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Archive for the ‘Freedom Mortgage Pavilion’ Category

Hozier (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, July 15, 2025)

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Gigi Perez, Hozier on July 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 15, 2025] Hozier [moved from June 10, 2025]

Last year when this tour came to this very same location, I balked at the price of tickets.  And now I regret doing so because this time around, I was going to get tickets no matter what.  In the time since last year, my whole family has just gotten more into Hozier.  So I jumped on line and scored… four lawn tickets.  Meh.  The lawn at the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is massive.

Then, a few days before our show, he postponed it.  I gather he was feeling under the weather.  So his team rescheduled the show for almost exactly a month later.

And this turned out to be a blessing and a curse.  A curse because now my daughter couldn’t go (she was away).  But my wife was happy to come along, so that was cool.  But it was also a bummer because the rescheduled date was the same night that I had a ticket for Phish at the Mann.  And the exciting thing about that was that I had pit tickets for the first time.  So I was bummed not to go.  But as part of the deal with rescheduled shows, people were allowed to get rid of their tickets if they couldn’t make it.    I asked the kids if they wanted lawn or seats and they said they were fine with lawn.  So I grabbed two tickets for my wife and me in the middle of the lower tier.  And the view was awesome.

My son and I had seen him at World Cafe Live a couple of years ago–when he was prepping for this tour, I believe (but that can’t be right, surely).  When we saw him, he had the full band, but there was no stage show.

So I was blown away by the visual effects he employed. Whether it was close ups of the band or clips of videos to really impressive 3D videos that floated around the stage.  It was magnificent.  But the most magnificent thing was his voice.   If he wasn’t feeling well last month maybe he wouldn’t have sounded as amazing as he did tonight.  And wow did he sound great.

He opened with a quiet song with some cool lights shining just on him.  And then slowly the whole (ten-piece) band was revealed. (more…)

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Gigi Perez (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, July 15, 2025) [HOZIER]

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Gigi Perez, Hozier on July 15, 2025| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 15, 2025] Gigi Perez [moved from June 10, 2025]

My daughter and I saw Gigi Perez open for Girl in Red at the end of last year.

And I was really impressed.  Her voice is amazing–really powerful and with quite a range.  On stage it was just her on guitar and a drummer (who may have been her brother?).   He triggered loops that added bass and backing vocals to her guitar and she sounded huge.

So I was pretty excited to see her again. She had recently headlined TLA, but it was the same night as DEVO, so I blew her off knowing I’d see her at this show.  For the TLA show she played 13 songs, and we saw 8 (Hozier gave her 45 minutes!).

I really like her voice and her stage presence so much.  This time she had a full band, including a killer lead guitarist.  She was pretty confident when we saw her with girl in red, but I have to assume after several month touring with Hozier in HUGE venues, her confidence must be through the roof.  The crowd was totally into her and she did not disappoint.  Her voice sounded amazing and she can run through notes like nobody.  Indeed her and Hozier make a great “who can sing louder and longer” team. (more…)

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Hozier / Allison Russell (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, May 25, 2024) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Allison Russell, Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Hozier on May 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: May 25, 2024] Hozier / Allison Russell

When this show was announced, I immediately planned to get tickets to see Hozier again.  My son and I had seen him in a small intimate show, but I imagined that seeing him from (ideally) the pit or (otherwise) in the lower sections would be amazing.

I don’t even think I paid attention to the fact that the show was at the hated Freedom Mortgage Pavilion.

Then I logged in on the day of and the tickets were OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive.  I mean lawn seats weren’t too bad, but I don’t intend to ever go t a show and sit in lawn seats again, so the heck with that.

I just checked a couple of days ago, and t here were literally only two seats available for sale in the whole place (resale, I don’t know if they were marked up or not).  In other words, parking is going to be a nightmare!

I’m sure Hozier will kick ass, though.

Allison Russell is a Canadian singer who is placed in the Americana genre, which is kind of funny.  WXPN plays some of her songs, and “Stay Right Here” is super duper catchy and will sound AMAZING in the Pavilion with its big chorus, disco beats and r7B/choir components (I wonder if she’ll have a band live).  Her song “Nightflyer” is more mellow but quite lovely.

I think I might actually be quite the fan of her without realizing it was her.

The whole night will be great.  I’m bummed it was priced out of our range.

 

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Neil Young & Crazy Horse (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, May 12, 2024)

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Neil Young, Neil Young and Crazy Horse on May 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 12, 2024] Neil Young & Crazy Horse

My wife and I are both big fans of Neil Young.  Although we tend to prefer different eras, we enjoy most of his catalog pretty equally.

We had seen him play solo ten years ago.  We saw him play Promise of the Real nine years ago.  If we ever got to see hi again, I never would have guessed it would be with Crazy Horse.  I would have loved to get close up seats for this show, but JFC, the pit and front row seats were like $600 a piece.  I actually assumed we were priced out, but I knew how much we both wanted to see him (I mean, Neil is 78 how many more tours is he going to do?).  So I bought two not-outrageously priced seats in the 200 second (front row).

The band wasn’t exactly Crazy Horse.  Nils Lofgren is playing with Bruce Springsteen (booo).  But he was replaced by Micah Nelson (who I have seen as Particle Kid).  Truth be told, I couldn’t tell a difference.  They were far enough away and the spotlights blurred everything anyway.  But he sounded great, as did everyone else.

In classic Crazy Horse style, the three guys up front stood about a foot away from each other.  So despite the size of the stage (and the massive Marshall stack backdrops), they were all within whispering distance of each other.  Which I assume was Neil’s way of letting everyone know what was happening next.  (more…)

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Reverend Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, May 12, 2024) [NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE]

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Neil Young, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Reverend Billy & the Stop Shopping Choir on May 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: May 12, 2024] Reverend Bill & the Stop Shopping Choir

I didn’t know there was going to be an opening act for this show until a few days before the event.  I was glad that there would be one because Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is a pain in the ass to get into on time.

When we saw Pearl Jam, we missed the opening act entirely because of the poor infrastructure there.

It was even better that the opening act was a band I’d never heard of and didn’t care about.

So who are this Choir?  Wikipedia says

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping is a radical performance community based in New York City. The Stop Shopping Choir is accompanied by a comic preacher, Reverend Billy, portrayed by performer William (Billy) Talen. The philosophy of the Church of Stop Shopping surrounds the imminent “Shopocalypse”, which assumes the end of humanity will come about through manic consumerism.

The Stop Shopping Choir accompanies Reverend Billy and stages guerrilla theater style actions, singing on the property of the Disney stores, Monsanto facilities, and Trump Tower, among others. They are often considered part of the Culture jamming movement.

The group uses the content from their direct actions to create songs that are performed on concert stages and in cabarets. The director of these shows is church co-founder Savitri D.

The character of Reverend Billy was developed in the early 1990s by actor and playwright, William Talen. His family was Dutch Calvinist.  The Reverend Billy character isn’t so much a parody of a preacher, as a preacher motif used to blur the lines between performance and religious experience. “It’s definitely a church service,” Talen explained to Alternet, but, he added, it’s “a political rally, it’s theater, it’s all three, it’s none of them.

(more…)

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Ghost: Re-Imperatour (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, August 25, 2023)

Posted in Amon Amarth, Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Ghost, Ghost B.C. on August 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 25, 2023] Ghost

My son and I have now seen Ghost 4 times in about 4 years.  Interestingly, these previous three times have all been based around their last album, last year’s Impera.  My son is rather tickled that he has a short from the Pre-Imperatour, the Imperatour and the Re-Imperatour.

It’s fairly ballsy to tour the same album three times in a year and a half. But in this time their fan base seems to have grown quite a lot.

The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion seats around 25,000 people.  I know it didn’t sell out, but I have to assume there were at least 10,000 people there.   Which is pretty awesome, and makes Papa Emeritus IV very happy.

The set is largely the same as it has been for each part of the tour, with the stained glass windows in the back and the tiered risers.  The Nameless Ghouls were out in force.  And it felt like there might be a few more of them than usual.

LIke thre previous two shows, the opening music was classical.  Klara stjärnor (Jan Johansson song) and Miserere Mei, Deus (Gregorio Allegri song) before the strains of “Imperium” wafted from behind the giant curtain at the front of the stage.

The curtain came down and Papa strolled out as “Kaisarion” played.  And like each show before, it was followed immediately by “Rats.”

Even though I have seen this particular opening, I never get tired of it.  The crowd is nuts, the band is on fire, there’s lights and explosions and everyone is singing “RATS!” at the top of their lungs.

I was pleased that the setlist wasn’t exactly the same as the previous tour, as it mixed in with the Pre-Imperatour as well. (more…)

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Amon Amarth (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, August 25, 2023) [GHOST]

Posted in Amon Amarth, BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Ghost, Ghost B.C. on August 25, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 25, 2023] Amon Amarth

I saw Amon Amarth open for Slayer back in 2019.  At that time I didn’t know them, but I really enjoyed their show–they were melodic and the singer was kind of growly, but he was understandable, and that makes a big difference.

I didn’t realize it had been so long since I had seen them and I kind of expected the same basic show.  But since 2019, they have put out a new album (and have a brand new single out as well).

So while they did play six of the same songs as last time, the order was different and their stage show was HUGE!

Last time they had a ship on stage that they climbed all over.  This time, there was a giant mask on stage and two massive statues of warriors on either side of the stage.

The band sounded huge.  I have now seen them twice in the same venue and would like to see them with a better sound system. (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Camden, NJ, September 14, 2022)

Posted in Camden, NJ, Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Pluralone, Van Halen, Victoria Williams on September 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 14, 2022] Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam released Gigaton, their first album in seven years back in 2020.  They announced a US tour, but it was remarkably limited in scope.   There was an NYC date, but that sold out really quickly.

It was postponed for COVID and when they announced their 2022 tour, they threw in a stop in Camden as well.  So we actually had a chance to see them (us and 25,000 other people).

Well, getting there was a nightmare!  We got to Camden with no trouble and then it took us an hour to get from the Camden exit to a parking space.

I don’t know if this is a Camden problem or if the Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is to blame (they are at least the third owners since I’ve been going there and it doesn’t get better).

We missed the opening band Pluralone entirely and were actually worried we might miss the opening of the Pearl Jam set.  We didn’t but we only had to wait about 15 minutes.  And of course, we were REALLY far back.

Pluralone is the creation of Josh Klinghoffer who also played guitar and more with Pearl Jam on this tour.  I was really surprised that they had an opening band as recently they haven’t been having one.  I’m glad there was one as we would have missed the band if there hadn’t been.  But it also meant a shorter set (I think).

Pluralone plays some interesting experimental music.  They would have probably been pretty interesting to see, although Klinghoffer did wind up playing with Pearl Jam for the entire set,

C. went with us for this one (his first and hopefully not last Pearl Jam show).  T. was going to come with us, but she bailed.  It’s probably just as well, as we had to walk about a mile to our car and she didn’t really know them all that well.

Without question, I will not be going to another show in Camden again. They simply don’t have the infrastructure for that capacity crowd.

But all was forgiven when the band came out. (more…)

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