My 5-23-07 Review

[jkmaletic]

Here's my review. Sorry if it's lengthy to you, but I like to write things as I remember them. A copy always goes in my Stevie scrapbbok, so I can refect back on the good times when I'm eating dog food in a nursing home someday.

Kim and I got our front row center seats (first time ever) through ticketmaster on the day of the regular onsale. After about 12 attempts, they popped up and I grabbed them.
We got to the venue around 6:15, and proceeded to get in line to go through the gates at around 6:30 (Chris Isaak was scheduled to come on at 7:30). I got my camera through with no problem. They were checking bags and I had my camera in my sock on the inside part of my ankle. There were no metal detectors, although I’ve walked through them before in Vegas with a camera on me and they never went off. We went in and looked at the merchandise. I ended up getting the black shirt, the brown shirt, a key chain (that will fall apart in about a month) and a magnet. *for those of you getting the brown shirt online - they run a little
smaller than regular tour t-shirts, so keep that in mind

[jkmaletic]

continued....

We had to wait to be let into the seating are until about 7:15, which I thought was odd. Then finally, we made our way over to our seats. (I love that part!) We were just a tad bit to Stevie’s left, and the backup singers were to our right. This venue has a rather high stage - about 5’3’’ or so, so there was a space of about 7’ from the stage to the front row. I imagined that area getting filled with people after awhile, but I wasn’t worried about finding a space at the stage of course. Before Chris came on, I placed a birthday card we had for Stevie on the stage. One of Stevie’s guys saw me do it, grabbed it and pointed at me and I nodded. He nodded back and walked it over to Cory Buckingham, who took it right back. Hopefully Stevie read it before she went on. I figured she had time to kill during Chris’ set, so maybe she’d get to read it beforehand.

[jkmaletic]

continued again....

Chris came on about 7:45. He was good. He sounded just like his records. He was playful with the audience. There was this really odd chick gyrating to all of the songs and at the end where he has a bunch of chicks up on stage dancing, he pointed down to her and said, “hey you - with all those weird gyrations. We need you up here!” A security dude helped her up and she proceeded to do the same on stage. Really weird. I think she was on something. She gyrated for a little while then proceeded to stand on her head. His whole band was cracking up like, WTF?? Anyway….it was interesting.
After his set ended, the stage hands came on and changed the stage over. It only took them about 20-25 minutes. Then Bootylicious started and they played about ½ of it before they started on “Stand Back”. Stevie came out all bundled up with her black scarf thingy and long black gloves. It was slightly chilly (about 60 maybe), but I don’t think enough to warrant that scarf and all. Especially with all those stage lights and dancing around. Maybe she’s just trying to preserve her voice for the rest of the tour by keeping her vocal chords warm? Regardless, she looked

[jkmaletic]

and again....

awesome! Once she started I thought for sure people would move up to the front, but they didn’t. Those that tried were quickly ushered back to their seats. Security is not normally so strict at this venue, so that was weird. Kim and I pretty much stayed right in front of our seats, and we stood the entire show. Stevie said she was here to back up her new release, Crystal Visions, and that “ALL of you - each and every one of you - are my own little crystal visions”, and thanked us for supporting her all these years. I thought that was sweet.
The set list was the same, although Sorcerer was moved up in order. I think it was after Rhiannon? The intro to Gold Dust was awesome! Really zen-like and cool. I think her new keyboard guy had something to do with that. We got some eye contact with Stevie throughout the show, but not as much as we have had in the past. I’ve learned that sitting in the front row places you a little below her line of vision that she tends to use. When Stevie was introducing “I Need To Know”, she was explaining how she got to tour with Tom Petty and had the best time and that she ended up doing even more dates than planned with him. She said Tom was in the audience the other night in LA, and tonight Mike (I think, and I can’t remember his last name) from

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cont....

his band was there tonight and she wanted to dedicate INTK to him. During this whole time of explaining this, Stevie was totally looking right at me, like she was having the entire conversation with me, so I just smiled and nodded. She was smiling too. That was fun.

“How Still My Love” was awesome. She really works that song. At the ending Stevie was singing, “ You can’t save me now…you can’t feel me now…you can’t touch me now…” she also had another verse in there about “Hold Still” or something to that effect. It was very sexy.
Right after HSML ended, security let the people through that I saw waiting in the wings for the edge rush. This dude tried to literally push his way in front of me and I said, “I don’t think so dude, and stop pushing!” He said, very effeminately, “whatever!” But he moved aside. I was glad I didn’t have to go all kung-fu on his ass. So Kim and I are at the stage and all of a sudden this security guy comes over and says, “Everyone BACK to your seats or you will be escorted out!” Everyone kind of looked at each other like, WTF?? So we all sort of started to move back, but it seems like all of us realized at the same time, wait a minute - this

[jkmaletic]

Cont. again-

dude obviously doesn’t know the drill here. So then we went back to the stage, but Kim lost her spot. She was right behind me though. So she was plenty close. That was the first time ever at that venue that the security was so strict and that all of them obviously didn’t know about the edge walk. In fact, people in the front row that tried to go up for a second to take cell phone pictures were told to sit down. I did manage to get a few good ones when I was at the stage though, cause at that point it didn’t matter. I got some video on my cell too. Stevie had her gloves off when she was singing EO17, but put them on right before she started the hand-shaking. (Probably doesn’t want to catch God-knows-what, right?) She made her way over to us and I got her hand and told her Happy Birthday. She was smiling. She started working her way down and her right boot was right there in front of me, so I felt it (just on the outside toe area - not like up her calf or anything). Stevie didn’t seem to mind, or even know for that matter. Her white dress looks really soft up close. (no, I didn’t touch that - even though it was within reach, lol..) She danced with Sharon on her way back to the mic. She stopped and grabbed her hands and danced with her. Sharon looked caught off guard but was laughing.

When she came out for Rock and Roll she didn’t have her pants on. She just added the top hat. It still looked good, although I was looking forward to seeing the pants.
Beauty and the Beast was beautiful. I teared up towards the end like I always do. After that she wished everyone well and said to go out and listen to live music - go to clubs, etc….keep the music industry alive.

[jkmaletic]

getting towards the end...

On our way out we picked up our t-shirts. After we walked out of the gates we noticed we were walking right by the main gate that leads backstage where all the buses, trucks and limos are parked. I saw that there was still a limo waiting. I was pretty sure it was Stevie’s as it was the only one there and it was parked in the same place I had seen it parked before when I was backstage at this venue previously. So we decided to wait and see. The security person at the gate we were waiting at said after awhile, “She’s not signing any autographs, just so you know.” I said that was fine, because we didn’t want any autographs, just maybe a wave. The security person was cool with that. So we waited a little longer. We were the only ones there. Then we saw little Stevie come out and get intoher limo. She was too far away to say anything to at that point. Her hair was down and she was wearing this long gold shawl-looking thingy. (She wasn’t in disguise..J) She got in and her limo started towards us. I put all my bag down as to not seem like we wanted something signed, and the limo slowly came out around through the gate. The back window never came down, but the limo DEFINATELY slowed down as we were waving. Maybe she was waving back from the inside not realizing we couldn’t see her? I’ll never know for sure, but that’s probably the case. From what I know about Stevie she doesn’t think about technical things like that. It was kind of a bummer though, as we were really hoping the window would come down. Oh well.

[jkmaletic]

And the last of it.....

So we had a fun night. I’m glad to have had the official front row experience. I learned there are good things and bad things about it.
The Good:
~ You have lots of dancing room.
~ You have lots of freedom to either go to the stage or not.
~ There’s no one between you and Ms. Nicks.
~You are pretty much guaranteed a handshake at the Edge walk.

The Bad:
~ You miss out on eye contact, which I love.

So, to me, although the front row does have it’s advantages, I believe the perfect seats exist in the second or third row, directly in front of Stevie’s mic. But that’s just me.

The best thing is that it’s not over for us yet - we get to see Stevie in Vegas on July 30th for a charity show. Hall and Oats are opening. We have 2nd row seats for that one (and they only cost us $50 apiece!)

~jamie

[UnwindedDreams]

Thanks Jamie! Was it a full house?

[mirror69]

Thanks Jamie for review....
you're great

paolo

[Beachwood Mac]

Good job Jamie! I was wondering why it took so long for the crowd to go up for the edge walk. Normally it happens as soon as HSML starts. And, you're right. The stage is high and not really set up for the edge walk.

Just to add a little... the attendance was around 7,000. It seemed to take the crowd some time to really get in to the show. Stevie was very playful, her voice was great (and her laugh was priceless), and it's hard for her to move much with those heels on her boots!

I went with friends that hadn't seen her live solo since 1983 so it was fun to watch the concert thru their eyes. They had no idea what to expect with the setlist and they were all happy with the songs. They just wished it would have gone on longer.

Glad you got to see her after the show. My cousin is a Chula Vista policeman and he said she flew in and out of Brown Field and didn't stay in San Diego at all. Too bad, it was a postcard day yesterday!

[UnwindedDreams]

The amphitheatre is like 9,000, right?

[Beachwood Mac]

Originally Posted by UnwindedDreams

The amphitheatre is like 9,000, right?

The actual seats are around 9,000 but they say it can hold 20,000 including the lawn seats.

Another thing I just remembered. They didn't use the big screens on either side of the stage that they usually use to show close-ups and give those sitting farther away a better view. Not sure why

[AliceLover]

Too bad...This reviewer said she did Talk to Me, Silver Springs, and Gypsy last night in San Diego....

http://rickrockhill.blogspot.com/200...s-concert.html

[skcin]

Great review.