top 5 best concert sing-along performances, ever
while i’m thinking about great shows, here the ones i most enjoyed singing at…
- ed vedder’s “hard sun” at the auditorium theatre, 8/22/08
- wilco’s “california stars” at the auditorium theatre, 9/20/03
- the nightwatchman’s “this land is your land” at schubas, 7/11/07 (tom morello closed out his show in this tiny room with a old folk tune, but preceeded it with a request: that we in the audience both sing along AND go crazy like we were at a rage against the machine show. so that’s exactly what we did. we jumped around like people possessed and sang our hearts out for our country, like americans ought to. woody woulda been proud.)
- elbow’s “one day like this” at the park west, 4/29/08 (with a tune that’s somehow sad and uplifting at the same time, guy garvey lead the crowd in singing a refrain over and over again, but made it beautiful rather than annoying)
- toss-up: pearl jam’s “baba o’riley” at rosemont horizon, er, “allstate arena,” 10/9/00 (because singing “don’t cry, don’t raise your eye – it’s only teenage wasteland” with 20 or 30 thousand other kids is really pretty awesome)
– or –
pearl jam’s “evolution” at alpine valley, 6/26/98 (my first pearl jam show – not because i didn’t love pj until ’98, but because pj tix were extraordinarily difficult to get in chicago during the height of the band’s fame. as i’ve come to see over the years, this song’s insanity-inspired dancing is, always, crescendoed with a flood-light illuminated “hallelujah!” from the crowd, arms flung in the air with incredible exultation.)
so. your top 5?