I know this is almost a week old now, but I didn't have access to a computer until now. I took a trip to Boise to visit some family and friends and, gee, my trip was timed perfectly to see the Mac again in Boise. Purely coincidental.
I went with my friend Lisa up there and got 4th row seats on Lindsey's side, which were fabulous. Closest I've ever been. The only thing was that it was harder to see Stevie sometimes because of the combination of her being short and there being a tall guy in front of us. Ali, we must have been right next to you because I read your review and remember seeing the same things you saw in our section (the two really sloshy drunk ladies, security Nazis) and I saw you get Lindsey's towel. Your reaction and his reaction to your reaction were great!
Even though the security was tight, they did let us move up to the front finally for about the last 4 songs. My friend had gone to a concert earlier in the tour on the East coast. She'd taken her 4-year-old daughter then. Her daughter has been indoctrinated in the Mac and is a huge Lindsey fan and she had worn a shirt that had "LINDSEY" in glitter across the front. They had nosebleed seats then, but Lisa had taken a picture of her in that shirt to commemorate the experience. She took that picture to our concert in Boise and was on a mission to get it signed. After Go Your Own Way, when Lindsey bent down to sign a few things, Lisa got her picture up there. She told Lindsey it was her daughter and he looked at it, smiled and said "Awwww" as he signed it. He was careful, I might add, to sign it on the side so that he wasn't writing all over the cute little girl. Big brownie points to Lindsey, especially in the eyes of the 4-year-old once Lisa got home and showed her the picture.
Of course Lisa earned mucho brownie points from her too!
Lindsey signed Lisa's picture just before signing Ali's sign. Ali's definitely got good Mac karma! I also saw Lindsey see her sign and look a little surprised and then smile at her. Aww.
The security was the most anal of the shows I've seen, but the sound quality in the arena was the best of the shows I've seen. Never Going Back Again was delicious. I really love it on this tour. Stevie got an especially huge ovation during Landslide and was all smiles. Come and I'm So Afraid - oh yeah. Really intense, which I just so completely dig, especially since Come in particular shocks a lot of the people there who don't know what they're hearing. He plays it like life depends on it. Some people will still leave the show thinking, "Ewww, that song!" But a lot of people are won over through his sheer passion for playing it. Right at the end of Say Goodbye, which seemed especially good that night, as Lindsey paused before singing the final line, there were a couple of great big woops from the audience. Lindsey and Stevie both broke from the earnest looks they had on their faces and kind of glanced to the crowd and broke into smiles. Stand Back which had sounded muddy at the other three shows I'd seen sounded good that night too. I don't know, maybe its the afterglow, but everything seemed especially good that night.
At the other shows I'd seen, Lindsey had not taken his guitar off completely at the end of Tusk to stalk Stevie around the stage, so he hadn't engaged in the full version of his spazzy "dancing," if you want to call it that.
That night was the full version, I guess. Hehe. There was some marching, hopping, even some skipping thrown in there. Really, you haven't lived until you see a 53-year-old man skip. Must be his kids' influence.
When he was still slowly making his way over to her with the guitar still on, she was watching him so intently at one point trying to figure out what he was going to do that she was banging her tambourine completely out of beat with the song. Hehe. I glanced at Mick who was laughing. Speaking of Mick, he made some especially lascivious faces at Stevie as she exited the stage just before Lindsey's solo on So Afraid. She was all business though as she exited and I don't think she saw him. Hehe.
When they came out for their final encore, Mick was hopping around for John's benefit, making faces at him. John, in an entirely friendly way, laughed and shook his head and waved his hand at Mick, like "WTF, get out of my face." It was pretty funny.
When you're that close, it's fun to see how much Lindsey really is constantly scanning the crowd acknowledging people. It's not just the girls who tend to get up front the most either. There was a great big bald man (who looked a lot like some of the intimidating security guys) dead-center about five rows back who was constantly rising to his feet for Lindsey and Lindsey pointed to and nodded to him several times, which seemed to really tickle him.
Last little funny note - Just before signing Lisa's picture, a lady squeezed in front of her and asked Lindsey if she could have his guitar pick. For obvious reasons, he raised his empty hands and smiled and shrugged and said "Sorry."
