Hammerstein Ballroom – NYC, NY

We (me, my gf Lexi, Erin and her bf Zack) got to the line at 6 P.M. At that time the line was very short, we stood right before the garage entrance. As soon as the doors open, we went to the bar to get drinks and walked right up front to reserve our spots. The Rub (2 DJ's from Brooklyn) were already playing until 9:30 when the Chems came on... They really mixed it up well, spinning some Chromeo, Justice, Armand Van Helden, some freestyle, hip-hop and drum & bass.

When the Chems came on, the sound was a million times louder than when The Rub was Djing! The place was ROCKING and every time I looked back at the crowd, all I saw were hands in the air, people jumping and kids raving their glow sticks up on the second floor mezzanine...

“Galvanize” was the right thing to do when it came to starting off a show and getting the people jumping! “Do it Again” is both amazingly fun to listen to and to watch (the red and blue dancing human figures).

“Hey Boy, Hey Girl and “Out of Control” had my friend Erin (and everyone else) going crazy! “Surface to Air” was so beautiful that it even made my eyes teary. Something about those robots on the display during “It Doesn't Matter/Under the Influence” made it kind of trippy! “Chemical Beats” had me going to a point I thought I was going to collapse (seriously)! After the break, There was no better way to start an encore! The “Brothers gonna work it out” chant from “Leave Home” gave me goosebumps!! “Block Rocking Beats” was a crowd pleaser of course and “The Sunshine Underground” sounded amazing as the closing tune.

The only setback was that the sound was UBERLY LOUD from the position I was standing. At times I had a difficult time recognizing sound details, vocals and even the visuals where hard to experience that close up front. Also, was it me? or was there some kind of problem with the sound a quarter into the show??? There was an odd break of silence that lasted a minute or two... Nevertheless, the night was a good one.

The track list was as follows:

No Path To Follow

Galvanize

Burst Generator

Do it Again

Get Yourself High

Hey Boy, Hey Girl

All Rights Reversed

Krafty Numbers

Out Of Control

Dont Fight Control

Temptation / Star Guitar

Surface To Air

It Doesn't Matter/Under The Infuence

Saturate

Believe

We Are The Night

Golden Path

Acid Children

Chemical Beats

BREAK

Leave Home

Block Rockin Beats

Das Spiegel

The Sunshine Underground

McCarren Park Pool – Brooklyn, NY

We (girlfriend and I) got out of the G train around 6:30 P.M. We miraculously ran into Ed Simmons and commented on the show from the previous night while walking up Driggs Avenue. While walking through the arched entrance to the historic pool I realized how perfect this place is for an outdoor Chemical Brothers show!

There's tons of space, food and drink stands and a Chemical Brothers gear booth.

We could of walked our way to the front by the stage again, but this time we decided to stand outside the pool in the back. This gave us a great higher view of the stage and crowd as well as a clearer sound and visual experience than from the previous night!

The Rub spun again from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Ladytron went on immediately after playing a few songs (some that I can remember were Seventeen, International Dateline and their ending song “Destroy Everything You Touch”)

Chems came on shortly after Ladytron and performed the same track list from the previous night.

It was amazing to watch the crowd react! There was tons of space in the back were I could see kids raving and jumping around enjoying the music and not caring much about who's on stage. It made me really happy watching all those people dance around and have a good time with the Chems...

After “The Sunshine Underground” was over and a voice on the loudspeaker told us to get out of the pool, there was a massive parade of kids walking out like robots into the street looking of an afterparty.

Great back to back shows!! I will remember this forever!!

Fuck man!! That setlist is amazing!! They included 3 extra tracks since the Europe shows. Acid children, Leave home and Block rockin beats. Hopefully they maintain those extra track til Antwerp. And very cool you ran into him aswell (read that on the other topic). You must have had 2 amazing days!

Oh I did!!!!! I wish I could see them again in Chicago! LOL

Right ON, mario! I knew you were in for head-explody-action!

It's really cool you experienced the show from 2 different areas, both which have their advantages. There's nothing quite like looking behind you and seeing a see of people with their hands in the air, and there's nothing quite like catching the entire visual spectacle shining it's light on a happy music loving and dancing swarm in front of you.

Magic! It's getting me really pumped, the more I read!

I'm so glad you and your friends had a good time. Your friend who gave up her ticket is sure sorry she missed out!

Sorry if you said how long the show lasted in your post, but... how long did the show last?

My friend is being weird and says she has to leave early and all I can say is "IT'S THE CHEMS!!! HOW CAN YOU LEAVE THE CHEMS???" but it would be nice to tell her which songs she will miss so then she'll feel all guilty.

It's about an hour and a half to 2 hours... because at Hammerstein they went on around 9:30 and ended around 11:30 and in Brooklyn they went on around 8PM and finished around 10PM

Whirly, I know... she's gonna kick herself in the ass!! I was able to sell my ticket in the last minute... I wasn't even concerned about the money, I was more pissed at the fact that there was an extra chems ticket that could of belonged to someone!

How did you keep a track listing? Thats an enormous listing too! Notes on phone or pen and pad? Im thinking of catching two gigs whilst they are in Aus... one to completely bliss out, and the other to chin stroke a little bit and drool about getting my hands on one of those Led bead curtain/screens that they have (and build an Arduino rig for it... drool).

Mmmm... Surface to air in the setlist, nice. I have some MTV live at somewhere recording where STA goes into Believe and smashes my brain to bits. And of course... Sunshine Underground. Brilliant. Envious but glad it rocked! Thanks for typing that, i cant wait :)

i think it was the position you were at .. were you like right up next to the stage? i was a little farther back and it was loud, but not to the point where it was painful ..

I seen the show twice and it was the same set list, between my gf and I, it was easy to remember the tracks!

One difference, at Hammerstein they played Das Speigel, and in Brooklyn they played Modern Midnight Conversation instead. Thing is, they used the same visuals for both tracks.