Pre-Greetings from the Windy City

[*Shard of Glass*]

Hi all,

Lifes taken me away from here of late,

Just dropping you a line, I'm about to head off to the Aniversary Shows in Chicago, gonna spend time with my brother and the Chicago peoples as well, then I have some big shows with my band when I get back over christmas/new year. I'm feeling pretty excited

I'll keep u posted on my perspective of the shows.

Love Heath (Shard of Glass)

[sunky]

Oh wow! I didn't know you were flying over!

Make sure you take lots of photo's

[scotopic lux]

Yeah, you kept that pretty quiet! haha. Have a ball, enjoy it for all of us here

[de-tec-tive]

woah that's cool! have fun dude, feel free to take a photo of the horn section for me =)

[sunkissed]

amazing! wish you all the best!

[Cygnet]

Fucking awesome Heath, have a blast man!

[boelsen]

thats awesome heath, have a great time!

[Glassy]

jealous.

i really really hope they got nothing but an awesome reception at home tonight.

[*Shard of Glass*]

Hey, having a good time so far.
The show last night was pretty sweet, the set list was essentially the same as the Toronto 3/11. date.
The Chicago Theater is a great venue too. A DJ guy from WXRT Chicago gave the introductions, and reiterated Billy's "This isn't about where we've been, but where we are now," quote.
This was a "white" night as well of course.
Opening drum solo from Jimmy, can't go wong with such a classic rock moment there!
Billy coming out at first in that "glam" statue of liberty costume, he could barely move in it, "this is what rock is about and don't you forget it" as he put it. Two rodies in black cloaks come out and take it off him, with his white Zero clothes and gown underneath, which was kind of cool.
It was interesting to see the show with Chicago residents, and to try and observe others around as well, they really mean business there, people of all ages with a lot of care. There was a dude in his 50s totally rocking out in the pit area. The place erupted for the "city by the lake" in Tonight, Tonight - as you would expect. Billy also talked about what a Chicago girl is, a girl near me was standing up waving to him and he directed his comments to her - Has to have 1. jennifer Aniston haircut, 2. Have a big butt "baby got back," 3. Love a good time (be a bit of a slut).
Billy's gear and backline are essentially the same as before (as expected), but he had some new strats (one grey one I remember seeing him use in 94/95, and he doesn't use that Schecter in United States anymore.
Sorry I couldn't really get you any photos, security were really hard on people, it was a bit like the atmosphere Hack talks about in his blog on the main page. I got told off three times and had one guy come and jab me in the back give me major grief over it, and as I didn't want to get kicked out by some big mid-western dude I conceded. but people had their phones out as usual, so go figure. Being a seated venue, security could watch everyone pretty easily, they seemed pretty gruff.
Billy and Jimmy's back and forth question/answer, spoken word section and the beginning and end of the show was pretty funny at times, Lisa played a ii,V,I jazz progression over it.
Billy forgot to introduce Jeff after going through the members introduction, he looked to shy to make a big deal about it, but the crowd called out about it, and Billy apologised and introduced him as Jeff Shredder Schroder, a wonderful human being. Billy was full of good calls as well, he introduced himself as Fred Durst and "I'm getting the Bizkit back together." A lot of sports quotes and local Chicago teams got talked about, Hockey, Baseball, etc. (Jeff is a big hockey fan apparently). Jimmy was in good spirits too, "20 years, wow it feels like.... yeah 20 years." I really enjoyed Speed Kills, The Beginning is the End.... and Once Upon a Time, to be able to hear those live for the first time are noted highlights for me. Billy and Jeff's solos were pretty sweet this night too.
Seeing Heavy Metal Machine (with Glass' Theme included) was a real highlight for me, Billy did a sweet tapping arpeggio solo, which got me pretty excited ;D. And in the breakdown, called himself "a Chicago born and bred, fucking heavy metal machine." Billy also said at one point when he goes home that night to jerk off, he'll be thinking about Sarah Palin, but also that the audience that night so he can get that last little bit and finish off, ha ha.
He said this had been the best crowd for the aniversary shows so-far, he critised Boston imparticular, but as the night went on he seemed to get a bit more dour, and would again talk about "what do people want" which he seems to do regulalry, and that people don't understand. From what I could observe the hometown crowd seemed a bit perplexed at this, and it brought the mood down a bit. Billy actually talked about Chicago, as a demographic, has significantly dropped in sales for his work.
He gave a dude the mic. in the audience (what I would describe as a Chicago sports/bogan/shaved head type), and I was wondering what he was gonna come out with, but he gave this passionate speech about how he loves Billy, respects what he's doing "keep doing what you doing, its great" how he spent a lot of money to get there, and the fans in the majority love and respect his choices. This guy was getting quite worked up, and it was pretty inspiring, again the crowd erupted. The guy said something like, "Your not a Zero, your a legend Billy we fucking love you." Billy seemed to enjoy it while he was talking, but after he was done kind of shrugged it off and the mood atmosphere dropped a bit again and the crowd seemed confused. This was at the end of the night during the second encoure. Billy was nowhere near as angry or pissed off as we've seen him at times, but he does seem a bit annoyed. If casually so, at certain moments. "Im here in a Zero shirt, I'm nobody, I didn't write these songs, I'm not even here, you can't even really see me."
We Only Come out at Night, with all the members on kazoos was funny, but you could tell Jeff feels a bit silly doing it heh heh. He kind of slinks off to the back. Set the Controls has become much more psychodelic/pink floyd esk. And enjoyed seeing it played this way (like the August tour shows), than as we did on the OZ tour shows - though seeing it in Adelaide for the 1st time was awsome of course. Billy on a a kettle drum randomly hitting away, and Jeff on a theremin was interesting. I really thought he was gonna destroy his guitar this time (black S.G.) its the roughest I've seen him with his guitars in awhile!!

Overall I guess, I had a great time, and i feel lucky to have been able to see this show, and ones at the auditorium theater later on as well.

Its been snowing here a little, I hope you guys are warmer back home, and are keeping well.