A Tale of 3 Cities: Bridgeport

[Regina]

Confessions of a Middle Aged Groupie
Confession #1--I'm a sap.
If sugar bothers you, skip this review. I will get maudlin toward the end for sure. It's a given even though I haven't even written it yet.
Confession #2--
I don't want to sleep with any of the band members. Don't want to have their love children or share a sexually transmitted disease. I just wanted to be in the same "room" as they were and hear live what I've heard so many, many times before on tapes, DVDs, CDs, WXYZs.

So, anyway--when the second leg was announced, I planned this little five day weekend of Fleetwood Mac. I had not seen them since the two concerts I saw in middle-May (screwed up literary reference for Farrah's benefit) and was completely and totally excited. I also was excited because maybe a week before these concerts, we twisted Tracy's arm and had her flying up here to share in the fun. So, I was having a traveling buddy for Bridgeport and Philly and I was very, very happy about that. And how did we twist her arm, you may very well ask? Front row tickets. Our friend Silver Girl got us the front row seats for Bridgeport and I went on the net one day and found front row for Philly. Yee-ha! We were on our way.

Except front row as a concept was driving me nuts. It was SO intimidating to me. I'm the kind of person who takes happiness/excitement in small doses and this seemed beyond anything I could imagine in the way of FM fandom. So, I promptly woke up Saturday morning feeling completely ill. Before going downtown to meet Tracy and begin our adventure, I was swallowing Maalox and running to the facilities every two seconds and there were whole periods of time during the day when I was just zoning out in my own little world.

Anyway, I met Tracy in Manhattan and we promptly crossed the street to Grand Central Station and got on the very hot Metro North train (it was extremely humid that day)--thus bringing Tracy's total time in New York to probably just slightly over 24 hours (and that included her trip in May). Her total stay this time was probably a half hour before we were on our way to CT. (You should all put this on your Travels With Tracy chart.)

I pointed out the sites of NY as we traveled, only to realize we hit CT at some point and my useless sense of both direction and time/space placement had kicked in. I was having a great time on the train. We were yacking away about some of the TWT (Travels With Tracy--pay attention!) I had not been involved with and then--boom, we were in Bridgeport.

Not a great little town but a hell of a lot better than I expected, to tell you the truth. There are places in my humble home town that are a lot worse.

So, we checked in the hotel (and we had rooms next door to each other even though we signed in with different people--how karmic is that?), grabbed something to eat and spotted Torri (well, Tracy did) going down the street. She saw us and came into the Subway shop we were in (fine dining) and we sat and talked for about 20 minutes or so. Now, I'm going to stop this non-review for a moment to say that during the first leg of the tour, I saw Torri, but very briefly, and it was so good to see her again and get to chat a bit. She's such a nice woman (as I'm sure any of you who've met her know) and she's one of the people that helped me turn a mini-obsession into a full-fledged almost pathological OBSESSION. And I think that's pretty neat;-) Anyway, I'm glad I got to catch up with her again.

We'll skip right over the guy who tried to scam some money from us, the quest for the perfect sandal, and the search for the summer slip and go right to the venue. We met up with Torri, Silver Girl and a gentleman we'll just refer to as C, since I don't know if he wants his real name out there on this here internet. It was much cooler than it had been before and we stood there with our ticket in hand, outside of the arena and I don't know... It just felt great. The adventure was just starting again for me. Scary, but great.

We got inside. I went to the bathroom a few more times and then we decided to stake out our spot by the stage. Now, it was early. VERY early. I think maybe it was just about 7 PM? I chose a spot by the little teleprompters just to the right of Stevie. Her microphone--had I been tall enough--was practically within touching distance. We stood there for maybe 45 minutes and then security made us all sit down so they could check that everyone who was up there actually had a front row seat. So, we sat and I struck up a conversation with a girl named Samantha, who had been talking to the security guards and they told us first that it was okay to go back to the stage. I hightailed it right back to where I had been and sort of grasped the stage with one hand and I don't think I let go all night.

I know, I know--I'll fast forward now.
Oh, hell, no I won't. I was now calm for the first time that night. Excited, but calm. I have no idea why. Our feet were beginning to freeze since we could feel the ice through the boards placed on the hockey rink but that soon was to go away because the lights dimmed and the crickets began their cricking and we were on our way.

Stevie and Lindsey come out and they start the Chain and they are right--I MEAN RIGHT-there. I can see that Stevie's dress has a layer of fishnet in the folds of her skirt that really look fairly ratty up close and personal but look pretty good from a distance. I can see that she's wearing leggings with little fishnet socks (stockings?) under her hideous reeboks. I can see the dangling earrings and the true wonder of the wonderbra when she whips out her Rhiannon cleavage (a very impressive sight) and I can see what an incredibly lovely woman she is--which is one of the reasons she's my role model and idol. Because she isn't giving into age, but sort of taking age and working it to her advantage. Those of us who are "getting older, too" can really appreciate that.

I had not seen Lindsey in blue jeans in my previous two concerts. The white shirt I had seen. I think he wore the tee shirt for one concert and the white shirt for another. Anyway, the main thing that I noticed that I had not before was the white gold wedding band. I had thought it was yellow. Oh, and I got to see the gray chest hair up close and personal.

I'm just going to give you random things I remember from that show because you all know the set list and I can't remember half of what Tracy will remember so...
I loved the changes since May. I was one of those folks who loved the tour from the git-go but there was a difference. These three shows were all a lot more playful and they were out there having a blast. There were generally more smiles, more comaraderie and a different sort of feeling in the air.

Say You Will--I couldn't figure out why Lindsey was smiling at Stevie so much in that midsection where she walks over to him. I thought they were carrying on some sort of conversation (her back was now a little towards me so I couldn't see what she was doing) but I found out at MSG (which you have to wait for till later). I loved that everyone was at least attempting to do the SYW dance (except me since one hand was crazy glued to the stage at all times and the other was holding my illegal camera).

Come and I'm So Afraid--YIKES and double YIKES. I was standing under the teleprompter, right? So, when he did his solos, he came right up to the teleprompter and he is standing right above me. I'm looking up the whole time and basically what is at eye-level is his guitar (which just happens to be over his crotch). So--being the good American citizen that I am--I checked for visible panty lines. I could find none. Of course, there was no overt...um, protuberances for lack of a better term (not in Bridgeport, anyway--Philly was another story) so, he probably had something on but it was a fascinating study and I did it all for the sake of science and Farrah. Then, I decided it was insulting to Lindsey not to watch his fine finger picking and did that, wondering how he kept his nails from shredding (I have surprisingly deep thoughts like that).

Now here comes another confession (I'm not good with numbers so you'll have to keep count yourself). I love Lindsey but not in the dripping all over the floor, walk-on-me-baby kind of way (WHAT? Honestly, I can't control the nonsense that comes from my fingers when I type these things). However, the man has "something." He's got great stage presence and he's damned cute. He just is. I think I said (at least to myself) several times--"he's so cute." And he is. And that smile with his nose all crinkled up--very sexy and adorable and all that good stuff rolled into one. And to bring this back to music again--when he does those guitar solos, you swear it's the most sexy instrument ever invented and (from first row) the music goes right through you. I mean, you feel it in your corpuscles.

OK--back to business.
Other highlights for me--the Tusk boxing match/slow dance. I LOVE that. I love it so much more than the pushing business at the beginning of the tour when you were afraid he'd knock Stevie over. And I do think they have a great time with their history and their little "2 1/2 hour love affair" that Stevie talked about in a recent article. It's fun to see them having fun up there.

World Turning--I'm sorry, I was cracking up during the whole thing. When Mick comes out, he's downright scary with the spit thing. Is that a medical condition or what? If I WANT to spit, I can't come up with that much saliva. Yeesh. I was standing there laughing and every time he so much as turned his head in my direction, I wanted to cover my face for protection. I seriously would have lost my cookies if he spit on me. And then the guy with the FGS (Tracy will tell you what that is)...too funny.

Tracy had a bit of trouble with her camera and the security guard. I guess she just looks more like a criminal than I do ;-) So, she handed it to me and I was snapping some pictures. Well, I do think Lindsey saw me and he was smiling for me but every time I snapped the shutter, he had stopped. I was like one millisecond behind what he was doing. So, he tried again and I still think I screwed up. Geez. And there are moments during the show when you are pretty sure they are looking at you but I always assume it's someone else. I know for a fact that Stevie gave me about three quick glances where we made eye contact and there were probably a few more with Lindsey. It was great fun.

I'm going to conclude this section of the review with Say Goodbye because, if not, I will ramble for hours and I have two more concerts to cover. After seeing FM in concert in May--I would wake up some mornings with this song--played live--echoing in my mind. Whenever I thought of going to these concerts, I thought of this song. Frankly, if they had asked me to shell out the $149.50 (plus ticketmaster charges, of course) JUST for this one song--I would have done it. But, the two concerts I went to before always had interruptions during this song. To refresh your memory--in Atlantic City, some woman in front of me had taken off her shoes and kicked it back toward me and wanted me to go fishing for it on the floor during this song and in Philadelphia--it seemed everyone in my whole freaking row went on a beer run during this time.

Well, I was right by the stage (with my hand gripping tight) and no one was getting in front of me for beer, I wasn't looking for anyone's shoe and nothing was standing in my way. And there they were--a few feet away singing this glorious song and the audience was SO good that there was very little interruption. It was a little moment of heaven right there that I will never forget.

And before I forget, I would very much like to thank Silver Girl for looking out for us during this tour. She got us second row in Philly (first leg of the tour) after knowing us less than 24 hours and she was like a guardian angel during this leg of the tour--constantly checking on tickets and helping us get cheaper hotels, etc. And she's a damned nice person. So a big smush and a hug to her and I look forward to the third leg of the tour (how many legs does this thing have?) when we can do it all again.

Bridgeport was my favorite concert of my five concert tour.
Why? Because for all my nerves, I was 100% in the concert zone. I was just paying attention to what was going on on-stage and enjoying every single second of it. Nothing got in the way. It's almost like a dream show for me because I was ready for it and it delivered everything I wanted.

OK--for those of you still alive out there--I'll post Philly as soon as I write it.

[mark25s]

hi
im new on these forum... i was at the bridgport show (my first fleetwood concert) and it was absolutly amazing
great review.. i was 6th row but front row would have been awesome. i was wondering if anyone knows where i can find pictures from the show?

matt