TICKET SCAN TO GO HERE

Capacity: 3,901

Concert starts: 8pm (to be confirmed)

Address of venue: 50 E Congress Pkwy, Chicago, IL 60605, United States. MAP

Website: www.auditoriumtheatre.org

COMMENTS

Exceptional demand for the North American concerts on David's 2016 tour, coupled with a personal desire by him to play a venue like this, has resulted in this show being sandwiched between the two shows at the United Center in the city.

This particular venue - full name, the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University - is small, seating just under 4,000 people, but looks stunning. The venue was completed in 1889 and looks to retain many of the original features. According to David's official Facebook page, he was keen to play a theatre, and fondly remembered this particular venue from touring with the Floyd in the early 1970s.

Tickets went on sale Friday, August 21st at 10am CDT, through Ticketmaster.com although please be aware that demand will be incredibly high for this small venue, so you might need to be patient and keep retrying. From experience of other North American shows, you might also want to try calling Ticketmaster on the phone as there seems to be a separate allocation for telephone orders, and some people had much better luck via this route for shows which went on sale earlier.

As an additional incentive, purchasers of tickets online who are resident in North America will be emailed a code, redeemable on the CD of David's new album, Rattle That Lock. This is subject to terms and conditions, which should be available to you from the ticketing website.

WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD!

Do not read on if you don't want surprises to be spoilt, regarding what the band played!

The “middle” show in the set of three in Chicago saw the band arrive at the beautiful setting of the Auditorium Theatre for a show in this intimate venue. With less than 4000 seats, attendees were saying that it was like having David perform just for them!

Initial reports are that the performance matched the setting, with a powerful yet evocative set, which remained unchanged from recent nights. The production now packs up and returns to where it was, two days ago!

We'd love to know in more detail how the concert went. Did you go? Let us know what YOU thought!

CONCERT PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Greg Claudon

CONCERT REVIEW and PICTURES by BD CONTRIBUTOR, Diana Allen

Never in my life, did I ever imagine that I would get to see my favorite singer, singing my favorite song, live. On April 6, 2016, that very thing happened. My husband and I were in Chicago, at the Auditorium Theatre, listening to David Gilmour singing High Hopes. It was absolutely amazing, I had high expectations, my expectations were surpassed a million fold.

In the summer when we heard the news of David Gilmour's tour we knew we had to go. My husband had seen Roger Waters live in 1999 but neither of us had ever seen David Gilmour. His last tour to the United States was when we were poor college students, with small children, it just didn't work out. This time we knew we just had to make it happen. We decided to get our tickets and make it happen. Not living anywhere close to where David was performing, we decided on Chicago. We bought our tickets and waited six months as time slowly passed by till the day of the concert.

The day before the concert we took the four-hour flight from Utah to Chicago. The day of the concert we passed the time walking around the city, eating delicious food, just waiting for the time to come when we could go to the theater. Finally, after a long day (and a long six months) we were there, at the Auditorium Theatre, waiting to watch David Gilmour.

The atmosphere of the Auditorium Theatre was incredible. There was a buzz of excitement in the air as we walked in. Having never been there, we asked a kind usher where to go. She led us to our box seats. We had a great view of the stage. The theater itself is beautiful. It's an old theater with gold ornamentation on the walls. It holds around four thousand people but the way it is set up, it feels much smaller. The concert felt intimate. It felt like the David and his band was playing just for you.

While waiting for the concert, we did small chitchat with a couple that was in our same box. They had flown in from Atlanta for the concert. After a bit, I didn't want to talk. I just wanted to sit, enjoy, and take in everything. I was staring at the round screen, when I heard the birds beginning to chirp, the talking from the Dark Side of the Moon, and the airplanes roaring. It hit me; it hit me that we were at a David Gilmour concert. We were about to see him live.

Soon, the lights went out. It was dark, and David began his beautiful guitar solo from 5:00 AM. The crowd went crazy upon hearing the first few notes. The band played the first three songs from Rattle that Lock. I was expecting to hear While a Boat Lies Waiting next, but to my surprise Wish You Were Here was next. Wanting to avoid any spoilers, I didn't know the set list. I loved that he mixed his new songs (which I love) with Pink Floyd favorites. They did a great job making one song flow perfectly from one to the next.

The first half was amazing. Listening to the band play Money was worth the cost of admission alone. It was so good!! David's solos were just so lively! I of course loved the finale of the first half, High Hopes. After High Hopes, David spoke to the crowd for the first time, saying how happy he was to be back in Chicago, and how he can't imagine many of us were here the last time he performed at the Auditorium Theatre. He was very friendly with the crowd. After speaking he excused himself for a quick break.

The 15-minute immersion flew by pretty quickly, the next thing we knew the band was back on stage starting the second half with the lively Astronomy Domine. The second half was much like the first with David mixing and matching songs from Rattle that Lock and old favorites. Run Like Hell was the final number of the second half. Wow, was it a good version. It was apparent that David and his band were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

After making the crowd wait for around three minutes, the band returned, to play Time, Breathe (Reprise), and of course Comfortably Numb as an encore. All the numbers were great in the encore but wow was Comfortably Numb impressive. You can listen to it a million times at home, watch it a million times on YouTube but there is nothing like seeing it performed live. David was absolutely magical on his guitar; the solos were so on point. They were familiar yet different than any other Comfortably Numb solos I had heard before. Comfortably Numb was about 10 minutes in length. It was fabulous!

It was hard to have the concert end. The concert was amazing, it was like coming home to a home you never knew you even had. Everything about the concert was perfect, the music, the lights, the lasers, everything. Luckily we had the Friday concert to look forward to, to ease our pain. Friday's concert at the United Center was just as incredible. It had quite the different feeling being in sports arena with 20K people, compared to a small theater with nearly 4,000 people. Experiencing both concerts, watching David Gilmour live was a dream come true.

YOUR HELP NEEDED! We want to cover David's concerts the best we can, to share the experience with everyone, especially those who won't be able to attend the shows. We'd love to see ANY pictures, tickets scans, reviews, newspaper reports, and anything else you come across for this show - we look forward to hearing from you!