so soon just after you’ve gone, my senses sharpen
What a weekend. And a couple of days. My voice is pretty much gone. Too much screaming, running around, jumping around, and definitely not enough sleep. But I feel excellent! Be forewarned, this post is LONG. Ok.
Thursday, Sept. 18, Hot Hot Heat: Drive up the coast to Ventura. My cell phone is dead. I thought it was deader than dead and I’d have to get a new one since my car charger was not charging the sucker up. I was a bit stressed. No way to call Bianca who I was meeting at the venue nor a way to call Sue who I was driving to see after the show for a place to crash.
Made it through traffic, beautiful drive up the 1, and get to Ventura much faster than expected. Bianca was first in line. With only about 10 people behind her. We were a little surprised. The show wasn’t even sold out.
We made our way in and got a prime spot up front. Rocked out for the French Kicks who made me fall in love with them. Excellent music and a lot of fun. Hot Hot Heat were up next and we rocked out even more. By the end, the crowd was finally whipped up and enjoying themselves. Lots more fun.
Made it to Thousand Oaks after the show and crashed at Sue’s. Next day did lots of damage to my credit by buying out Macy’s. What sales! Trying to kill me.
Friday, Sept. 19, Duran Duran: More pals came up to Thousand Oaks and we made our way to the Santa Barbara Bowl. The venue was outdoors and sort of small. We had 6th row seats but the stage still felt quite far away for some reason. Even though Simon forgot some lyrics (ok, so he forgot an entire verse of Night Boat!), he sounded great. John Amato surprised us by playing sax for Rio (he used to be play with John Taylor for some of his solo shows years ago). Got more than sentimental a few times when I would turn around and see how the crowd was reacting. There’s always a special vibe in the air when Duran Duran are playing.
Oh, and stupid ticket lady mentioned how she had seen driver’s licenses from New Mexico and Arizona and thought it was unbelievable that people would actually travel here for a show! I was like of course! This is Duran Duran! Hello!?!
Headed back to Sue’s for rest and the next morning struggled out of bed to head south for Inland Invasion.
Saturday, Sept. 20, Inland Invasion: Head to Devore. Which means, middle of nowhere. Actually it’s on the way to Vegas. And well, yeah, it’s in the middle of nowhere. There’s a lot of traffic and we ended up leaving later than we had planned. It was very hot and when we got off the freeway and slowly made our way to park, my car started acting bonkers. It decides it’s had enough and dies! My car is only one year old and the battery died! Hmm… maybe this is why my cell phone wouldn’t charge up in my car?! Put on the hazards and know I’m holding up plenty of people behind me when out of nowhere, 4 firefighters come over in slow motion to save the day. They help push my car to the side of the road and let us borrow a pair of jumper cables. A nice guy pulled over and gave my battery the jump it needed so we could continue on and make it to Inland Invasion. Reminds me, I’ve gotta drop my car off this week to see why my battery decided to die and if I need a new one. We made it in time to see Berlin on the side stage (and hear General Public while we parked)…
It was way too HOT. The venue sucked. So unorganized and not enough room for bathrooms and food places for the amount of people there. I waited over an hour for water! And they wouldn’t let you keep the bottle and poured it into cups instead. Ridiculous. But we had orchestra seats and didn’t have to deal with the lawn like some of my friends where it was even worse apparently. The whole day made us all appreciate Coachella as the stellar organized event that it is.
Berlin were amazing. They should have played the main stage. When I grow up I want to be Teri Nunn please. Girls, boys, gay, straight, animals… we were all drooling for this hot lady.
Eddie didn’t have a ticket but of course on the way in a sweet fellow had an extra and sold it to him for cheap. It ended up being a 3rd row seat behind the pit! Sue and I ended up sitting in two empty seats in front of Eddie and no one claimed them for the rest of the day! What luck that two seats in the second row would be unclaimed!?
Interpol and Psychedelic Furs were excellent. For the 3rd time, Echo (no wait, Ego) and the Bunnymen put me to sleep. I love their music, I really do… but boy, they put on a swell show… to go to sleep to. Hot Hot Heat were a great opener for Duran Duran. Eddie and I were warmed up from rocking out so hard. You could tell they were a bit nervous when they first came out on stage. Who wouldn’t be? Over 50,000 people. Huge venue. Lights shining on you. Their set was a bit short but definitely sweet and hopefully they made some new fans out there.
We were in a great spot for Duran because everyone around us was singing along and dancing including Richard Blade. People were climbing into the pit, security lost all control, no one was in their seats and seeing all those lighters throughout the crowd during Ordinary World was quite touching. During Careless Memories when a great video montage was playing on the big screens, Simon’s mike decides to short out on him. Crapper. John Amato’s sax mic also wasn’t turned on when he first started the Rio solo. Crapper. But overall, it was a great set. The Cure came on after. By then I was so tired I could barely move. I danced when I could muster the energy and got super emotional during Pictures of You and Fascination Street. There’s a line in that former song that gets me every time: “And let’s move to the beat like we know that it’s over!” For me, it’s like live, dance, breath, because we are all dead. We are all going to end one day so live in the moment. And I was feeling it that night.
During the encore, afraid The Cure would end up playing until 4am, we headed out. We had an early flight in the morning. Only got about 3 hours of sleep and before I knew it, we were on a plane headed to Oakland.
Sunday, Sept. 21, Now & Zen Festival: Hopped on the Bart, headed into the city, found our rad hotel, grabbed a cab to Golden Gate Park and arrived just as Maroon 5 were finishing their set. Of course, we had to come on a day when it was the hottest it’s been in San Francisco in 10 years. We were not prepared for how hot it would be… Made our way to a prime spot up front and endured Liz Phair. Now, I think Liz has some good songs but I’m not a fan and she’s much better on CD. Live, she’s cute and all, but she’s got no voice. It’s embarrassing. After Liz, they did a mini tribute to Johnny Cash that was quite sweet. Then Seal came on. I was super impressed. He has great charisma on stage, sounded wonderful, and played some stellar songs. I surprised myself by knowing so many of them. Lots of diehard Seal fans had made their way up front and were singing along and were in heaven each time he would pick a person in the audience to serenade. The man knows how to work it.
Then came Duran with Sandra Bernhard introducing them. This was easily the best show of the tour for me. EVERYONE was singing, dancing, screaming, and having fun… I think Roger is scared of me and the amount of times I waved and got his attention. He did wave back and smile many times though. LOVE that man. Everyone was singing along to every single song including the new ones. It was INSANE how wild the crowd got during Careless Memories, Wild Boys, White Lines and Girls on Film. It was also a nice change to see the boys in the daylight as the sun was lowering. Great capper to a long, crazy, exhausting, yet entirely fun weekend.
Afterwards, ate at Fisherman’s Wharf, took the trolley and the muni, enjoyed Union Square shopping, limped around, slept, took the BART back to Oakland, flew home, crashed… and survived with a smile on my face.
Pictures forthcoming. Whew.
x-posted from boltofblue.net