I finally got to see Eminem in concert, unfortunately it was with Rhianna. It was a great show though, at least Eminem’s part. He was fantastic! Eminem played Met Life Stadium in New Jersey on August 16, 2014 – the 37th anniversary of Elvis’ death. Not that anyone paid tribute, except me wearing my Elvis shirt and TCB necklace.

I headed up to Jersey around 11:30am the day of the show, with Ledo’s pizza, snacks and drinks in tow. The concert didn’t start until 7:30pm and gates were at 5:30. I had GA2, the section section back so I wasn’t worried about getting there early – just in time for the gates to open. It is only a 3 – 3/2 hour drive up to the Meadowlands, so I had plenty of time. Or so I thought. It took me 5 hours – 5 hours to go 209 miles. That’s insane. I have been driving up to the Meadowlands for concerts and games since 1992, and I have never seen traffic like that on a Saturday. It was stop and go the entire drive up. I finally arrived at the hotel at 4:30. The hotel was fabulous. It is the Courtyard Lyndhurst Meadowlands, where I stayed for the Super Bowl a few months prior. They had preblocked me a big, corner room with a microwave and refrigerator just steps from the parking garage. It was perfect! And it was quiet – didn’t hear any hallway noise. At 5:30, I caught the shuttle over to Met Life Stadium.

I was inside the stadium by 6pm. I could have been on the rail/fence in front of the GA2 section, but decided to be a little more relaxed and leaned back on the rail in front of the VIP section – it was only a little bit further back. It was a cool, beautiful night – shocking for mid August. It was a very young crowd – much different than my U2 shows. The show didn’t start until 8:10, 40 minutes late with no opening act. A video was played with Eminem and Rhianna and then they sort of walked out of the video onto the stage and sang a few songs together. Then Rhianna was on for what seemed like an eternity, but it reality was a little less than an hour. She was lip syncing the entire time and grabbing her crotch and shaking her ass. The crowd looked bored, but then went nuts when Eminem came out. They sang “Love the Way You Lie” together, then Eminem was on stage for an hour or so. He was really fantastic! He didn’t lip sync at all – and that’s tough with “Rap God.” I was surprised Eminem didn’t do more of the new songs like “Survival.” When Rhianna came back, I left. She only sang one song by herself, then Eminem came out and sang “Lose Yourself,” but I could hear it as I was walking around. And they closed with “Monster,” which I could hear from the parking lot while waiting for my hotel shuttle. The show was over at 10:45, and I was back in my room by 11:07.

Here’s the setlist from nj.com:

Act One

1. “Numb”
2. “No Love”
3. “Run This Town/Renegade”
4. “Live Your Life”
5. “Crack A Bottle”
6. “Won’t Back Down”

Act Two

7. “What Now”
8. “Phresh Out the Runway”
9. “Birthday Cake”
10. “Talk That Talk”
11. “Rude Boy”
12. “What’s My Name?”
13. “Pour it Up”
14. “Cockiness”
15. “Man Down”
16. “You Da One”
17. “Wait Your Turn”
18. “Jump”
19. “Umbrella”
20. “All of the Lights” (snippet)
21. “Rockstar”
22. “Where Have You Been”
23. “Stay”

Act Three

24. “Love the Way You Lie”
25. “3a.m.”
26. “Square Dance”
27. “Business”
28. “Kill You”
29. “Evil Deeds”
30. “Rap God”
31. “Marshall Mathers”
32. “Just Don’t Give A F–k”
33. “Criminal”
34. “The Way I Am”
35. “Airplanes” (with Rihanna)
36. “Stan”(with Rihanna)
37. Sing For the Moment
38. “Toy Soldiers”
39. “Forever”
40. “Berzerk”
41. “Till I Collapse”
42. “Cinderella Man”
43. “My Name Is”
44. “The Real Slim Shady”
45. “Without Me”
46. “Not Afraid”

Act Four

47. “Diamonds”
48. “We Found Love”
49. “Lose Yourself”
50. “The Monster”