"REAL SAVAGE-LIKE!": Clark Co/Ridgefield show!!!

[EveryHour]

Please forgive me if anything is incoherant...I'm on 5 hours' sleep.

I won't ramble as much as I did with the Seattle show, but there were some more great moments last night in Clark Co, WA!!!

{AliP~Sorry we didn't make it past "Hi"...did you get to your seat at the last minute? We looked for you before the show, but couldn't seem to spot you. What did your shirt say? Congrats on being the "Come girl"...I didn't even bother trying with you right next to me! lol That was your Mom with you, right? Has her "fandom" increased since last year? I remember you saying last year that she called GDW something really funny because she didn't know better. I felt kinda bad when she would talk to me because my breath was reakin' from dehydration and screaming. Hope you made it home safely.}

First of all, a note to everyone: if your seats suck, a great strategy is to confidently walk up to the front row and find empty seats to sit in. If somebody comes and the seats belong to them, just say, "Oops, sorry!", act like you're checking the seat numbers and scoot down a couple seats. Granted, it was a little difficult to act relaxed since I had never done it before (okay, my boyfriend and I both felt like we were going to puke until the band came out and we were "safe"), but overall it was easy and (obviously) worth it! With 6th row tickets on LB's side, I had been telling myself that if I didn't make it up front this time, I still had decent seats. Well! This amp is SO rediculously wide, with the side sections not being properly angled towards the center to accomadate for it, I didn't know if I should scream or cry when we found our seats. All should be forewarned of this if going to this venue.

As far as I could tell, this audience was really good...I could literally feel the venue vibrating from people singing along to GYOW, and the new songs always seem to go over quite well to me...especially SG. My boyfriend said, "I never realized Lindsey was such a ham", during his "fever antics" at the very beginning of Come. LB's guitar work was "holy ****" as usual...I felt like the beginning of his ISA solo was different than I had heard before. Mick and John just tear this one up too, don't they?! (The 2nd drummer~sorry, can't remember his name at the moment~is not onstage for this one.) Red Rover was superb.

If you read my Seattle show notes, you know I was having trouble even grasping that I was seeing Sara...well, it must've hit me this time because, to my own surprise, the tears came streaming down. Emotional aspects aside, it sounds SO good! Maybe Stevie was finally comfortable playing it since they have the expanded band to fill the sound out to what she envisioned. What I thought was her incredible "new" ending to GDW in Seattle was apparently specific to that show...more than glad I got to see it! Stevie was vocally on fire last night. Her voice was crystal clear and perfect on the slower numbers and she tore up Rhiannon, GDW and Stand Back! She also held this huge note for a really long time at the end of (I think) Don't Stop. She did not wear the red shawl for GB tonight...it was a beautiful white one I had never seen before (not the same as the ISA one), with what looked like little mirrored cut-outs all over it. I noticed that she has two different pairs of boots, too. The Sara ones are higher platform and more in her traditional chunky style, and the ones at the end are lower and more spikey. I'll admit...it's exciting to see the return of the legwarmers! (Why do I feel like that should be capitalized?!: The Return Of The Legwarmers )Though I love the smooth, suede boots she has favored in the recent past, too.

Well, I have now traded in the Seattle show for this one as my best Mac experience ever! It will be very sad for me if they do never tour again, but if so I couldn't have asked for a better way to go out! I had never before made concert signs, but I decided to go for it. I made one that said "We *heart* Johnny Mac!", which John acknowledged before The Chain even started. I felt a little bad, though, because he said, "It's always the two" and pointed back and forth between himself and Mick. I indeed had a sign for Mick that I was going to put up during his drum solo, but I wasn't able to (more later).

I got my Guitar Player mag signed by LB, which was quite lucky because he only did about 4 or 5 this time. He was having trouble reaching people and also had to go. (I think they have to get the heck outta there when the venue is an amp because the traffic is always so bad leaving the parking lots.) He kindly climbed down on his hands and knees to reach some people's hands, though, and also profusely apologized to the autograph seekers he couldn't reach. I also finally played his guitar!!! We all had our arms on the stage and most of us moved them as he came down, but my boyfriend didn't realize Lindsey was trying to make sure he could step down and left his arms there. I promptly threw them out of the way and Lindsey laughed.

Okay...my SHINING MOMENT, if I may brag:

My absolute favorite part of Tusk has always been the "real savage-like" bit, which, to my knowledge, LB has not said during the song in years. I made a sign that said (you guessed it) REAL SAVAGE-LIKE and held it up during Tusk. He leaned down and squinted during a break in the song so he could read it and got the biggest kick out of it! I was over the moon about that when a rude security guard starts poking me and telling me that FM's security has asked him to take the sign. I said "no way", but that I would keep it down. My boyfriend completely unnecessarily almost got kicked out for arguing with the guy...he didn't realize the guy was security and was just trying to protect me from being assaulted ! Anyway, when I turned my attention back to the show, LB sang "real savage-like" for me!!! Needless to say, I thought my head was going to explode! (Please, oh please, tell me someone was recording this show!)

Okay, I totally lied about not rambling, but I hope my Mac Attack was a reasonably enjoyable read!