You spilled your drink, but you didn't mean to.
Well, it's Monday night, and as I promised, this is my complete, very extensive Sean Lennon concert report. Brace yourselves.
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We got to the port at 8:30 and parked right in front of the Hangar. Then we bought some food since we were both starving. We ate quickly, and after a thorough security check (they made me leave my water bottle in the car!) we went inside. There was still an hour to the show, so we just sat on the floor next to the stage with all the rest of the people who were already there. I met a guy I was in the army with which was pretty cool. He actually reminded me that I was the one who gave him Sean's album and that he's loved his music ever since. I was so proud. GO ME. =)
As we were sitting there, I kept looking around and checking how many people are coming in. I knew the concert wasn't sold out and since it's a big venue, I was scared there won't be enough people to fill the space and that we would be a pathetic audience. I kept telling Dar "I don't want him to be offended. I want him to know he's loved." I'm not sure how many people were there in the end (I was in the front and I wasn't looking back!), but even if we filled only half of the space, we sure made a hell of a lot of noise. =)
To our surprise, Rona Keinan, the supporting act, came on very much on time, just a few minutes after ten. She played for about 30 minutes and was actually pretty good. And her drummer was the drummer from Magical Mystery Tour LOL. I used that time to check the camera and see how pictures come out. I found out that the lighting there wasn't suitable for taking pictures, which totally sucked. Later that night I learned that different colors of light produce different qualities of the picture, but even at what was the "best", they still came out pretty lame.
Back to the story - Rona finished her act and said goodbye with the words "Enjoy Sean Lennon". The whole crowd went wild and we were totally expecting him to come on every second. But he didn't. Oh no. The roadies came on instead and started moving equipment around, and checking all the instruments and microphones. Pink Floyd was playing in the background. Dar and I both agreed that they tricked us by starting the opening act on time, and that they never meant to start this early. I said "I see it all now, it's a plot. A plot!" Dar didn't get the Beatles reference, but I was quite pleased with myself. After 25 minutes that felt more like two hours the music stopped abruptly which of course meant the show was about to start. Everyone cheered and clapped, and then he came on. Dressed ever so fashionably with jeans, a tie, a jacket and a hat, Sean Lennon was standing about 6 meters away from me. He looked so adorable with his beard and glasses and all. =) Dar said he went for the Jeff Lynne look. I could only agree.
First song played was Spectacle. I saw him perform on Conan and in various videos on YouTube, but hearing him live is different. His voice is just so... pure. And flawless. When he got to the second verse he started singing the first verse again. I don't know how many people in the crowd noticed, but it was kinda cute when he realized he made a mistake. After Spectacle he said hello and thanked us all for coming. He said that it really means a lot to him being in Israel, and that it's one of the prettiest countries he's been to during this tour. We responded by screaming (Dar said "I bet he says that to everyone"). He then went on to play Wait For Me. The best thing about him was that every time the crowd started clapping and cheering, he had a HUGE smile on his face. You could see that he was really enjoying it.
Wait For Me
Dead Meat followed by Parachute were especially loved by the audience, as they were both played non stop on the radio over the past few weeks.
Dead Meat (the person who took this video was probably standing right in front of me)
Parachute
After Parachute Sean said he's going to try something and play something completely new that he wrote just before he went on tour.
"I was in a hotel room, sad and alone." crowd: Awwww...
He said we were the first people to hear the song (not sure that wasn't a lie). I think it was called Smoke And Mirrors. And it was pretty damn good.
At this point Sean switched to his electric guitar and started explaining to us how that's the "fun guitar" LOL. He turned to his guitarist and said "He wouldn’t even come here if he had to play acoustic! But he lets me play my Rock 'N Roll guitar as well." It was time for Friendly Fire. After that he continued into an instrumental piece, which he later explained was from the DVD's credits. "And it’s instrumental... obviously."
His solo in Falling Out Of Love was especially good.
When the song was over he put down his guitar and was reaching for the acoustic, but then changed his mind. He came up to the mic and started talking about how he didn't want the show to end, and he asked the crowd for a cigarette. Someone who was right in front of the stage handed him his cigarette. He said it was a big show for them because it's their 50th show together and also the last one before going back to the US. He talked about how they were in Jerusalem in the morning and that it was so weird to be in such a place and then come back to Tel Aviv for the sound check. He said we are a great audience and that we should all go drinking together after the show. "I do have to catch a plane to New York in the morning... (crowd: awwww)... Yeah I know, but I have my mom and my dogs there."
Have I mentioned this guy is adorable??
He finally picked up his acoustic guitar and played On Again, Off Again. Headlights, which is my personal favorite from the album (and I can totally play it on my guitar), followed and everyone in the audience clapped with the beat. It was great. =)
Headlights
Would I Be The One was the closing song and had yet another wonderful solo from our Mr. Lennon. He thanked us and got off stage.
Part of the solo from Would I Be The One
We cheered, clapped, shouted and every other thing you're supposed to do to get an encore. After about 2 minutes he came back.
Now, before I continue the story I have to tell you that in Israel there's a phrase תעשה לי ילד (Ta'ase li yeled) which basically means "have a child with me". It's kind of a joke when girls scream it to their favorite actors/musicians/celebrities. Anyway, Sean gets on stage alone, and it's pretty obvious he's going to sing Tomorrow. Two girls in the front shout "Do Tomorrow!" and then this girl to my left shouts "Do me a baby!" The whole crowd was laughing in disbelief, and I was hoping he didn't hear it. If he did, he sure did a good job ignoring it.
So he sang Tomorrow which was absolutely beautiful.
Tomorrow (I can’t embed this one)
The rest of the band came back on stage and Sean started saying "Some of you may be too young to remember the next song..." so everyone’s minds jumped to "Beatles?" Even I, who knew for a fact that he's about to sing Mystery Juice, a song from his first album, thought at the back of my mind maybe. And then there was a split second of silence, and someone in the crowd yelled "YESTERDAY!!" The whole audience was like OMGWTFPOLARBEAR?!?!? But Sean went along with it. He laughed and STARTED SINGING. "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away... *crazy laughter and clapping from the audience*... My father didn't even sing this song! *laughter laughter* My father didn't even like this song! Nah... it's a good song."
LOLOLOLOLOL It was the BEST EVER.
Then he carried on explaining a little about his first album 'Into The Sun'. "Back when I was weird... (someone next to stage says something to him) *laughter* oh I'm still weird."
And so he sang Mystery Juice and the show was really over. Sean thanked us once agian and promised to come back to Tel aviv. I turned around to see Run (the guy from the army) who was actually standing right behind me the entire time. He was all "Tal, it was so good!", and I was all "I KNOW!!!", and we squeed together (yes, crystal_lily, he squeed like a little fangirl).
I'm not quite sure where this fits in with the concert but at some point Sean was talking about his guitarist and he said "this guy studied languages at Yale, so everywhere we went, he knew all of the Latin languages. But we come to Israel and he doesn't know shit." The guitarist mumbled something I couldn’t hear and then Sean said "shut up, I know more Hebrew than you do, Shabbat Shalom!!"
SEAN FTW.
Like I said, what I loved about him was that he showed how much he was enjoying himself. He also did this thing sometimes, where he was so into the music, that he would tilt his head to the side and close his eyes. It was the cutest ever.
After the show Dar and I just sat in the car going over the pictures I took. The very same pictures you’re about to look at...
The empty stage before the show.
As you can see most of the pictures look like this. But you can kinda see him there.
This could easily be Jeff Lynne. =)
"You guys are fucking great!"
Rock 'N Roll guitar!
With the cigarette. =)
On the floor...
Taking a bow.
Coming back on stage. "Lechayim!!" (that's Hebrew for cheers)
Tomorrow
My dad's friend works at a camera shop and said that if I was standing a little bit closer my pictures would have turned out really good. :/ Maybe more like these pics from YNet:
All the way home we couldn't stop smiling and talking about how amazing it was, and how lovely Sean is. It really was one of the best experiences of my life and I'm so extremely happy that I got to go. I feel kinda weird now, because it's all I've been thinking about for a month and now it's over. But I'll get over it. And I'll always have my awful, blurry, dark pictures to remind me of the wonderful experience. =)
---------------------------------------------
We got to the port at 8:30 and parked right in front of the Hangar. Then we bought some food since we were both starving. We ate quickly, and after a thorough security check (they made me leave my water bottle in the car!) we went inside. There was still an hour to the show, so we just sat on the floor next to the stage with all the rest of the people who were already there. I met a guy I was in the army with which was pretty cool. He actually reminded me that I was the one who gave him Sean's album and that he's loved his music ever since. I was so proud. GO ME. =)
As we were sitting there, I kept looking around and checking how many people are coming in. I knew the concert wasn't sold out and since it's a big venue, I was scared there won't be enough people to fill the space and that we would be a pathetic audience. I kept telling Dar "I don't want him to be offended. I want him to know he's loved." I'm not sure how many people were there in the end (I was in the front and I wasn't looking back!), but even if we filled only half of the space, we sure made a hell of a lot of noise. =)
To our surprise, Rona Keinan, the supporting act, came on very much on time, just a few minutes after ten. She played for about 30 minutes and was actually pretty good. And her drummer was the drummer from Magical Mystery Tour LOL. I used that time to check the camera and see how pictures come out. I found out that the lighting there wasn't suitable for taking pictures, which totally sucked. Later that night I learned that different colors of light produce different qualities of the picture, but even at what was the "best", they still came out pretty lame.
Back to the story - Rona finished her act and said goodbye with the words "Enjoy Sean Lennon". The whole crowd went wild and we were totally expecting him to come on every second. But he didn't. Oh no. The roadies came on instead and started moving equipment around, and checking all the instruments and microphones. Pink Floyd was playing in the background. Dar and I both agreed that they tricked us by starting the opening act on time, and that they never meant to start this early. I said "I see it all now, it's a plot. A plot!" Dar didn't get the Beatles reference, but I was quite pleased with myself. After 25 minutes that felt more like two hours the music stopped abruptly which of course meant the show was about to start. Everyone cheered and clapped, and then he came on. Dressed ever so fashionably with jeans, a tie, a jacket and a hat, Sean Lennon was standing about 6 meters away from me. He looked so adorable with his beard and glasses and all. =) Dar said he went for the Jeff Lynne look. I could only agree.
First song played was Spectacle. I saw him perform on Conan and in various videos on YouTube, but hearing him live is different. His voice is just so... pure. And flawless. When he got to the second verse he started singing the first verse again. I don't know how many people in the crowd noticed, but it was kinda cute when he realized he made a mistake. After Spectacle he said hello and thanked us all for coming. He said that it really means a lot to him being in Israel, and that it's one of the prettiest countries he's been to during this tour. We responded by screaming (Dar said "I bet he says that to everyone"). He then went on to play Wait For Me. The best thing about him was that every time the crowd started clapping and cheering, he had a HUGE smile on his face. You could see that he was really enjoying it.
Wait For Me
Dead Meat followed by Parachute were especially loved by the audience, as they were both played non stop on the radio over the past few weeks.
Dead Meat (the person who took this video was probably standing right in front of me)
Parachute
After Parachute Sean said he's going to try something and play something completely new that he wrote just before he went on tour.
"I was in a hotel room, sad and alone." crowd: Awwww...
He said we were the first people to hear the song (not sure that wasn't a lie). I think it was called Smoke And Mirrors. And it was pretty damn good.
At this point Sean switched to his electric guitar and started explaining to us how that's the "fun guitar" LOL. He turned to his guitarist and said "He wouldn’t even come here if he had to play acoustic! But he lets me play my Rock 'N Roll guitar as well." It was time for Friendly Fire. After that he continued into an instrumental piece, which he later explained was from the DVD's credits. "And it’s instrumental... obviously."
His solo in Falling Out Of Love was especially good.
When the song was over he put down his guitar and was reaching for the acoustic, but then changed his mind. He came up to the mic and started talking about how he didn't want the show to end, and he asked the crowd for a cigarette. Someone who was right in front of the stage handed him his cigarette. He said it was a big show for them because it's their 50th show together and also the last one before going back to the US. He talked about how they were in Jerusalem in the morning and that it was so weird to be in such a place and then come back to Tel Aviv for the sound check. He said we are a great audience and that we should all go drinking together after the show. "I do have to catch a plane to New York in the morning... (crowd: awwww)... Yeah I know, but I have my mom and my dogs there."
Have I mentioned this guy is adorable??
He finally picked up his acoustic guitar and played On Again, Off Again. Headlights, which is my personal favorite from the album (and I can totally play it on my guitar), followed and everyone in the audience clapped with the beat. It was great. =)
Headlights
Would I Be The One was the closing song and had yet another wonderful solo from our Mr. Lennon. He thanked us and got off stage.
Part of the solo from Would I Be The One
We cheered, clapped, shouted and every other thing you're supposed to do to get an encore. After about 2 minutes he came back.
Now, before I continue the story I have to tell you that in Israel there's a phrase תעשה לי ילד (Ta'ase li yeled) which basically means "have a child with me". It's kind of a joke when girls scream it to their favorite actors/musicians/celebrities. Anyway, Sean gets on stage alone, and it's pretty obvious he's going to sing Tomorrow. Two girls in the front shout "Do Tomorrow!" and then this girl to my left shouts "Do me a baby!" The whole crowd was laughing in disbelief, and I was hoping he didn't hear it. If he did, he sure did a good job ignoring it.
So he sang Tomorrow which was absolutely beautiful.
Tomorrow (I can’t embed this one)
The rest of the band came back on stage and Sean started saying "Some of you may be too young to remember the next song..." so everyone’s minds jumped to "Beatles?" Even I, who knew for a fact that he's about to sing Mystery Juice, a song from his first album, thought at the back of my mind maybe. And then there was a split second of silence, and someone in the crowd yelled "YESTERDAY!!" The whole audience was like OMGWTFPOLARBEAR?!?!? But Sean went along with it. He laughed and STARTED SINGING. "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away... *crazy laughter and clapping from the audience*... My father didn't even sing this song! *laughter laughter* My father didn't even like this song! Nah... it's a good song."
LOLOLOLOLOL It was the BEST EVER.
Then he carried on explaining a little about his first album 'Into The Sun'. "Back when I was weird... (someone next to stage says something to him) *laughter* oh I'm still weird."
And so he sang Mystery Juice and the show was really over. Sean thanked us once agian and promised to come back to Tel aviv. I turned around to see Run (the guy from the army) who was actually standing right behind me the entire time. He was all "Tal, it was so good!", and I was all "I KNOW!!!", and we squeed together (yes, crystal_lily, he squeed like a little fangirl).
I'm not quite sure where this fits in with the concert but at some point Sean was talking about his guitarist and he said "this guy studied languages at Yale, so everywhere we went, he knew all of the Latin languages. But we come to Israel and he doesn't know shit." The guitarist mumbled something I couldn’t hear and then Sean said "shut up, I know more Hebrew than you do, Shabbat Shalom!!"
SEAN FTW.
Like I said, what I loved about him was that he showed how much he was enjoying himself. He also did this thing sometimes, where he was so into the music, that he would tilt his head to the side and close his eyes. It was the cutest ever.
After the show Dar and I just sat in the car going over the pictures I took. The very same pictures you’re about to look at...
The empty stage before the show.
As you can see most of the pictures look like this. But you can kinda see him there.
This could easily be Jeff Lynne. =)
"You guys are fucking great!"
Rock 'N Roll guitar!
With the cigarette. =)
On the floor...
Taking a bow.
Coming back on stage. "Lechayim!!" (that's Hebrew for cheers)
Tomorrow
My dad's friend works at a camera shop and said that if I was standing a little bit closer my pictures would have turned out really good. :/ Maybe more like these pics from YNet:
All the way home we couldn't stop smiling and talking about how amazing it was, and how lovely Sean is. It really was one of the best experiences of my life and I'm so extremely happy that I got to go. I feel kinda weird now, because it's all I've been thinking about for a month and now it's over. But I'll get over it. And I'll always have my awful, blurry, dark pictures to remind me of the wonderful experience. =)