it was at both Bologna and Milan, and that was great to see as well. Once Life Wasted came on, Jess looked at me and said, 'here we go!' We weren't sure if we were going to get 6 and then 7 afterwards, but we did know what was happening. Once they finished Parachutes, we knew they would be doing the album straight through. We both thought it was great to witness, even if we knew exactly what was coming next. I asked Jess if she knew if this had ever happened before and she said that it probably happened only during the Ten years. I was disappointed that the crowd didn't have our same reaction. I think they felt it wasn't as exciting to know what they would hear next, but I was loving it. Although it wasn't the end of the main set, the lights came on when they finished Inside Job and they got a really nice reaction from the audience in appreciation.

The 1st encore was just as great, hearing both Lukin and Black, which never disappoints no matter what the city. During this set came the highlight of the show for me. I had seen this guy wearing a flag that read Tremor Christ in Milan, and thought how great it would be to hear it during this tour since I've never heard it live. After Black, I saw Ed and Mike pointing at something out in the crowd and told Jess that they were pointing to the same guy from Milan, who brought his flag to Torino as well. Ed addressed the audience and talked about the amount of flags that were in attendance. People have come from all over the world to see these shows and they are bringing little pieces of home with them. He called out the countries....Mexico, Portugal, Australia -- at one point Stone said something to him and he laughed and then said even the Rainbow flag was here! He then said the next song was for 'that one out there' and then they went into it. Jess and I started jumping around like two giddy little girls because she's as much a fan of the song as I am. The people around us must've thought we were lunatics because no one else in our section was reacting the same way. I was so happy that guy got his request - it must've made his tour. On the last lyric, as Ed sang 'Puts his faith in love and tremor christ...' he brought his hands up and opened them out towards the guy with the flag.

The rest of the show was equally as exciting. It's funny, no one mentioned Torino as a potential highlight of the Italian shows and it was certainly supposed to be the underdog. I actually enjoyed it slightly more than Verona and Bologna. During Alive in the 1st encore and Baba in the 2nd, Ed took out his camcorder and recorded the audience. I don't know if they'll use that in the DVD footage, but if they do, look for me and Jess on Mike's side jumping around like the giddy little girls this band turns us into.