Live 8 Philly – My thoughts – NBC Sports Philadelphia

As you may have noticed from my "Rob Thomas Sucks" post below, I was in attendance for the entire day of Live 8 in Philadelphia. I would say the concert was a success but more of a giant block party than a giant concert.

Performers I thought put on a good show:

Will Smith was a crowd favorite and his performance of Summertime was a highlight of the day. Kanye West was very good along with Alicia Keys. Jay Z with Linkin Park was another highlight for me. I'm not a huge hip hop fan or anything, but they seemed to stand out yesterday. Maroon 5's covering of Neil Young was a great surprise as well as whoever covered Phil Collins. That was a nice nod to the original Live Aid.

Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.

Things I thought were bad: The line up ordering was not good at all. Jars of Clay, Rob Thomas, etc. These artists may be fine and have some fans. But at a concert of Live 8's status you can't finish with these people. The only other notable problems I found were the lack of large screens, the lack of being able to see Pink Floyd, and the pretty poor sound at some spots.

I started the morning early by catching U2 and Coldplay live on AOL Music and took Septa down to City Hall with no problem. Most of the day I was on the outskirts of Eiken's Circle (I think that's what its called) and later moved up rather close with a pretty nice view of the stage. Beer and other beverages were readily available to those who came prepared. There were no conflicts of any kind that I saw.

This quicktime panorama is pretty crazy.

I'll post some pictures and a few videos I took from the day below. All in all Live 8 Philly was a blast, but the music couldn't come close to London's show.