Jon Anderson
Intimate - Solo - Acoustic
Mongo's Saloon
Grover Beach, CA
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Level Floor, Section A, Row 2, Seat 5
$45
Jon Anderson has been my favorite singer, favorite songwriter, favorite musician, favorite rock star, hero, idol since I was a teenager. I've loved his music for close to twenty years and I've been a fanatic for over the last fifteen. Roy and I both love him as well as his music.
Jon got seriously ill last year, suffering from acute respiratory failure. There were stories around that he was suffering from other health problems as well, and was on doctor's orders to rest for at least six months. It felt to me like this was happening to a dear friend rather than a distant rock star. He had asthma problems on a previous Yes tour in 2004 and has only done low-key touring of a few weeks at a time since then. Last summer was supposed to be the first Yes tour in four years, but it had to be canceled. Who knows if Jon will ever recover enough to do a big tour like that again?
We didn't know if he'd be able to sing again, if this would force the end of his career. Thankfully, that wasn't the case. Jon started sending updates through Facebook and Twitter, song lyrics, some new music, notes about how he was feeling. In the last month, a tour of Europe was announced. I think he's doing this the right way, a very light touring schedule that is more like a vacation with occasional shows than a daily grind of traveling. I thought how I would love to see his first show back, but I couldn't justify going to Poland for it!
I'm a Facebook addict. One morning, I was already running late to work, but I had to go to my computer and check for updates one last time. This one instance justifies all the time I waste on the computer. Jon posted:
"6th of June, I will be doing a solo show here at 'Mongo's in Grover Beach to celebrate my 'Honey' Janee's birthday, weeeeeee"
This would be the first show. I wanted to go for a number of reasons: I love being at his concerts and thought I'd never see one again, I went to the greatest concert of my life at nearby San Luis Obispo and Roy and I loved going back to the area, and like my friend Dian said to me, we wanted to show support for Jon, that we were there for him.
There was no question that Roy and I were going. I called the venue and confirmed that the show was taking place. We booked our flight that night. The show was on a Saturday night, and I was trying to conserve vacation days. Roy called it a whirlwind tour - we flew out to LA Friday night, drove up to SLO Saturday morning, saw the show Saturday night, and on Sunday, drove back to LA and flew home. We hit bad traffic on the drive back to LA and I was scared we'd miss our flight, but everything else was relaxed and well-paced.
Roy and I met in San Luis Obispo at the Yes concerts in 1996 at the Coffee Merchant and sat next to each other at dinner at the 1865 restaurant. Five years later, we visited the city again, and Roy proposed to me at the gazebo at Apple Farms. We didn't have any real plans for the day, just to visit our favorite spots in the city again. We walked by the Fremont Theater, where Yes played those legendary shows. It was between movies, so I asked the staff if we could take a look around. It's wonderful being in that room again. I softly sang the opening of Revealing Science to Roy to relive it a little bit. I wanted to tell Jon about this later on if I got the chance.
In addition to seeing Jon and SLO again, I also got to see some friends. We didn't make any plans beforehand, but a bunch of us went to Mongo's for dinner. Roy and I caught up with some acquaintances we hadn't seen in years. The place was really a bar with seats set up for the concert and tables for communal dining in back. We talked to another couple at our table. The guy was a long-time Yes fan, but had never seen Jon in a solo setting. I described my expectations to him: Jon wasn't a great instrumentalist, but the show would be very intimate and special. I was a little worried about how he'd look and sound after his illness.
A great surprise was learning our friend Steve would be at the show. Steve has been suffering from a degenerative disease for over a decade now. We last saw him in 2004 when he was living in Ohio. Since then, his e-mail addresses were no longer in use and we lost touch with him. It was such a relief to see him doing relatively well and to exchange contact information again. Steve is living in California again and is engaged to be married. This was his fiance's first Jon show; she seemed very nice. We talked to Steve for a while. It really is the people as much as the music that makes traveling and attending shows so important to me.
We got to our seats with plenty of time before the show started. We were in the second row, dead center. The stage setup was very nice. There were a number of candles resting in little swings hanging from the ceiling. There was an Olias symbol in back. It didn't look expensive, but it was effective in setting the mood. There were some tables in a raised section off to the side for Jon's friends and family. This show was in honor of his wife Jane's birthday. I've spoken with her a few times, but some of my acquaintances know her better. The tables were decorated with birthday balloons.
Jon came on stage a little after 9 (11pm St. Louis time). The first song was Yours Is No Disgrace. His voice sounded great, no issues at all. This song came across well all the other times I've seen him perform it at his solo shows. This time, he stopped in the middle twice to tune his guitar. He made some jokes that he had paid a guy $25 to tune it for him and later that this was like a nightmare come to life. I honestly didn't notice the guitar sounding that off. The next song, Long Distance Runaround, he also had a problem with, and stopped the song partway through.
It was a shaky opening. Afterwards, it was dramatically tighter. The next two songs were a couple of early Yes songs, Time and a Word and Sweet Dreams. Time and a Word was done in a reggae style and Jon sang a little bit of the Beatles' She Loves You with it. Sweet Dreams was a favorite of Jane's, he told the audience.
I don't know if it was because of the birthday party or just that it was a local show, but Jon seemed very relaxed. He joked about recognizing most of us from the local grocery store. While his voice sounded fine, he looked like he had lost a lot of weight. I didn't see it so much in his face, but he wore jeans that were quite narrow, but they looked baggy on him. He also had on a t-shirt with an open button-down shirt over it. I was so close and Jon was talking to us, rather than doing on-stage patter, I felt like we were all in a living room listening to music. Roy described the show as being heartfelt.
Jon played a few new songs, lyrically dealing with his illness and recovery. He spoke about it too, how this was his first show in 16 months, but he didn't get into any details of his illnesses or with his relationship with the other Yes guys.
The song that hit me the most was I'll Find My Way Home. I remember seeing Jon in Philly in 2004. I was visiting my hometown and very homesick. I reunited with a bunch of my old friends. Jon hadn't played that song the night before and it really got to me. This time, I found my way home in a different sense - in the audience at one of Jon's shows with so many ties to Jon and my friends in the audience - and I thought I might never get that opportunity again.
But if my spirit is strong
I know it can't be long
No question, I'm not alone
Somehow I'll find my way home
That song always gets to me, this night particularly so. And Jon is home too, back on stage, bringing us together. I am so glad I went on this trip.
Jon did fewer of his solo songs than I expected. He did a couple unreleased songs that he performed on his previous solo tours, and three strong new ones. But the bulk of the show was Yes songs. In addition to the four he started out with, he played: Wonderous Stories, Owner of a Lonely Heart, a full Long Distance Runaround, And You And I, Starship Trooper, I've Seen All Good People, Roundabout, and Soon.
There was a fun moment for me during Wonderous Stories. Jon is notorious for forgetting lyrics. During the lines "In the giving of my eyes/to see your face", he got to "In the giving of my" and got stuck. People were yelling out the next line, but he was stuck on the word "eyes". I yelled out "eyes". Jon heard me and said okay.
It's actually on YouTube already. I can hear myself at the :06 second mark.
Owner was another highlight for me. I remember how he did this on his first solo tour - it was karaoke style and just awful. Now, he was playing it on guitar and vocalizing parts that he couldn't produce himself on the guitar. It was still lively, but it suited him better.
Owner was the end of the first set. Jon took an intermission. Everything was so low-key, people were still up and about when he started the second set on electric piano. He played a melody similar to what he had done on previous tours - a song called Set Sail, joined with snippets of Close to the Edge and Revealing Science of God. There was a new piece in there this time, a love song to his wife. I can only imagine what they've gone through during the past year. The chorus was "Will you marry me again?" and he sang it directly to her. It was sweet.
I started laughing during I've Seen All Good People. I've only seen Jon do the first half of this song in his solo songs, not the repetitive second half. A few years back, my friend Angela took me to a karaoke bar and sang this song for me. She told me it felt much longer than eight minutes. That refrain kept popping up on the lyric screen over and over again. "I've seen all good people turn their heads each day, so satisfied I'm on my way." Well, Jon went into this part of the song and it just seemed to me that he was thinking the same thing. It's a lot easier to play this song when the band is taking short solos in between the vocal sections and everyone is up and dancing. Otherwise, it's very repetitive, there's no cues, and he's just singing the same thing over and over again. After a few times of singing the line, he got the audience to clap along. That helped. But I can't imagine he'll want to do the full song live again.
After Roundabout, Jon led us in singing Happy Birthday to Jane. A fan had called out earlier for Gates of Delirium. Jon obliged with the last part of the song, Soon. That's a song that's a good test of his vocals. Yes have played that song on some tours early on in the tour, and then dropped it as it gets too hard to sing night after night. Jon sounded wonderful, although he messed up on the guitar part a little. That was the end of the show. He left the stage. Jane stayed at her seat for a while, and everyone was applauding for an encore. But that was it. Jon looked tired by the end of the show. He had played less than 90 minutes. I am so glad he feels well enough to perform, but I also understand that he's a long way from being able to do a Yes tour with long shows and traveling every day. He's still so fragile.
Had Jon and Jane left for good? I was hoping to get a chance to talk to him. I know he saw us in the audience.
After the show, Roy and I spent some time catching up with Dian. I talked to Steve again, and a group of friends that know Jon and Jane better than I do. Jon's road manager, Paul Silviera came over to us and said that Jane asked us (meaning the others in my group) to stick around because they were coming back. The venue wasn't making anyone leave. I asked Dian if she thought it was okay if Roy and I stayed too, and she thought it would be. A group of us went outside to the patio to talk and had a nice time catching up.
Jon and Jane came back to the venue. Jon had changed his clothes. He was still wearing jeans and sneakers, but he had on a dress shirt, suit jacket, and bowtie. Jon looked adorable. He came over to talk to us. He gave Dian a hug, and then came over to hug me. I tried to tell him my Fremont Theater story. I got out "We went to the Fremont Theater today", but other people were talking too and I didn't think he heard me. I said as much to Roy. Jon surprised me though, because he turned back to me and said he heard me and that he had played there before. I replied that I was at the show, but more people were talking while I rambled on about singing Revealing there that afternoon. After Jon had greeted everyone, I told him I'm glad he's doing better and we're all pulling for him.
Then, the party started.
When this show was listed on Mongo's website, it said
"After the show dance and party with Jon Anderson. Dancing & Cocktails til 1:30am."
I didn't believe it. It looked like something they'd write about a local band's concert and just stuck Jon's name there. But Jane was having her birthday party and we were still there. Jane came over and greeted some of my friends. I don't think she knows me well enough to recognize me. Dance music started playing on the loudspeakers. Clearly some of my friends were invited, and Roy and I were allowed to be there, but we felt like we were trespassing. I danced with Anne for the first song and then went back out to the patio. We said our goodbyes to everyone.
I walked back inside and saw the most surreal thing I've ever seen in my life. Jon Anderson of Yes dancing to some disco song with his wife. KC and the Sunshine Band's Do a little dance, make a little love, Get down tonight. I pictured Jon back in the late 1970s, always sounding so serious and sincere in talking to the audience or in interviews, making music, dancing to Get Down Tonight. It doesn't even seem like he existed in the same world as disco. Now, I've seen everything. We left while the song was going on.
The next day, we heard the song in the rental car shuttle to the airport.
I think this will be one of those special shows that people will talk about for the rest of our lives. We were able to celebrate Jon's returning health and strength along with him and his family and friends. Dian, who has been to many more Yes concerts than I have, but missed the SLO concerts wrote on my facebook wall: "After all these years, now SLO has personal significance for me too." All the shows Roy and I have seen there have been so special, so life-altering. I think it's the journey there, the music, but more importantly, the people - the musicians know something special is going on and the fans are open to receive it. It's the equivalent of a big group hug. We're all together there, all friends, the same things are important to us. It would be hard to turn down any Yes related show at SLO, just to capture that feeling again.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Rhea's 2004 Jon Anderson weekend Pt 3
Jon Anderson
Count Basie Theater
Red Bank, NJ
Sunday, January 11, 2004
Section Orchestra Left, Row B, Seat 11
$50
One of the hidden expenses of traveling is eating out every meal. We got lucky on Sunday - my parents took us out to brunch and we had dinner at a friend's house in New Jersey. It would have been a fun day even without the concert. The timing was a bit tight. We checked into our hotel right at 7, and then drove a couple blocks to the theater. If there had been any traffic, we might have been late.
This evening's venue was the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. It seemed similar to the Keswick, being an older theater in the downtown of a small town. It could use some renovating - most of the seats had ripped fabric and the ornate decorations on the walls had cracks. Still had lots of charm and is so much nicer than going to a smoky club for a concert like this.
We stopped to talk to more friends in the lobby before the show. A group of us went to all three weekend shows, but we traveled separately and only caught up at the shows themselves. We decided to leave the auditorium and meet up in the autograph line early if Jon decided to play Owner as an encore again. One friend handed Roy two unmarked CDRs. On our ride back to the airport the next morning, we put them in and discovered it was a recording of the night before's show. Sweet.
This show was similar to the Glenside show, but with fewer mistakes. Jon did have some trouble with State of Independence, but he pulled it together. Yours Is No Disgrace and Richard were impressive all three nights. What I remember most about the performance were the unplanned moments. One of the questions was a request for Jon to sing Amazing Grace. He sang it unaccompanied and with no effects on his microphone. This man's voice is gorgeous. It made me wish he did more a capella.
One guy in the audience kept yelling for A Venture. It was getting on my nerves, but there was a big payoff for it. Towards the end of the show, Jon sang the first line. I was surprised that he remembered it after all these years. Was this the first ever performance of any bit of A Venture?
The other thing that stands out is little tidbits about Yes that Jon mentioned. Come to think of it, I'm not sure which night he told us these things, but I think it was Sunday. Jon said that Yes was talking about doing On the Silent Wings of Freedom this year. There was a good crowd response, and then Jon said that he should give all of us Chris Squire's phone number, to talk him into it. See, I thought that Chris would have been the one to want this song, since he plays a bit of it in his solo and it's so bass-y. Jon also made a little poke at Chris' falling down on one knee act during The Fish. The other interesting thing is that Steve Howe doesn't like the harp section of Awaken.
We were in the front row again, this time off to the side on the left audience section. During the intermission, I met up with YesSwap and progcookies members Fred and Stephen. I didn't know how I was going to find them, but they met up with my friend Carrie, so she pulled me over to their group. Fred and Stephen had identical seats to me, but on the right side. It's nice to put faces and voices to names, even though we didn't have a lot of time to talk.
It was time for the encore. Jon said he was going to do the same song as the night before, but last night's version was "silly". We got up and walked towards the back of the theater. I found that I couldn't actually leave the room while Jon was on stage. So Roy and I watched it from the back. It really wasn't as bad as Saturday night's, but I couldn't take the whole karaoke thing seriously.
There were already quite a few people in the autograph line. I had gotten everything signed that I brought with me, but I can't pass up an opportunity to talk to Jon. I ended up getting my ticket stub signed. I told Jon I sometimes wished I could quit my job and just go to all of his concerts. He said he'd see us in the spring.
I wasn't ready to leave yet. Roy and I hung out in the lobby, talking to friends and watching Jon sign autographs. When Jon was getting ready to leave, I approached him again and wished him good luck for the rest of the tour. Roy and I had talked a little about flying down to Florida the next weekend for more shows, but it looked like this was going to be it. The first show was my favorite, and had a real special quality to it, but my favorite overall moment was Amazing Grace the last night.
There's a little post script to this story. We stayed at a hotel that was listed on the venue's website. It was a nice place, and only a few blocks away. We went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast the next morning, and Roy was wearing a Yes sweatshirt. The host asked if we were with the Andersons. They didn't come to the restaurant while we were there, and I didn't see them anywhere else in the hotel.
Count Basie Theater
Red Bank, NJ
Sunday, January 11, 2004
Section Orchestra Left, Row B, Seat 11
$50
One of the hidden expenses of traveling is eating out every meal. We got lucky on Sunday - my parents took us out to brunch and we had dinner at a friend's house in New Jersey. It would have been a fun day even without the concert. The timing was a bit tight. We checked into our hotel right at 7, and then drove a couple blocks to the theater. If there had been any traffic, we might have been late.
This evening's venue was the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey. It seemed similar to the Keswick, being an older theater in the downtown of a small town. It could use some renovating - most of the seats had ripped fabric and the ornate decorations on the walls had cracks. Still had lots of charm and is so much nicer than going to a smoky club for a concert like this.
We stopped to talk to more friends in the lobby before the show. A group of us went to all three weekend shows, but we traveled separately and only caught up at the shows themselves. We decided to leave the auditorium and meet up in the autograph line early if Jon decided to play Owner as an encore again. One friend handed Roy two unmarked CDRs. On our ride back to the airport the next morning, we put them in and discovered it was a recording of the night before's show. Sweet.
This show was similar to the Glenside show, but with fewer mistakes. Jon did have some trouble with State of Independence, but he pulled it together. Yours Is No Disgrace and Richard were impressive all three nights. What I remember most about the performance were the unplanned moments. One of the questions was a request for Jon to sing Amazing Grace. He sang it unaccompanied and with no effects on his microphone. This man's voice is gorgeous. It made me wish he did more a capella.
One guy in the audience kept yelling for A Venture. It was getting on my nerves, but there was a big payoff for it. Towards the end of the show, Jon sang the first line. I was surprised that he remembered it after all these years. Was this the first ever performance of any bit of A Venture?
The other thing that stands out is little tidbits about Yes that Jon mentioned. Come to think of it, I'm not sure which night he told us these things, but I think it was Sunday. Jon said that Yes was talking about doing On the Silent Wings of Freedom this year. There was a good crowd response, and then Jon said that he should give all of us Chris Squire's phone number, to talk him into it. See, I thought that Chris would have been the one to want this song, since he plays a bit of it in his solo and it's so bass-y. Jon also made a little poke at Chris' falling down on one knee act during The Fish. The other interesting thing is that Steve Howe doesn't like the harp section of Awaken.
We were in the front row again, this time off to the side on the left audience section. During the intermission, I met up with YesSwap and progcookies members Fred and Stephen. I didn't know how I was going to find them, but they met up with my friend Carrie, so she pulled me over to their group. Fred and Stephen had identical seats to me, but on the right side. It's nice to put faces and voices to names, even though we didn't have a lot of time to talk.
It was time for the encore. Jon said he was going to do the same song as the night before, but last night's version was "silly". We got up and walked towards the back of the theater. I found that I couldn't actually leave the room while Jon was on stage. So Roy and I watched it from the back. It really wasn't as bad as Saturday night's, but I couldn't take the whole karaoke thing seriously.
There were already quite a few people in the autograph line. I had gotten everything signed that I brought with me, but I can't pass up an opportunity to talk to Jon. I ended up getting my ticket stub signed. I told Jon I sometimes wished I could quit my job and just go to all of his concerts. He said he'd see us in the spring.
I wasn't ready to leave yet. Roy and I hung out in the lobby, talking to friends and watching Jon sign autographs. When Jon was getting ready to leave, I approached him again and wished him good luck for the rest of the tour. Roy and I had talked a little about flying down to Florida the next weekend for more shows, but it looked like this was going to be it. The first show was my favorite, and had a real special quality to it, but my favorite overall moment was Amazing Grace the last night.
There's a little post script to this story. We stayed at a hotel that was listed on the venue's website. It was a nice place, and only a few blocks away. We went to the hotel restaurant for breakfast the next morning, and Roy was wearing a Yes sweatshirt. The host asked if we were with the Andersons. They didn't come to the restaurant while we were there, and I didn't see them anywhere else in the hotel.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Rhea's 2004 Jon Anderson weekend Pt 2
Jon Anderson
Keswick Theater
Glenside (Philadelphia), PA
Saturday, January 10, 2004
Section Pit, Row CCC, Seat 6
$35
On Saturday, Roy and I drove to Philly. I grew up there and I still consider it home. I try to get back there for shows when I can. We had dinner plans with a couple friends before the show. I used to work in Jenkintown, about a mile from the Keswick Theater, and I chose a place that I thought would be easy to find.
Linda was there waiting for us. She was one of my hotel-roommates at SLO and she's known Roy for longer than I have. Even though she bought her ticket weeks after we did, she ended up with a seat in the orchestra pit. Our seats were 18 rows back. At one point when we were making plans, I asked her as a joke "Any chance you'd want to catch up with Roy during the show and switch tickets with me?" with a winky face. Before the show, Linda asked me if I still wanted to trade seats with her. Wow.
My friend Scott was also supposed to be at dinner, but he didn't make it. He got lost on the way and went straight to the theater. We saw him there, along with a lot of other Philly Yes friends. The biggest surprise was bumping into my friend Bill. He had dropped out of fandom ages ago, so I wasn't expecting to see him at the concert. I hadn't talked to him since moving to St. Louis, so I yelled from my seat that I got married and was still living out there. Ironically, he only noticed me because I was sitting a few rows in front of him in Linda's seat.
The show started, the same as usual. Jon played Boundaries this time, and dropped Soon. There was an intermission, and Your Move closed the first set. Revealing was a little longer this time, with the "what happened to this song" section added in. Jon did a little joke all three nights when he sat at the keyboard. He told us how he broke his back over a year ago, and spent a lot of time sitting at the piano with his brace on. He started to play around a little bit, and then went into a fast show-offy piece. Everyone applauded. He spoke some more, and then played that bit again. This time, he very obviously took his hands off of the keyboard and adjusted his microphone, so everyone could see that he wasn't really playing it. This got a big laugh and an even bigger applause. A fan yelled out "Heart of the Sunrise", and Jon sang the beginning instrumental part and said "Yeah, I can play that" with a little sarcasm. We laughed with him on that one.
At the intermission, I ran back to talk to Bill. He was the first fellow Yes fan I met, back when I was 14 and most of my friends still listened to New Kids on the Block. He's a dozen years older than me, and became a big brother and a role model. For those of you who know the Yes jacket I have with the back cover of Fragile airbrushed on the back, Bill painted it for me. (If you have a recording of Yes when they played on Fox After Breakfast, you can get a good look at the jacket.) We did some quick catching up, and he told me that I was all grown up and that he was proud of me.
Jon came back on stage and played I'll Find My Way Home. I don't know if it was the song itself, or all the feelings of homesickness, or just seeing all these people from my past, but it really got to me. This was the most emotional I got during the shows.
Jon answered some more fan questions, including mine. These questions were completely unscreened - no one read them in advance to filter out certain ones. I wrote down a two parter - "do you ever look at fan Internet sites or discussion groups?" and "What do you think of releasing live archived recordings?" Jon didn't answer the first one. The second one, he said that when Rick rejoined the band, he wondered why there were so many bootlegs and why Yes wasn't releasing this stuff. This turned into a rant on bad management.
There were some funny questions the next night. Someone asked Jon if he believed Jesus was god or just a prophet. Jon kind of walked around the question. The next question was about influences, and Jon proclaimed that the Beatles were gods. I think that answered the first question as well!
The show itself was somewhat of a letdown after opening night. Some of the things I chalked up to nervousness at the previous show were looking sloppy. Jon had trouble with Nous Sommes du Soleil and it fell apart in the end. I think it was the first time I didn't give a standing ovation to a Tales song. It didn't deserve it.
The true low point was the encore. Before the tour, I didn't know how much Jon was going to rely on backing tapes. I didn't want this to be Yes karaoke. And it wasn't, until this point. Jon sang Owner of a Lonely Heart as the encore. It was bad. He messed up the lyrics and lost his place in the song. It was a catastrophe. Later on, I discussed with another YesSwapper that this was the worst live Yes moment we had ever seen, even worse than No Way We Can Lose in Hartford opening night of the 1997 tour. (To be fair, I wasn't at Toronto in 1998 for Close to the Edge.) This brought the whole show down. It was a bummer to have this as the last song, and not have a
more successful song to send us off. I was hoping he'd do Soon as a real finale, but he didn't play it this night.
I met up with Roy, and we got in the autograph line with Scott. I had hoped to see Bill again, because he planned to wait to meet Jon, but he must have left already. Darn, I just realized I forgot to introduce Scott to Rene! They know each other through YesSwap. We were towards the end of the line, so we had lots more time to chat. Scott had never had the chance to meet Jon before, and he was really excited.
I brought the new remasters of Tales and Relayer. (Yet another good thing about the remasters is more CDs to get autographs. I already got my old Tales and Relayer autographed by all the respective band members.) I told Jon the story of how I didn't like Tales when I first got it, but my friend Scott raved about it so much that I gave it a second chance and listened to it over and over. It's now my favorite album of all time. Jon said that it's a hard album to get into, and that it's Jane's favorite too. She was sitting next to him and chimed in that she only listens to it when he's not home because he doesn't like listening to it anymore.
Keswick Theater
Glenside (Philadelphia), PA
Saturday, January 10, 2004
Section Pit, Row CCC, Seat 6
$35
On Saturday, Roy and I drove to Philly. I grew up there and I still consider it home. I try to get back there for shows when I can. We had dinner plans with a couple friends before the show. I used to work in Jenkintown, about a mile from the Keswick Theater, and I chose a place that I thought would be easy to find.
Linda was there waiting for us. She was one of my hotel-roommates at SLO and she's known Roy for longer than I have. Even though she bought her ticket weeks after we did, she ended up with a seat in the orchestra pit. Our seats were 18 rows back. At one point when we were making plans, I asked her as a joke "Any chance you'd want to catch up with Roy during the show and switch tickets with me?" with a winky face. Before the show, Linda asked me if I still wanted to trade seats with her. Wow.
My friend Scott was also supposed to be at dinner, but he didn't make it. He got lost on the way and went straight to the theater. We saw him there, along with a lot of other Philly Yes friends. The biggest surprise was bumping into my friend Bill. He had dropped out of fandom ages ago, so I wasn't expecting to see him at the concert. I hadn't talked to him since moving to St. Louis, so I yelled from my seat that I got married and was still living out there. Ironically, he only noticed me because I was sitting a few rows in front of him in Linda's seat.
The show started, the same as usual. Jon played Boundaries this time, and dropped Soon. There was an intermission, and Your Move closed the first set. Revealing was a little longer this time, with the "what happened to this song" section added in. Jon did a little joke all three nights when he sat at the keyboard. He told us how he broke his back over a year ago, and spent a lot of time sitting at the piano with his brace on. He started to play around a little bit, and then went into a fast show-offy piece. Everyone applauded. He spoke some more, and then played that bit again. This time, he very obviously took his hands off of the keyboard and adjusted his microphone, so everyone could see that he wasn't really playing it. This got a big laugh and an even bigger applause. A fan yelled out "Heart of the Sunrise", and Jon sang the beginning instrumental part and said "Yeah, I can play that" with a little sarcasm. We laughed with him on that one.
At the intermission, I ran back to talk to Bill. He was the first fellow Yes fan I met, back when I was 14 and most of my friends still listened to New Kids on the Block. He's a dozen years older than me, and became a big brother and a role model. For those of you who know the Yes jacket I have with the back cover of Fragile airbrushed on the back, Bill painted it for me. (If you have a recording of Yes when they played on Fox After Breakfast, you can get a good look at the jacket.) We did some quick catching up, and he told me that I was all grown up and that he was proud of me.
Jon came back on stage and played I'll Find My Way Home. I don't know if it was the song itself, or all the feelings of homesickness, or just seeing all these people from my past, but it really got to me. This was the most emotional I got during the shows.
Jon answered some more fan questions, including mine. These questions were completely unscreened - no one read them in advance to filter out certain ones. I wrote down a two parter - "do you ever look at fan Internet sites or discussion groups?" and "What do you think of releasing live archived recordings?" Jon didn't answer the first one. The second one, he said that when Rick rejoined the band, he wondered why there were so many bootlegs and why Yes wasn't releasing this stuff. This turned into a rant on bad management.
There were some funny questions the next night. Someone asked Jon if he believed Jesus was god or just a prophet. Jon kind of walked around the question. The next question was about influences, and Jon proclaimed that the Beatles were gods. I think that answered the first question as well!
The show itself was somewhat of a letdown after opening night. Some of the things I chalked up to nervousness at the previous show were looking sloppy. Jon had trouble with Nous Sommes du Soleil and it fell apart in the end. I think it was the first time I didn't give a standing ovation to a Tales song. It didn't deserve it.
The true low point was the encore. Before the tour, I didn't know how much Jon was going to rely on backing tapes. I didn't want this to be Yes karaoke. And it wasn't, until this point. Jon sang Owner of a Lonely Heart as the encore. It was bad. He messed up the lyrics and lost his place in the song. It was a catastrophe. Later on, I discussed with another YesSwapper that this was the worst live Yes moment we had ever seen, even worse than No Way We Can Lose in Hartford opening night of the 1997 tour. (To be fair, I wasn't at Toronto in 1998 for Close to the Edge.) This brought the whole show down. It was a bummer to have this as the last song, and not have a
more successful song to send us off. I was hoping he'd do Soon as a real finale, but he didn't play it this night.
I met up with Roy, and we got in the autograph line with Scott. I had hoped to see Bill again, because he planned to wait to meet Jon, but he must have left already. Darn, I just realized I forgot to introduce Scott to Rene! They know each other through YesSwap. We were towards the end of the line, so we had lots more time to chat. Scott had never had the chance to meet Jon before, and he was really excited.
I brought the new remasters of Tales and Relayer. (Yet another good thing about the remasters is more CDs to get autographs. I already got my old Tales and Relayer autographed by all the respective band members.) I told Jon the story of how I didn't like Tales when I first got it, but my friend Scott raved about it so much that I gave it a second chance and listened to it over and over. It's now my favorite album of all time. Jon said that it's a hard album to get into, and that it's Jane's favorite too. She was sitting next to him and chimed in that she only listens to it when he's not home because he doesn't like listening to it anymore.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Rhea's 2004 Jon Anderson weekend Pt 1
Jon Anderson
Trump Marina - The Shell
Atlantic City, NJ
Friday, January 9, 2004
General Admission
$39.70
These are some stories from the archive. Roy and I flew out to Philly for the first three dates of Jon Anderson's Work in Progress Tour of the Universe. I e-mailed this one out to some Yes and prog mailing lists on 1/13/2004, just days after the concert weekend. I'm adding this series to the blog in honor of Jon Anderson's upcoming return to live performance. Welcome back Jon!
I'm still digesting this weekend. I went to the first three shows, had great seats, got to talk to Jon all three nights, and met up with friends I don't get to see too often. There are spoilers below.
My husband Roy and I flew out to Philly on Friday and drove to the Trump Marina hotel Atlantic City. It's where we stayed and where the concert was. I am anal about general admission shows. I like to get in line ridiculously early to make sure I get a good seat. This club had maitre d seating, and I didn't know whether we'd have to bribe some usher to sit us up front. I kept some money in my front pocket just in case.
We found out where the club was, and no one was in line yet. It was 3, and doors were supposed to open at 8. So I agreed to gamble a little and meet up with some friends for dinner. Right after dinner, I practically ran to the line. I was 5th. Roy joined me, and the rest of our dinner party wasn't too far behind in line.
The doors opened, and the first two groups got seated. Our usher asked how we were doing. I gushed "I'm so excited. We came all the way from St. Louis to see the show!" He said we could sit anywhere we wanted. :-) We took the seats in the front row next to the chair with the reserved sign on it. Our friends weren't quite as lucky. Their usher was going to seat them further back, and they had to bribe him to sit by us.
The show starts out with a new song, then Long Distance Runaround, then another new one. After that, it changed a little from night to night. I noticed that most of the Yes songs had no backing tapes, but most of his new songs did. Jon is a competent instrumentalist - he plays guitar, keyboards, and harp during the show. He looked nervous that night, but held everything together well. A friend of mine planned to tape the show with his cassette recorder. He got the first 45 minutes of it. Being in the front row, he couldn't pull out his tape deck to flip the tape!
Jane sat next to me. I like to dance around in my chair and sing along quietly, but I wasn't sure quite how to act with her right there. I noticed that she was singing along to the Yes songs, so I did too. During State of Independence, I yelled out "Third World" at the same time she did. She turned to me, put her hand on my arm, and said "good job!" That song was one of the highlights for me. The next song was really impressive. Yours Is No Disgrace. Jon didn't play a difficult part on guitar, but it worked well and went beyond a few chords to accompany his voice.
This was supposed to be a multi-media presentation. There was a screen behind Jon that had different graphics on it. At one point, it showed a smiley face person playing guitar. I don't know if Jon meant it to be funny or just cute, but lots of us started giggling at it. At one point Jon turned around to look at the screen. He said after the song that at first he thought we were laughing at him for some reason.
Jon didn't give the names of many of the new songs. The songs I did recognize were Long Distance Runaround, State of Independence, Yours Is No Disgrace, Soon, Revealing Science of God opening chant, Nous Sommes du Soleil, Your Move, a song from Earth Mother Earth, and the biggest surprise - Richard! Jon said that Jane had requested that one, so I turned to her and thanked her.
There were a couple flubs, but they were more charming than anything else. At one of the new songs on the piano, Jon forgot a line and paused before looking at the lyric screen. YesSwapper Rene yelled out "You're so cute you can get away with it" in her Southern accent to Jon. He looked more relaxed after hearing that, and Jane turned around to say "bless you" to Rene. He went into Revealing after that, my favorite song. It seemed impromptu, and he had some trouble with the lyrics there. I wanted to yell them out for him, but he made it through.
There was an open guitar case at the end of the stage. Jon invited us to write down questions (along with $5 for charity) and put them into the case. He did two sessions of questions and answers.
Your Move was the encore. Jon started singing "Give Peace a Chance" during the first "dit dit dit" section and most of the audience joined him. It lost a bit of its direction. The next two nights, it worked much better. Jon shortened the song and instructed us to sing "dit dit dit" while he did Give Peace a Chance over us. I spoke to Jane for a little bit after the show, asking her to tell Jon how much we enjoyed the show. She thanked me, saying they were both so nervous about it.
Jon signed autographs after each show. The catch was, you had to buy a tshirt to get an autograph. We bought one the first night, and then figured we'd just drag it to all the shows. Ah, but the second night you got your hand stamped when you bought a shirt and the third night you got a ticket. We got away with getting in the meet and greet line each night with only buying that one tshirt.
I brought some of the new remasters and a limited edition copy of Magnification to get signed. The Magnification came with a purple jewel case with a silver Yes logo on it. I don't usually get jewel cases signed, but this one looked cool. I told Jon it was a import copy of Mag. He and Jane had never seen it, and spent some time looking at it. Jane recognized me, and told Jon that I had been singing along at the show. My big comment this night was to tell Jon that I became a fan of Yes during ABWH, and that Mag was my favorite CD of theirs since then. Jon said that it was the band's favorite too. Then he said, "well, the four of us". I asked whether they were going to do any more songs from Mag in concert. He said he wanted to do Give Love Each Day, but I'm not sure if he meant solo or with Yes. We were about to leave, but Jane asked if she could look at the Magnification package again. I don't know why I didn't just tell them they could have it.
That gave us an extra moment, so I thanked Jon for doing Revealing and told him that we'd be at the next two shows.
Trump Marina - The Shell
Atlantic City, NJ
Friday, January 9, 2004
General Admission
$39.70
These are some stories from the archive. Roy and I flew out to Philly for the first three dates of Jon Anderson's Work in Progress Tour of the Universe. I e-mailed this one out to some Yes and prog mailing lists on 1/13/2004, just days after the concert weekend. I'm adding this series to the blog in honor of Jon Anderson's upcoming return to live performance. Welcome back Jon!
I'm still digesting this weekend. I went to the first three shows, had great seats, got to talk to Jon all three nights, and met up with friends I don't get to see too often. There are spoilers below.
My husband Roy and I flew out to Philly on Friday and drove to the Trump Marina hotel Atlantic City. It's where we stayed and where the concert was. I am anal about general admission shows. I like to get in line ridiculously early to make sure I get a good seat. This club had maitre d seating, and I didn't know whether we'd have to bribe some usher to sit us up front. I kept some money in my front pocket just in case.
We found out where the club was, and no one was in line yet. It was 3, and doors were supposed to open at 8. So I agreed to gamble a little and meet up with some friends for dinner. Right after dinner, I practically ran to the line. I was 5th. Roy joined me, and the rest of our dinner party wasn't too far behind in line.
The doors opened, and the first two groups got seated. Our usher asked how we were doing. I gushed "I'm so excited. We came all the way from St. Louis to see the show!" He said we could sit anywhere we wanted. :-) We took the seats in the front row next to the chair with the reserved sign on it. Our friends weren't quite as lucky. Their usher was going to seat them further back, and they had to bribe him to sit by us.
The show starts out with a new song, then Long Distance Runaround, then another new one. After that, it changed a little from night to night. I noticed that most of the Yes songs had no backing tapes, but most of his new songs did. Jon is a competent instrumentalist - he plays guitar, keyboards, and harp during the show. He looked nervous that night, but held everything together well. A friend of mine planned to tape the show with his cassette recorder. He got the first 45 minutes of it. Being in the front row, he couldn't pull out his tape deck to flip the tape!
Jane sat next to me. I like to dance around in my chair and sing along quietly, but I wasn't sure quite how to act with her right there. I noticed that she was singing along to the Yes songs, so I did too. During State of Independence, I yelled out "Third World" at the same time she did. She turned to me, put her hand on my arm, and said "good job!" That song was one of the highlights for me. The next song was really impressive. Yours Is No Disgrace. Jon didn't play a difficult part on guitar, but it worked well and went beyond a few chords to accompany his voice.
This was supposed to be a multi-media presentation. There was a screen behind Jon that had different graphics on it. At one point, it showed a smiley face person playing guitar. I don't know if Jon meant it to be funny or just cute, but lots of us started giggling at it. At one point Jon turned around to look at the screen. He said after the song that at first he thought we were laughing at him for some reason.
Jon didn't give the names of many of the new songs. The songs I did recognize were Long Distance Runaround, State of Independence, Yours Is No Disgrace, Soon, Revealing Science of God opening chant, Nous Sommes du Soleil, Your Move, a song from Earth Mother Earth, and the biggest surprise - Richard! Jon said that Jane had requested that one, so I turned to her and thanked her.
There were a couple flubs, but they were more charming than anything else. At one of the new songs on the piano, Jon forgot a line and paused before looking at the lyric screen. YesSwapper Rene yelled out "You're so cute you can get away with it" in her Southern accent to Jon. He looked more relaxed after hearing that, and Jane turned around to say "bless you" to Rene. He went into Revealing after that, my favorite song. It seemed impromptu, and he had some trouble with the lyrics there. I wanted to yell them out for him, but he made it through.
There was an open guitar case at the end of the stage. Jon invited us to write down questions (along with $5 for charity) and put them into the case. He did two sessions of questions and answers.
Your Move was the encore. Jon started singing "Give Peace a Chance" during the first "dit dit dit" section and most of the audience joined him. It lost a bit of its direction. The next two nights, it worked much better. Jon shortened the song and instructed us to sing "dit dit dit" while he did Give Peace a Chance over us. I spoke to Jane for a little bit after the show, asking her to tell Jon how much we enjoyed the show. She thanked me, saying they were both so nervous about it.
Jon signed autographs after each show. The catch was, you had to buy a tshirt to get an autograph. We bought one the first night, and then figured we'd just drag it to all the shows. Ah, but the second night you got your hand stamped when you bought a shirt and the third night you got a ticket. We got away with getting in the meet and greet line each night with only buying that one tshirt.
I brought some of the new remasters and a limited edition copy of Magnification to get signed. The Magnification came with a purple jewel case with a silver Yes logo on it. I don't usually get jewel cases signed, but this one looked cool. I told Jon it was a import copy of Mag. He and Jane had never seen it, and spent some time looking at it. Jane recognized me, and told Jon that I had been singing along at the show. My big comment this night was to tell Jon that I became a fan of Yes during ABWH, and that Mag was my favorite CD of theirs since then. Jon said that it was the band's favorite too. Then he said, "well, the four of us". I asked whether they were going to do any more songs from Mag in concert. He said he wanted to do Give Love Each Day, but I'm not sure if he meant solo or with Yes. We were about to leave, but Jane asked if she could look at the Magnification package again. I don't know why I didn't just tell them they could have it.
That gave us an extra moment, so I thanked Jon for doing Revealing and told him that we'd be at the next two shows.
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Piano Men
Billy Joel & Elton John
Scottrade Center
St. Louis, MO
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Section 316, Row E, Seat 6
$99.50
My perspective on concert costs have changed over time. I last saw Billy Joel and Elton John together in 1994. I was still in college. Tickets were $46. I didn't need to look that up. I remember it, from fifteen years back, because I agonized over that price. My best friend Angela and I both wanted to see this show, but we were broke college students and we passed. They played three nights at Vet Stadium. After the first show, additional "good" seats were released. There was so much good buzz about the first show. I called Angela and told her I was having second thoughts about skipping this show. So was Angela. We bought tickets at the last minute, went, and had a great time.
This time, Roy and I bought cheap seats for the Face to Face tour, and they were $100 each. After we decided to go, I didn't bat an eyelash at the price.
I was going to pass on this show originally. I had seen them together before, of course, and we just saw Billy Joel a few years ago. Roy saw Elton John as his very first concert, on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour back in 1974. He's said that he's avoided seeing Elton John since then, because it could never live up to that first show. But after 35 years, Roy wanted to see him again. I was up for it and happy to go see them again.
The two singers have toured jointly a number of times since 1994. Any operational kinks have been worked out. They each have their full bands with them, with no lagtime needed to configure the stage between sets. The stage was empty; all of the equipment was underneath the stage, with elevated platforms to bring up the appropriate instruments at the appropriate time. Our view of the stage was unobstructed, but we were so high up, the lighting rigs blocked part of the screens.
The show started about 10 minutes late. A classical piece of music started to play on the loud speaker. We didn't recognize it, but figured this was a way to set the mood. I love how Yes concerts start with the finale from Stravinsky's Firebird Suite; it fills me with anticipation. (In fact, Roy and I walked down the aisle to that same piece.) I wondered if Yes was the first band to start their shows with a classical piece. The music ended and the house lights went down. The show was about to begin!
Billy Joel took the stage, and Elton John followed him. They greeted each other and the audience. Then, they each walked over to a grand piano and began playing. It was the same general setup as the last time I saw them - they did several songs together, each of them did their own set, and then they joined together for the encore.
The first song was Your Song, Elton John's first hit. It got off to a rough start. They traded vocals on it, with Billy taking the first verse. It was jarring; his voice was a lot lower than the original vocal line on the song, and it sounded rough. Elton has a lower register too now. They dealt with this throughout the show - Elton sang lower or let the audience sing along and Billy had a female backing musician do some of his higher parts. I didn't notice it being bad except for this first song, but it made me wonder what the rest of the show would sound like. I talked to Roy about this after the show, and he noticed it as well.
The next song was Billy Joel's Just the Way You Are. The two pianists were joined by a saxophone player. I thought it sounded really nice. The two full bands showed up for the next two songs - Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me and My Life. They had especially nice lighting during Don't Let the Sun; yellow and red glows in the audience.
Elton John played his full set next. Roy raved about the first time he saw Elton John, when the stage was all dark and he opened with the instrumental proggy piece Funeral for a Friend. I saw the setlist ahead of time, but Roy wanted to be surprised. Elton opened this set with that same opening. Roy was thrilled. Elton's guitar player Davey Johnstone is the same guy who played guitar on the album version, and he had a prominent role on stage. This song led into Love Lies Bleeding. Roy gave it a standing ovation.
I like both singers, but I've never gone deep into their catalogs. I'm familiar with all their songs that have gotten radio airplay, plus a few albums from each of them. I'm knocked out by how many well known songs they have. Even with each of them performing some "album tracks", I knew every song they played.
Roy's biggest complaint about the concert was the sound. It's his usual complaint about shows in big arenas. The bass drum dominated. When parts of the mix were inaudible for songs I knew well, I was mentally able to fill-in-the-blanks. I noticed that in a good way during Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which is my favorite Elton John track. He asked us to sing along, and I happily did, but I was hearing the song in my head as it should be. It actually sounded insignificant and quick in concert, when it should have lush harmonies and a dreamy atmosphere. On the less successful side was a couple tracks from Madman Across the Water, the title track and Burn Down the Mission. I don't know those songs well enough to really be able to play them through in my head and what I heard was lacking. The piano and guitar part of Madman sounded nice though.
Roy's favorite part of the night was Funeral for a Friend. My favorite part of Elton's set was Crocodile Rock. It was so happy. He can't handle some of the notes in there anymore, so he had the audience sing the "Laaaaa la la la la" part. Belting this out made me happy.
After I'm Still Standing, Roy told me that was the first song Elton performed that was from after 1974. Another "newer" song was in the encore. I don't have a good feeling for the chronology of most of Elton John's 1970s-era singles. I first heard them all from the radio decades after their release. But Roy was telling me he was surprised Elton played so many early tracks.
I could see the people on the floor standing up for about half of the songs. People up by the stage were standing and dancing for the entire show. Up in the second tier of seats, we all sat. I bopped around in my seat and sang along, but most of the people in my section sat still. The women next to Roy were talking throughout most of the show. The couple next to me were sending text messages.
I didn't like Rocket Man as much as I did last time. I specifically remember it. The band jammed at the end of it, and it went on for quite a while, and I loved every moment of it. I talked to another friend who went to the 1994 concert, and she hated the part, making fun of how indulgent and long it was. Did it sound similar to last night's version? I thought this one felt dragged out. I don't know if I changed or it did over the years. Roy liked it for about half its length, and then was ready for it to end.
Elton John surprised me a bit in his frontman behavior. I'm guilty of thinking of him more of a star than a musician, more standoffish. He reached out to the fans up front, quite literally, by walking along the front of the stage and shaking hands two different times. I also noticed him signing a couple autographs for people from onstage. He didn't speak to the crowd much, other than introducing a few songs. He did not introduce his band, which is too bad. Some of those people have been playing with him since Roy saw him the first time.
Elton's set was over. His stage set was lowered beneath the stage and wooosh Billy Joel's was raised. We maybe could have used a short break from the music, but there was a lot of music to fit in. Billy Joel's set started with Prelude and Angry Young Man. He's a more demonstrative performer than Elton John, more gestures and a few songs standing at center stage. It could be that Elton is too busy actually playing piano during the performance. Comparing the two, I'd say Billy Joel was in better voice that night (except for Your Song) and was a better frontman. He was certainly funnier. They tend to get lumped together as piano-based pop musicians. But Elton's music was artier and featured more lead guitar than I would expect. Billy Joel's had a lot of horns in the arrangements, which gave it almost a Springsteen-like feel in places. Both have great melodies and so many songs that I like.
Roy really could have used an intermission. He left during Movin' Out and missed part of the next song, Allentown. I didn't spend much time in the city of Allentown, but it's in my home state of Pennsylvania, so hearing it reminds me of home. I also remember the time Angela and I went to a Yes concert in Allentown. I redid the lyrics to "So we're seeing Yes in Allentown". The song reminds me of one of my favorite Yes concerts.
A few songs that stood out to me were:
- Zanzibar, which Billy Joel described as the one album track in the set and asked us not to all leave to go to the bathroom. The song reminded me of Steely Dan with the horns and the "Zanzibar tonight" vocal line.
- Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. I always like hearing that one.
- It's Still Rock & Roll to Me, which started with a different arrangement. I didn't recognize it until the vocals started. It sounded more modern. While it worked with the theme of the song, I'm not sure how much I liked it.
Billy told some of the same jokes that he did last time we saw him, commenting on the people in different parts of the arena. The people sitting behind the stage had a better view than you'd think, because the piano is situated sideways. They get a similar view to the people up front. And the people up front have several tons of lighting equipment up above them. Still humorous, and it made him appear down to earth by realizing we all had to deal with the annoyances of trying to get good concert tickets.
I get the feeling he could have played a set of completely different songs, and I still would have known them all from radio airplay and enjoyed it just as much. He has so many good songs. My favorite time seeing Billy Joel is when he was doing a tour of colleges and came to Penn. He talked to the audience, took questions, and played some songs by himself, just voice and piano. I think that's the only time I saw him play my favorite song of his, "Summer, Highland Falls".
My biggest complaint about the Face to Face show sounds like whining - too much music. This turned out to be a three and a half hour long concert. By the time Billy's main set was complete, it was three hours of music without a break. I'm sorry to say, it was overkill. I didn't need to leave to use the facilities, but a little mental break would have been nice. The first few songs of the encore, with Billy's and Elton's bands playing together, were wasted on me.
I got back into it when they played a couple of lively Beatles' covers, Birthday and Back in the USSR. The show ended with just Billy and Elton on stage playing piano, just like the show started. They played Candle in the Wind and Piano Man.
I think what I enjoyed most about this show was not the performances or the rock stars, but enjoying the songs themselves in a live communal setting. It still astounds me how much of each of their catalogs I know and how wide a variety of songs they each have.
Scottrade Center
St. Louis, MO
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Section 316, Row E, Seat 6
$99.50
My perspective on concert costs have changed over time. I last saw Billy Joel and Elton John together in 1994. I was still in college. Tickets were $46. I didn't need to look that up. I remember it, from fifteen years back, because I agonized over that price. My best friend Angela and I both wanted to see this show, but we were broke college students and we passed. They played three nights at Vet Stadium. After the first show, additional "good" seats were released. There was so much good buzz about the first show. I called Angela and told her I was having second thoughts about skipping this show. So was Angela. We bought tickets at the last minute, went, and had a great time.
This time, Roy and I bought cheap seats for the Face to Face tour, and they were $100 each. After we decided to go, I didn't bat an eyelash at the price.
I was going to pass on this show originally. I had seen them together before, of course, and we just saw Billy Joel a few years ago. Roy saw Elton John as his very first concert, on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour back in 1974. He's said that he's avoided seeing Elton John since then, because it could never live up to that first show. But after 35 years, Roy wanted to see him again. I was up for it and happy to go see them again.
The two singers have toured jointly a number of times since 1994. Any operational kinks have been worked out. They each have their full bands with them, with no lagtime needed to configure the stage between sets. The stage was empty; all of the equipment was underneath the stage, with elevated platforms to bring up the appropriate instruments at the appropriate time. Our view of the stage was unobstructed, but we were so high up, the lighting rigs blocked part of the screens.
The show started about 10 minutes late. A classical piece of music started to play on the loud speaker. We didn't recognize it, but figured this was a way to set the mood. I love how Yes concerts start with the finale from Stravinsky's Firebird Suite; it fills me with anticipation. (In fact, Roy and I walked down the aisle to that same piece.) I wondered if Yes was the first band to start their shows with a classical piece. The music ended and the house lights went down. The show was about to begin!
Billy Joel took the stage, and Elton John followed him. They greeted each other and the audience. Then, they each walked over to a grand piano and began playing. It was the same general setup as the last time I saw them - they did several songs together, each of them did their own set, and then they joined together for the encore.
The first song was Your Song, Elton John's first hit. It got off to a rough start. They traded vocals on it, with Billy taking the first verse. It was jarring; his voice was a lot lower than the original vocal line on the song, and it sounded rough. Elton has a lower register too now. They dealt with this throughout the show - Elton sang lower or let the audience sing along and Billy had a female backing musician do some of his higher parts. I didn't notice it being bad except for this first song, but it made me wonder what the rest of the show would sound like. I talked to Roy about this after the show, and he noticed it as well.
The next song was Billy Joel's Just the Way You Are. The two pianists were joined by a saxophone player. I thought it sounded really nice. The two full bands showed up for the next two songs - Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me and My Life. They had especially nice lighting during Don't Let the Sun; yellow and red glows in the audience.
Elton John played his full set next. Roy raved about the first time he saw Elton John, when the stage was all dark and he opened with the instrumental proggy piece Funeral for a Friend. I saw the setlist ahead of time, but Roy wanted to be surprised. Elton opened this set with that same opening. Roy was thrilled. Elton's guitar player Davey Johnstone is the same guy who played guitar on the album version, and he had a prominent role on stage. This song led into Love Lies Bleeding. Roy gave it a standing ovation.
I like both singers, but I've never gone deep into their catalogs. I'm familiar with all their songs that have gotten radio airplay, plus a few albums from each of them. I'm knocked out by how many well known songs they have. Even with each of them performing some "album tracks", I knew every song they played.
Roy's biggest complaint about the concert was the sound. It's his usual complaint about shows in big arenas. The bass drum dominated. When parts of the mix were inaudible for songs I knew well, I was mentally able to fill-in-the-blanks. I noticed that in a good way during Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which is my favorite Elton John track. He asked us to sing along, and I happily did, but I was hearing the song in my head as it should be. It actually sounded insignificant and quick in concert, when it should have lush harmonies and a dreamy atmosphere. On the less successful side was a couple tracks from Madman Across the Water, the title track and Burn Down the Mission. I don't know those songs well enough to really be able to play them through in my head and what I heard was lacking. The piano and guitar part of Madman sounded nice though.
Roy's favorite part of the night was Funeral for a Friend. My favorite part of Elton's set was Crocodile Rock. It was so happy. He can't handle some of the notes in there anymore, so he had the audience sing the "Laaaaa la la la la" part. Belting this out made me happy.
After I'm Still Standing, Roy told me that was the first song Elton performed that was from after 1974. Another "newer" song was in the encore. I don't have a good feeling for the chronology of most of Elton John's 1970s-era singles. I first heard them all from the radio decades after their release. But Roy was telling me he was surprised Elton played so many early tracks.
I could see the people on the floor standing up for about half of the songs. People up by the stage were standing and dancing for the entire show. Up in the second tier of seats, we all sat. I bopped around in my seat and sang along, but most of the people in my section sat still. The women next to Roy were talking throughout most of the show. The couple next to me were sending text messages.
I didn't like Rocket Man as much as I did last time. I specifically remember it. The band jammed at the end of it, and it went on for quite a while, and I loved every moment of it. I talked to another friend who went to the 1994 concert, and she hated the part, making fun of how indulgent and long it was. Did it sound similar to last night's version? I thought this one felt dragged out. I don't know if I changed or it did over the years. Roy liked it for about half its length, and then was ready for it to end.
Elton John surprised me a bit in his frontman behavior. I'm guilty of thinking of him more of a star than a musician, more standoffish. He reached out to the fans up front, quite literally, by walking along the front of the stage and shaking hands two different times. I also noticed him signing a couple autographs for people from onstage. He didn't speak to the crowd much, other than introducing a few songs. He did not introduce his band, which is too bad. Some of those people have been playing with him since Roy saw him the first time.
Elton's set was over. His stage set was lowered beneath the stage and wooosh Billy Joel's was raised. We maybe could have used a short break from the music, but there was a lot of music to fit in. Billy Joel's set started with Prelude and Angry Young Man. He's a more demonstrative performer than Elton John, more gestures and a few songs standing at center stage. It could be that Elton is too busy actually playing piano during the performance. Comparing the two, I'd say Billy Joel was in better voice that night (except for Your Song) and was a better frontman. He was certainly funnier. They tend to get lumped together as piano-based pop musicians. But Elton's music was artier and featured more lead guitar than I would expect. Billy Joel's had a lot of horns in the arrangements, which gave it almost a Springsteen-like feel in places. Both have great melodies and so many songs that I like.
Roy really could have used an intermission. He left during Movin' Out and missed part of the next song, Allentown. I didn't spend much time in the city of Allentown, but it's in my home state of Pennsylvania, so hearing it reminds me of home. I also remember the time Angela and I went to a Yes concert in Allentown. I redid the lyrics to "So we're seeing Yes in Allentown". The song reminds me of one of my favorite Yes concerts.
A few songs that stood out to me were:
- Zanzibar, which Billy Joel described as the one album track in the set and asked us not to all leave to go to the bathroom. The song reminded me of Steely Dan with the horns and the "Zanzibar tonight" vocal line.
- Scenes from an Italian Restaurant. I always like hearing that one.
- It's Still Rock & Roll to Me, which started with a different arrangement. I didn't recognize it until the vocals started. It sounded more modern. While it worked with the theme of the song, I'm not sure how much I liked it.
Billy told some of the same jokes that he did last time we saw him, commenting on the people in different parts of the arena. The people sitting behind the stage had a better view than you'd think, because the piano is situated sideways. They get a similar view to the people up front. And the people up front have several tons of lighting equipment up above them. Still humorous, and it made him appear down to earth by realizing we all had to deal with the annoyances of trying to get good concert tickets.
I get the feeling he could have played a set of completely different songs, and I still would have known them all from radio airplay and enjoyed it just as much. He has so many good songs. My favorite time seeing Billy Joel is when he was doing a tour of colleges and came to Penn. He talked to the audience, took questions, and played some songs by himself, just voice and piano. I think that's the only time I saw him play my favorite song of his, "Summer, Highland Falls".
My biggest complaint about the Face to Face show sounds like whining - too much music. This turned out to be a three and a half hour long concert. By the time Billy's main set was complete, it was three hours of music without a break. I'm sorry to say, it was overkill. I didn't need to leave to use the facilities, but a little mental break would have been nice. The first few songs of the encore, with Billy's and Elton's bands playing together, were wasted on me.
I got back into it when they played a couple of lively Beatles' covers, Birthday and Back in the USSR. The show ended with just Billy and Elton on stage playing piano, just like the show started. They played Candle in the Wind and Piano Man.
I think what I enjoyed most about this show was not the performances or the rock stars, but enjoying the songs themselves in a live communal setting. It still astounds me how much of each of their catalogs I know and how wide a variety of songs they each have.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Paul Simon at the Fox
The 21st Annual Bob Costas Benefit
for Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center
with special guest Paul Simon
Fox Theatre
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Section Balcony 4, Row E, Seat 106
$75
The sportscaster Bob Costas hosts a fundraiser every year for a local children's hospital. I knew about it before, but never felt the need to attend. They always get a well known comedian and musical guest. This year, the musical guest was Paul Simon, and Roy definitely wanted to attend. I'm a big fan of Simon and Garfunkel, but I've never listened to much of Simon's solo work. I wasn't sure how many songs I would know, but I was interested in going.
Is it weird that I've never even heard all of Graceland? Roy had a copy, but lent it out long ago and never got it back. Roy played me parts of a couple albums to get familiar with Simon's music: Still Crazy After All These Years and a live album.
This isn't just a concert, but a society event. We got an information sheet in the mail, complete with a dress code. It said business casual. I wore my new brown dress and Roy wore black slacks and a polo shirt with Roger Dean artwork on it. Some people were way more dressed up than that - wearing tuxedos and gowns. The people-watching (and outfit watching) was fun.
I didn't know what the audience would be like during the concert. Were they there for the music, to be part of the scene, or because they were supporters of the hospital? I do know that tickets went on sale long before Paul Simon was announced. we got tickets shortly after that, and a good deal of the orchestra seats were already gone. Our seats were pretty good though, lower balcony, just off the center aisle.
The night started with Bob Costas coming on stage to introduce the event. He made a big deal about how far people traveled for this show. Paul Simon isn't on tour, and apparantly, hasn't done too many live shows recently. He put his full band together for this one-off performance, and lots of fans came to St. Louis to see it. I'm glad they got to see such a nice venue and the Grand Center/Saint Louis University area.
Costas told some jokes and then introduced comedian Robert Klein. I'd never heard of him, but it looks like he's been around for a long time. He told lots of, too many really, growing older jokes. Some were funny, some weren't. He did a few songs and some shtick about not being able to stop his leg. Roy and I both thought Costas was funnier. The people in the row in front of us were laughing loudly at everything Klein said.
There was a long intermission. Then there was a long video thank you to everyone who contributed to the Cardinal Glennon's. All of this build-up was for a good cause, but we were really there for the music.
Simon opened with a song I didn't know. Next, he did the "These are the days of miracle and wonder" song. I recognized it, but Roy had to tell me this song was called Boy in the Bubble. It always reminds me of the ABWH song Quartet, which goes "We are living in days of wonder, Simon says". Of course, this is the song where Simon is saying it.
Things got interesting during the next song, Slip Sliding Away. Not for the performance, but for what was going on around us. Roy and I were the second and third seats in from the aisle. Some guy on the other side of the aisle was talking really loud. Another guy tried to shush him. Loudmouth and Shusher got into an argument. Shusher got up from his seat and brought back a cop. She asked Loudmouth if there was a problem. No, but when she left, Loudmouth started cursing out Shusher. We might be all dressed up, but we're still not civilized, are we? Shusher and quite a few other people in neighboring rows got up and left. He wasn't doing anything wrong, and I only hope they were all able to sit elsewhere and put this behind them for the rest of the show. Loudmouth was mostly quiet after that.
Other people around us were more fun to watch. There were a group of young women next to me, college-aged maybe. They looked too young to know this music, but at least a couple of them were singing along. I had to point out to Roy when at one point, all four of them were taking cell phone pictures of the concert.
The people in front of us looked like a mother and father, adult daughter, and her boyfriend or husband. The father put his arm around his daughter during the Father and Daughter song that was on the Wild Thornberry's movie soundtrack. The daughter was really getting into the show, but she was inappropriately rocking out in the mellowest moments. She'd just start head-banging and it didn't fit the music at all. Nothing rude, but it was distracting and blocking my view a bit. The seat next to Roy by the aisle was still empty, so he had me move over there.
There were a few more songs that I recognized. I knew Mrs. Robinson from the Graduate soundtrack from the start. They started it off just playing that riff and then went into a snippet of Not Fade Away from Buddy Holly. Roy thought the absolute highlight of the night was hearing Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, with Paul Simon pulling off the whistle part live flawlessly. It's hard to whistle on command like that, hitting all those notes and timing for such a long part.
One of my highlights of the night was Diamonds in the Soles of Her Shoes. I gave it a standing ovation. I felt like a lot of the previous songs had been mellow and soft rock. Nice and well performed, but this song was a good change of pace. The last song of the set was Late in the Evening - another of those songs that I recognized, but didn't know the title.
The encore was strong. Still Crazy After All These Years, The Boxer, and You Can Call Me Al. The young women in my aisle, who looked like they were enjoying the show all night, got up from their seats and walked past us. They weren't leaving now, were they? No! They just moved to the section next to ours. People were up and dancing over there, and there was that whole bunch of empty seats. They moved over there to dance. I can so relate to that. As they went back to their seats, I told one of them, "That was so cool!", meaning watching them enjoy the music. The girl thought I was talking about the show itself and agreed with me.
For the second encore, Paul Simon came out by himself and performed a solo The Sound of Silence. I remember learning this song in elementary song. It was my principal Mr. Romanelli's favorite song, and our music teacher Mrs. Jacobs wanted to surprise him one year. I didn't know who performed it or that it was a "rock" song. It was the mid-80s, so the song had to be about 20 years old at that time. I always liked it, but it was years later that I rediscovered it. That was the other big highlight for me.
I liked the show, but Roy was blown away by it. He is so glad we went, and still amazed that Simon put his whole band together for this one show. It was a special event.
for Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center
with special guest Paul Simon
Fox Theatre
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Section Balcony 4, Row E, Seat 106
$75
The sportscaster Bob Costas hosts a fundraiser every year for a local children's hospital. I knew about it before, but never felt the need to attend. They always get a well known comedian and musical guest. This year, the musical guest was Paul Simon, and Roy definitely wanted to attend. I'm a big fan of Simon and Garfunkel, but I've never listened to much of Simon's solo work. I wasn't sure how many songs I would know, but I was interested in going.
Is it weird that I've never even heard all of Graceland? Roy had a copy, but lent it out long ago and never got it back. Roy played me parts of a couple albums to get familiar with Simon's music: Still Crazy After All These Years and a live album.
This isn't just a concert, but a society event. We got an information sheet in the mail, complete with a dress code. It said business casual. I wore my new brown dress and Roy wore black slacks and a polo shirt with Roger Dean artwork on it. Some people were way more dressed up than that - wearing tuxedos and gowns. The people-watching (and outfit watching) was fun.
I didn't know what the audience would be like during the concert. Were they there for the music, to be part of the scene, or because they were supporters of the hospital? I do know that tickets went on sale long before Paul Simon was announced. we got tickets shortly after that, and a good deal of the orchestra seats were already gone. Our seats were pretty good though, lower balcony, just off the center aisle.
The night started with Bob Costas coming on stage to introduce the event. He made a big deal about how far people traveled for this show. Paul Simon isn't on tour, and apparantly, hasn't done too many live shows recently. He put his full band together for this one-off performance, and lots of fans came to St. Louis to see it. I'm glad they got to see such a nice venue and the Grand Center/Saint Louis University area.
Costas told some jokes and then introduced comedian Robert Klein. I'd never heard of him, but it looks like he's been around for a long time. He told lots of, too many really, growing older jokes. Some were funny, some weren't. He did a few songs and some shtick about not being able to stop his leg. Roy and I both thought Costas was funnier. The people in the row in front of us were laughing loudly at everything Klein said.
There was a long intermission. Then there was a long video thank you to everyone who contributed to the Cardinal Glennon's. All of this build-up was for a good cause, but we were really there for the music.
Simon opened with a song I didn't know. Next, he did the "These are the days of miracle and wonder" song. I recognized it, but Roy had to tell me this song was called Boy in the Bubble. It always reminds me of the ABWH song Quartet, which goes "We are living in days of wonder, Simon says". Of course, this is the song where Simon is saying it.
Things got interesting during the next song, Slip Sliding Away. Not for the performance, but for what was going on around us. Roy and I were the second and third seats in from the aisle. Some guy on the other side of the aisle was talking really loud. Another guy tried to shush him. Loudmouth and Shusher got into an argument. Shusher got up from his seat and brought back a cop. She asked Loudmouth if there was a problem. No, but when she left, Loudmouth started cursing out Shusher. We might be all dressed up, but we're still not civilized, are we? Shusher and quite a few other people in neighboring rows got up and left. He wasn't doing anything wrong, and I only hope they were all able to sit elsewhere and put this behind them for the rest of the show. Loudmouth was mostly quiet after that.
Other people around us were more fun to watch. There were a group of young women next to me, college-aged maybe. They looked too young to know this music, but at least a couple of them were singing along. I had to point out to Roy when at one point, all four of them were taking cell phone pictures of the concert.
The people in front of us looked like a mother and father, adult daughter, and her boyfriend or husband. The father put his arm around his daughter during the Father and Daughter song that was on the Wild Thornberry's movie soundtrack. The daughter was really getting into the show, but she was inappropriately rocking out in the mellowest moments. She'd just start head-banging and it didn't fit the music at all. Nothing rude, but it was distracting and blocking my view a bit. The seat next to Roy by the aisle was still empty, so he had me move over there.
There were a few more songs that I recognized. I knew Mrs. Robinson from the Graduate soundtrack from the start. They started it off just playing that riff and then went into a snippet of Not Fade Away from Buddy Holly. Roy thought the absolute highlight of the night was hearing Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, with Paul Simon pulling off the whistle part live flawlessly. It's hard to whistle on command like that, hitting all those notes and timing for such a long part.
One of my highlights of the night was Diamonds in the Soles of Her Shoes. I gave it a standing ovation. I felt like a lot of the previous songs had been mellow and soft rock. Nice and well performed, but this song was a good change of pace. The last song of the set was Late in the Evening - another of those songs that I recognized, but didn't know the title.
The encore was strong. Still Crazy After All These Years, The Boxer, and You Can Call Me Al. The young women in my aisle, who looked like they were enjoying the show all night, got up from their seats and walked past us. They weren't leaving now, were they? No! They just moved to the section next to ours. People were up and dancing over there, and there was that whole bunch of empty seats. They moved over there to dance. I can so relate to that. As they went back to their seats, I told one of them, "That was so cool!", meaning watching them enjoy the music. The girl thought I was talking about the show itself and agreed with me.
For the second encore, Paul Simon came out by himself and performed a solo The Sound of Silence. I remember learning this song in elementary song. It was my principal Mr. Romanelli's favorite song, and our music teacher Mrs. Jacobs wanted to surprise him one year. I didn't know who performed it or that it was a "rock" song. It was the mid-80s, so the song had to be about 20 years old at that time. I always liked it, but it was years later that I rediscovered it. That was the other big highlight for me.
I liked the show, but Roy was blown away by it. He is so glad we went, and still amazed that Simon put his whole band together for this one show. It was a special event.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
My Mother and Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
California Guitar Trio
Opening Act: Los Gauchos Alemanes
Empie Theater
Muhlenberg College
Allentown, PA
Saturday, September 2, 1995
Section Center, Row A, Seat 113
unknown ticket price
My mom does not like rock music. She does not like rock concerts. Back in the days when I could only go to concerts with adult supervision, my dad went or my friends' parents took us. Mom would never go. My mom also doesn't like driving to unfamiliar places. It is so very strange, even fourteen years later, to admit that my mom has seen Robert Fripp in concert. And she drove me to Allentown for that very purpose.
I was 20 years old and had just become a King Crimson fan in the last year or so. I get this feeling when I just discover a new world of music, I have to do everything, lest I never get another chance. Well, Robert Fripp was doing a soundscape tour, and the closest he was coming to home was an hour and a half away in Allentown. And I had to go. In later years, I'd skip some of his soundscape shows that were local to me. But this was my first opportunity to see one as a fan, and what if I never got another chance? I had to go.
One little problem. I didn't drive.
I called my best friend and concert buddy Angela. She didn't share my love of progressive rock. But, she gone with me to the Yes concert in Allentown the year before, because I needed a way to get there. Not this time. I was a good friend, but not worth having to see Robert Fripp and his soundscapes.
I moved back home for the summer. My relationship with my mother was strained. We had a huge fight about my traveling to New York by myself for a King Crimson concert. That was still fresh in our minds one day when we went out to lunch.
I told my mom about the Fripp show, and how Angela didn't want to go. I said the fateful words, "I guess I'll check the Greyhound schedules."
My mom said the even more fateful words, "I could take you."
She was so scared of me traveling somewhere by myself again that she was willing to put up with a concert. She was serious. She didn't even volunteer my dad to take me. Did I want to put up with her enough to have her along with me at the concert? Yeah, I wanted to go and this was convenient. I gave her the same deal I gave Angela - I paid for the tickets, dinner, any ancillary expenses in return for the transportation. I tried to prepare her, by explaining that we'd be seeing a guy playing guitar by himself with lots of sound effects, rather than a full band.
The concert was held in a college auditorium. Tickets were available through the college, instead of Ticketmaster. I called right when tickets went on sale, and got two seats in the front row, center section. They were the second and third seats off the aisle. We get to the venue with no problem. There is no stage; the musicians played on the same floor as our front row seats ten feet away from us.
The first act was Los Gauchos Alemanes. I never heard of them since, but they were students of Fripp's. They played a short set. Then, Fripp came on and started a soundscape. It's hard to describe what a soundscape is: Fripp plays some notes into his machine, and the machine plays them back as background while Fripp plays something new. Soon, it's many layers of sound, sometimes with a melody, sometimes more abstract. Fripp can either play more notes or play with the sounds that he's already created.
"When's he going to start?" my mom whispered to me.
"He has started"
"This is it?!" loud enough for people sitting nearby to hear (and probably Fripp as well). That was followed by, "If I had paid for this, I'd want my money back."
I'm not imagining how loud she was; there's a review of this show on the old King Crimson e-mail list Elephant Talk that mentions my mom's outburst. That reviewer described it:
An impatient woman sitting a row behind us complained audibly during the first soundscape, "I wouldn't have come if I had known it was going to be like this. I thought you said this guy was a guitarist!"
I thought the show was paced very well. It would be tough to listen to hours on end of soundscapes. During this show, Fripp would play a soundscape, then the California Guitar Trio would come out and play a few songs. This repeated a few times. My mom liked CGT better. I did too. I didn't love the soundscapes, but it was fascinating to watch Fripp play them. I could really observe what was going on.
My favorite part of the show was towards the end. Fripp, Los Gauchos, and CGT all walked up the steps of the auditorium. Standing on the steps, all holding acoustic, unamplified guitars, they started playing. It was King Crimson's Vrooom. The juxtaposition of the powerful studio track and the eight acoustic guitars quietly playing the same melody was jarring. I laughed, as did some other people in the audience. My mom wanted to know what was so funny. I tried to explain that we recognized the song, but it didn't usually sound like this!
The band then walked over to the aisle near our seats. They stood on the steps, starting at the front row, and played Thrak. For their last piece, the stood at the front of the audience again, and played a piece I didn't recognize. We had to stand up to see them playing in the far aisle. One guy was still standing, and Fripp gestured to him to sit down.
One thing odd about this show was the no words were said to the audience for the entire show. I heard Fripp counting the band in and saying a song title to the band, but that's only because I was sitting close enough to hear it. Not just Fripp. CGT and Los Gauchos didn't say anything either. The evening ended on a friendly note. The Los Gauchos guys got our attention and gestured to the audience to follow them. We walked out to the lobby, where they played another piece for us. And that was the end. Good way to clear people out of the theater.
I think I blocked the drive home out of my memory. I know my mom didn't hate the entire concert, but she sure did hate the soundscapes. Really, this wasn't a bad show to go to with a parent. It was in a civilized venue and it wasn't loud. I have to say, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of people meeting my mother and then telling them she's seen Fripp in concert.
California Guitar Trio
Opening Act: Los Gauchos Alemanes
Empie Theater
Muhlenberg College
Allentown, PA
Saturday, September 2, 1995
Section Center, Row A, Seat 113
unknown ticket price
My mom does not like rock music. She does not like rock concerts. Back in the days when I could only go to concerts with adult supervision, my dad went or my friends' parents took us. Mom would never go. My mom also doesn't like driving to unfamiliar places. It is so very strange, even fourteen years later, to admit that my mom has seen Robert Fripp in concert. And she drove me to Allentown for that very purpose.
I was 20 years old and had just become a King Crimson fan in the last year or so. I get this feeling when I just discover a new world of music, I have to do everything, lest I never get another chance. Well, Robert Fripp was doing a soundscape tour, and the closest he was coming to home was an hour and a half away in Allentown. And I had to go. In later years, I'd skip some of his soundscape shows that were local to me. But this was my first opportunity to see one as a fan, and what if I never got another chance? I had to go.
One little problem. I didn't drive.
I called my best friend and concert buddy Angela. She didn't share my love of progressive rock. But, she gone with me to the Yes concert in Allentown the year before, because I needed a way to get there. Not this time. I was a good friend, but not worth having to see Robert Fripp and his soundscapes.
I moved back home for the summer. My relationship with my mother was strained. We had a huge fight about my traveling to New York by myself for a King Crimson concert. That was still fresh in our minds one day when we went out to lunch.
I told my mom about the Fripp show, and how Angela didn't want to go. I said the fateful words, "I guess I'll check the Greyhound schedules."
My mom said the even more fateful words, "I could take you."
She was so scared of me traveling somewhere by myself again that she was willing to put up with a concert. She was serious. She didn't even volunteer my dad to take me. Did I want to put up with her enough to have her along with me at the concert? Yeah, I wanted to go and this was convenient. I gave her the same deal I gave Angela - I paid for the tickets, dinner, any ancillary expenses in return for the transportation. I tried to prepare her, by explaining that we'd be seeing a guy playing guitar by himself with lots of sound effects, rather than a full band.
The concert was held in a college auditorium. Tickets were available through the college, instead of Ticketmaster. I called right when tickets went on sale, and got two seats in the front row, center section. They were the second and third seats off the aisle. We get to the venue with no problem. There is no stage; the musicians played on the same floor as our front row seats ten feet away from us.
The first act was Los Gauchos Alemanes. I never heard of them since, but they were students of Fripp's. They played a short set. Then, Fripp came on and started a soundscape. It's hard to describe what a soundscape is: Fripp plays some notes into his machine, and the machine plays them back as background while Fripp plays something new. Soon, it's many layers of sound, sometimes with a melody, sometimes more abstract. Fripp can either play more notes or play with the sounds that he's already created.
"When's he going to start?" my mom whispered to me.
"He has started"
"This is it?!" loud enough for people sitting nearby to hear (and probably Fripp as well). That was followed by, "If I had paid for this, I'd want my money back."
I'm not imagining how loud she was; there's a review of this show on the old King Crimson e-mail list Elephant Talk that mentions my mom's outburst. That reviewer described it:
An impatient woman sitting a row behind us complained audibly during the first soundscape, "I wouldn't have come if I had known it was going to be like this. I thought you said this guy was a guitarist!"
I thought the show was paced very well. It would be tough to listen to hours on end of soundscapes. During this show, Fripp would play a soundscape, then the California Guitar Trio would come out and play a few songs. This repeated a few times. My mom liked CGT better. I did too. I didn't love the soundscapes, but it was fascinating to watch Fripp play them. I could really observe what was going on.
My favorite part of the show was towards the end. Fripp, Los Gauchos, and CGT all walked up the steps of the auditorium. Standing on the steps, all holding acoustic, unamplified guitars, they started playing. It was King Crimson's Vrooom. The juxtaposition of the powerful studio track and the eight acoustic guitars quietly playing the same melody was jarring. I laughed, as did some other people in the audience. My mom wanted to know what was so funny. I tried to explain that we recognized the song, but it didn't usually sound like this!
The band then walked over to the aisle near our seats. They stood on the steps, starting at the front row, and played Thrak. For their last piece, the stood at the front of the audience again, and played a piece I didn't recognize. We had to stand up to see them playing in the far aisle. One guy was still standing, and Fripp gestured to him to sit down.
One thing odd about this show was the no words were said to the audience for the entire show. I heard Fripp counting the band in and saying a song title to the band, but that's only because I was sitting close enough to hear it. Not just Fripp. CGT and Los Gauchos didn't say anything either. The evening ended on a friendly note. The Los Gauchos guys got our attention and gestured to the audience to follow them. We walked out to the lobby, where they played another piece for us. And that was the end. Good way to clear people out of the theater.
I think I blocked the drive home out of my memory. I know my mom didn't hate the entire concert, but she sure did hate the soundscapes. Really, this wasn't a bad show to go to with a parent. It was in a civilized venue and it wasn't loud. I have to say, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of people meeting my mother and then telling them she's seen Fripp in concert.
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