Part II - Dance of the Jon
Jon Anderson/Paul Green School of Rock
Friday February 16, 2007
The Ridgefield Playhouse
Ridgefield, CT
Section Right, Row A, Seat 6
$57.50 (including all charges)
I get worried when I'm running late. I pad my travel estimates to give me plenty of time. Roy and I had to drive from Philly to Ridgefield, CT with a stopover in New Jersey to visit some friends for lunch. Google maps said it would only take 2.5 hours, but it included going through the north tip of Manhattan on a Friday. If we left anytime in the afternoon, we would hit rush hour. If it had been up to me, we would have had lunch at 11 and left by noon.
My dear friends Debbie and Susan didn't think like that. I hadn't seen Susan in a couple of years, and I had never met either of their new babies. Susan would pick her oldest up from nursery school and be back just before noon. We'd have lunch then and visit afterwards. It would still give us 5 hours to get there. It was great to see them, they had been my best friends since birth, and we can still pick up our relationship like sisters. Well, they really are sisters and I'm practically one. I have most in common with Debbie's husband Buzz, and we talked politics until I pulled myself away to hang out with the girls.
We left around 2:30. Susan lives right off the NJ turnpike, so it wasn't out of our way at all. We did have 5 hours, afterall, so I should stop worrying. Anyone who went to the show knows what happened - the traffic was beyond awful. The "express" lanes of the turnpike were down to one lane. We finally stopped at a gas station once we got to upstate NY so Roy could take a break. Dinner was out of the question, but he grabbed some food at the convenience store and we ate in the car. We got into town at 7:30, ran into the B&B to check in, circled around to find the venue, and got to our seats maybe ten minutes before the concert start time. Roy bought some popcorn, for the second part of our dinner.
We found to our delight that we were sitting two seats away from Krista! I didn't know anyone who would be there, so this was a nice bonus. We also found that Jon was stuck in the same traffic, and had not arrived yet. That could have been us. The other musicians and organizers must have been freaking out. I was just trying to calm down after our travel ordeal.
The concert did start relatively on-time. Paul Green, the organizer, came onstage and explained the situation. The setlist was rearranged (as truth is gathered). All the non-Jon songs were performed first. They also threw in a cover of Led Zeppelin's Travelling Riverside Blues - the lemon song. Bit strange hearing a woman sing those lyrics. There was an intermission until Jon was there and ready. All in all, I thought they did a good job handling a tough situation. This turned out better than holding off the show until he arrived.
The Jon songs were pretty much the same as the night before. From our seats this time, we could see the keyboard players better, but couldn't see anyone on stage right standing back a bit. I can't even remember which show I liked better now. The security guard was even getting into it.
After the show, we talked to the security guard a bit, and he told us where the band exit door was. Quite a few people waiting to meet Jon. We were out there for a while when Jon came out.
Ladies, the magic words are, "It is so good to see you with a band again."
I said that to Jon and he moved closer to me. I thought he was trying to hear me better. But no, he leaned over to give me a kiss on the cheek!! OK, it was just an air kiss, but I could feel his beard brush against my cheek. Very intimate.
He shook Roy's hand and told us that "Yesterday was a good show." What did that mean? Was he not happy with that night's performance? or the travel situation? Or just acknowledging that we had been at both?
He shook a lot of hands and walked through the crowd. We walked back to our rental car. Jon's van rode by and beeped at us. We waved as Jon drove past. Afterwards, Roy and I found a pizza place that was still open and had dinner part three. (I am tactfully leaving out the dumpster diving incident.)
Next day, we drove back to Philly and still had problems on the damn turnpike. The snow had cleared up enough so that Angela was able to get around. She drove down to our hotel and we caught up for a while and then joined up with Linda for dinner. I relayed my Jon stories to Angela - life is still like high school where I had a crush on a singer and get so happy from any little bit of attention. In high school, the crush was all-encompassing and probably kept me from some real relationships. Now I have my wonderful husband who also loves Jon and patiently listened to my gushing.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Jon, Jon, Jon, and more Jon!!!
Part I - The Revealing Science of Jon
Jon Anderson & Paul Green's Allstars
Performing Music of Yes
Thursday February 15, 2007
Keswick Theater
Glenside, PA
Section Left, Row G, Seat 27
$39
The Adrian Belew and Umphrey's McGee show I wrote about earlier was surrounded by four very special concerts - two we attended in February and two this past weekend. Roy and I flew out to the East Coast twice to see Jon Anderson with the School of Rock.
The School of Rock is music class for teenagers that teaches rock music instead of classical. These students put on concerts, like other music students would have recitals. They are good. Recently, they have been doing concerts with well-known musicians - they are able to learn a lot from the process and do higher profile shows. And it's so heartening to see these young kids really get the music that I love. We had seen the School of Rock last year, playing with Adrian Belew. I'll write about that some other time. I'll just say that it was February, snowing, and a really fun time.
I found out towards the end of last year that Jon would be doing these shows. At first, we only knew Philly would be on a Thursday and NYC on a Sunday night. To see both would take three vacation days - too much. We had to choose and buy tickets before knowing the rest of the itinerary. I decided taking two vacation days to spend some time in Philly would be worth it. Maybe they'd add another show on Friday that we'd get to see.
The Philly show was actually out in the burbs at the Keswick Theater in Glenside. We got seats about 14 rows back, on the far left aisle. I love seats on the aisle - you can stand up and dance without getting in anyone's way. Dancing seats. Everyone wins.
A Friday show was added, in Connecticut. Tickets went on sale unannounced, but I checked the website regularly, and was able to pick up front row, way off to the side, tickets. I put out some feelers to our friends, and we would be able to get together with lots of people. Our personal itinerary was to fly into Philly on Valentine's Day night, see Angela and Kathy on Thursday day, dinner with Dian and Tina and family before the Thursday show. Visit with Debbie and Susan and families on Friday, then drive up to Connecticut to see Jon again. Saturday, we'd drive back to Philly, dinner with Linda. Fly home Sunday afternoon. Not much time in Philly, but lots of Jon.
It snowed. Lots. The day we were supposed to fly out. Half the flights into Philly got cancelled. We didn't have a direct flight, but we were able to take an earlier flight into Chicago - it would give us more chances of being able to reach our destination. Linda says I have good concert travel karma - we got the earlier flight and it arrived in Philly early.
The snow did change our plans. Angela and Kathy had to cancel. Roy and I walked to the South Street diner for breakfast and then took the El to Penn. Walked around campus for a bit and had lunch at Allegro's. It really wasn't too bad walking in the snow - I'd rather have this than ice anyday. We picked up the rental car and drove out to the Keswick.
Dian, Tina, and we were all late. It took forever to get up Broad Street. But we all got there around the same time. As usual, I couldn't wait to be there already. Dinner was good conversation with nice people. And then, our reason to be here.
I bumped into a few more people inside the Keswick, but none that I really wanted to see. One I actively try to avoid. I got my bottled water, program, and got to my seat. whew. We made it. My only disappointment was not seeing Philly friends that were at the last Jon Keswick show - especially Mark and Bill.
The show had a great setlist, with some true rarities. Since the night before's concert had been cancelled due to the bad weather, this was Jon's premiere live performance of one Yes song from 1971. Jon sang on about 2/3 of the songs, the rest were sung by vocalists from the School of Rock - girl vocalists, because they could hit Jon's notes! And so could Jon, his voice is so amazing.
Jon sang A Venture (first time ever), No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (first time since 1970 and it was the show highlight for me), Give Love Each Day, Long Distance Runaround, Roundabout, All Good People, Yours Is No Disgrace, America, Starship Trooper, Owner, Time and a Word. The School of Rock also did We Have Heaven (all those layers of vocals completely live. Yes can't even do that), South Side of the Sky, Clear Days, Siberian Khatru, The Fish,... Going for the One was really cool. The girl singing was doing a fine job, and then Jon came out and did backing vocals for it.
There were 24 SOR musicians, switching off between songs. The violinist was just awesome - such stage presence for a high school student! They rearranged The Fish to play the main riff on the violin instead of bass guitar, and she was all over No Opportunity. A guitarist did Steve Howe's two usual solo pieces - Clap and Mood for a Day.
Tina's daughter Sara was in the audience, and she really enjoyed seeing people her own age up on stage. After the show, she went around getting autographs from all the kids.
The previous times I'd been to a concert there at the Keswick, the bands did meet and greets afterwards. I never had to hang out to meet someone. But Jon wasn't coming out for autographs. Tina showed me where to wait outside. The SOR kids were coming in and out of backstage with their equipment, so we congratulated them. I didn't know if Jon had left already or not. It was freezing out and I was wearing my long wool coat with a ski jacket over it. We were really only there about 15 minutes when Jon came out. There were only half a dozen fans waiting for him.
Jon was going to get into his car. Didn't he see us? I think one of the other women with us called him over. He was in a really good mood. The first woman walked over and gave him a hug and a kiss. I thought that was a bit too forward - I never invade his space like that, but follow his lead. He posed for a couple pictures with people. When he saw me, he made eye contact, and took my hand in his. "Good to see you again." He had gloves on. We told him we'd be at the show the next night as well. I think we were the only people he recognized. He stayed chatting for a few more minutes. Roy asked him about the song selection. I can't remember Jon's response, but I think it was that it was hard to relearn all these old songs. He hugged another woman, and then the first woman said something about Jon hugging all the girls. So he walked over and gave me a hug too.
Jon Anderson & Paul Green's Allstars
Performing Music of Yes
Thursday February 15, 2007
Keswick Theater
Glenside, PA
Section Left, Row G, Seat 27
$39
The Adrian Belew and Umphrey's McGee show I wrote about earlier was surrounded by four very special concerts - two we attended in February and two this past weekend. Roy and I flew out to the East Coast twice to see Jon Anderson with the School of Rock.
The School of Rock is music class for teenagers that teaches rock music instead of classical. These students put on concerts, like other music students would have recitals. They are good. Recently, they have been doing concerts with well-known musicians - they are able to learn a lot from the process and do higher profile shows. And it's so heartening to see these young kids really get the music that I love. We had seen the School of Rock last year, playing with Adrian Belew. I'll write about that some other time. I'll just say that it was February, snowing, and a really fun time.
I found out towards the end of last year that Jon would be doing these shows. At first, we only knew Philly would be on a Thursday and NYC on a Sunday night. To see both would take three vacation days - too much. We had to choose and buy tickets before knowing the rest of the itinerary. I decided taking two vacation days to spend some time in Philly would be worth it. Maybe they'd add another show on Friday that we'd get to see.
The Philly show was actually out in the burbs at the Keswick Theater in Glenside. We got seats about 14 rows back, on the far left aisle. I love seats on the aisle - you can stand up and dance without getting in anyone's way. Dancing seats. Everyone wins.
A Friday show was added, in Connecticut. Tickets went on sale unannounced, but I checked the website regularly, and was able to pick up front row, way off to the side, tickets. I put out some feelers to our friends, and we would be able to get together with lots of people. Our personal itinerary was to fly into Philly on Valentine's Day night, see Angela and Kathy on Thursday day, dinner with Dian and Tina and family before the Thursday show. Visit with Debbie and Susan and families on Friday, then drive up to Connecticut to see Jon again. Saturday, we'd drive back to Philly, dinner with Linda. Fly home Sunday afternoon. Not much time in Philly, but lots of Jon.
It snowed. Lots. The day we were supposed to fly out. Half the flights into Philly got cancelled. We didn't have a direct flight, but we were able to take an earlier flight into Chicago - it would give us more chances of being able to reach our destination. Linda says I have good concert travel karma - we got the earlier flight and it arrived in Philly early.
The snow did change our plans. Angela and Kathy had to cancel. Roy and I walked to the South Street diner for breakfast and then took the El to Penn. Walked around campus for a bit and had lunch at Allegro's. It really wasn't too bad walking in the snow - I'd rather have this than ice anyday. We picked up the rental car and drove out to the Keswick.
Dian, Tina, and we were all late. It took forever to get up Broad Street. But we all got there around the same time. As usual, I couldn't wait to be there already. Dinner was good conversation with nice people. And then, our reason to be here.
I bumped into a few more people inside the Keswick, but none that I really wanted to see. One I actively try to avoid. I got my bottled water, program, and got to my seat. whew. We made it. My only disappointment was not seeing Philly friends that were at the last Jon Keswick show - especially Mark and Bill.
The show had a great setlist, with some true rarities. Since the night before's concert had been cancelled due to the bad weather, this was Jon's premiere live performance of one Yes song from 1971. Jon sang on about 2/3 of the songs, the rest were sung by vocalists from the School of Rock - girl vocalists, because they could hit Jon's notes! And so could Jon, his voice is so amazing.
Jon sang A Venture (first time ever), No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed (first time since 1970 and it was the show highlight for me), Give Love Each Day, Long Distance Runaround, Roundabout, All Good People, Yours Is No Disgrace, America, Starship Trooper, Owner, Time and a Word. The School of Rock also did We Have Heaven (all those layers of vocals completely live. Yes can't even do that), South Side of the Sky, Clear Days, Siberian Khatru, The Fish,... Going for the One was really cool. The girl singing was doing a fine job, and then Jon came out and did backing vocals for it.
There were 24 SOR musicians, switching off between songs. The violinist was just awesome - such stage presence for a high school student! They rearranged The Fish to play the main riff on the violin instead of bass guitar, and she was all over No Opportunity. A guitarist did Steve Howe's two usual solo pieces - Clap and Mood for a Day.
Tina's daughter Sara was in the audience, and she really enjoyed seeing people her own age up on stage. After the show, she went around getting autographs from all the kids.
The previous times I'd been to a concert there at the Keswick, the bands did meet and greets afterwards. I never had to hang out to meet someone. But Jon wasn't coming out for autographs. Tina showed me where to wait outside. The SOR kids were coming in and out of backstage with their equipment, so we congratulated them. I didn't know if Jon had left already or not. It was freezing out and I was wearing my long wool coat with a ski jacket over it. We were really only there about 15 minutes when Jon came out. There were only half a dozen fans waiting for him.
Jon was going to get into his car. Didn't he see us? I think one of the other women with us called him over. He was in a really good mood. The first woman walked over and gave him a hug and a kiss. I thought that was a bit too forward - I never invade his space like that, but follow his lead. He posed for a couple pictures with people. When he saw me, he made eye contact, and took my hand in his. "Good to see you again." He had gloves on. We told him we'd be at the show the next night as well. I think we were the only people he recognized. He stayed chatting for a few more minutes. Roy asked him about the song selection. I can't remember Jon's response, but I think it was that it was hard to relearn all these old songs. He hugged another woman, and then the first woman said something about Jon hugging all the girls. So he walked over and gave me a hug too.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
David Lee Roth and Poison
David Lee Roth
Opening Act: Poison
Sunday, April 17th, 1988
Spectrum Arena
Philadelphia, PA
Section 12, Row 11, Seat 4
$16.50
Almost seven months after my last concert. A lot had changed since then. I'd had MTV access for a year now. I was almost finished 8th grade. My music tastes had changed from Top 40 and MTV pop to the hair-metal hard rock late 80s style. My new favorite band was KISS - not so much for their makeup wearing history, but for their then-current 21st album Crazy Nights. It got regular airplay on MTV and fit right in with the hair-metal genre. My friend A led the way with us being metalheads. Her favorite bands were Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne. Susan's favorite was Europe. Debbie was not into this at all. My parents bought me a CD player, and my first CDs were Kiss' Crazy Nights, Def Leppard's Hysteria, and Poison's Look What the Cat Dragged In. Ah, 1988.
Van Halen was entering my vocabulary. David Lee Roth had just released Skyscraper, with This Must Be Just Like Living in Paradise on it. VH was about to release OU812. A, Sue, and I got tickets to see Dave with Poison opening. A's dad was our parental chaperone. He had left A's mom earlier that week, and this was the first time A saw him since he moved out. I remember sitting outside my house with Sue, waiting for A and her dad to pick us up for the show, and telling Sue about what had happened. A's parents were quite a bit younger than mine, and they were fans of some rock music.
Our seats were much better for this show. Still on the second level of the Spectrum, but with a full view of the stage. Er, stages. Roth had a main stage and then a smaller stage further back on the floor, looking almost like a boxing ring. He did a song or two back there to give the people with the back-floor seats a close up view. I think that was a good idea.
I liked Poison back then. They did a cover of Kiss' Rock and Roll All Nite. I just told Roy about this, and that they pronounced "every" in two syllables, instead of "ev-er-y" in three syllables like Kiss did. I think this was before their second album came out, but I definitely remember buying an "Open Up and Say Ahh" shirt. We horrified a couple teachers at school the next day wearing the shirt. Later on, I bought the original uncensored cassette of Open Up...
David Lee Roth was fun. He had Steve Vai on guitar, and Steve played the triple necked heart shaped guitar from the Just Like Paradise video. There was a drum solo, with the drummer Gregg Bissonette jumping over the drum set and playing from in front of the drum set. Exciting. I couldn't tell you what VH songs they did, I just wasn't that familiar with VH material yet.
Opening Act: Poison
Sunday, April 17th, 1988
Spectrum Arena
Philadelphia, PA
Section 12, Row 11, Seat 4
$16.50
Almost seven months after my last concert. A lot had changed since then. I'd had MTV access for a year now. I was almost finished 8th grade. My music tastes had changed from Top 40 and MTV pop to the hair-metal hard rock late 80s style. My new favorite band was KISS - not so much for their makeup wearing history, but for their then-current 21st album Crazy Nights. It got regular airplay on MTV and fit right in with the hair-metal genre. My friend A led the way with us being metalheads. Her favorite bands were Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne. Susan's favorite was Europe. Debbie was not into this at all. My parents bought me a CD player, and my first CDs were Kiss' Crazy Nights, Def Leppard's Hysteria, and Poison's Look What the Cat Dragged In. Ah, 1988.
Van Halen was entering my vocabulary. David Lee Roth had just released Skyscraper, with This Must Be Just Like Living in Paradise on it. VH was about to release OU812. A, Sue, and I got tickets to see Dave with Poison opening. A's dad was our parental chaperone. He had left A's mom earlier that week, and this was the first time A saw him since he moved out. I remember sitting outside my house with Sue, waiting for A and her dad to pick us up for the show, and telling Sue about what had happened. A's parents were quite a bit younger than mine, and they were fans of some rock music.
Our seats were much better for this show. Still on the second level of the Spectrum, but with a full view of the stage. Er, stages. Roth had a main stage and then a smaller stage further back on the floor, looking almost like a boxing ring. He did a song or two back there to give the people with the back-floor seats a close up view. I think that was a good idea.
I liked Poison back then. They did a cover of Kiss' Rock and Roll All Nite. I just told Roy about this, and that they pronounced "every" in two syllables, instead of "ev-er-y" in three syllables like Kiss did. I think this was before their second album came out, but I definitely remember buying an "Open Up and Say Ahh" shirt. We horrified a couple teachers at school the next day wearing the shirt. Later on, I bought the original uncensored cassette of Open Up...
David Lee Roth was fun. He had Steve Vai on guitar, and Steve played the triple necked heart shaped guitar from the Just Like Paradise video. There was a drum solo, with the drummer Gregg Bissonette jumping over the drum set and playing from in front of the drum set. Exciting. I couldn't tell you what VH songs they did, I just wasn't that familiar with VH material yet.
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