Ask a Ledgie a Question

[Jyqm]

Originally Posted by trackaghost

My question is for David & Jyqm: what was the first concert you ever went to and can you remember much about it?

I never went to any concerts when I was really young, so I think my first concert was actually Stevie in south Florida on the Enchanted tour. (I missed out on the Dance tour, unfortunately.) She played what at the time was known as the Coral Sky Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. Isn't that a pretty name for an outdoor concert venue in south Florida? Of course, since then, it's had any number of idiotic corporate names slapped on it. I think now it's the Sound Advice Amphitheatre. Blecch.

Anyway, I think I went with both of my parents, and we had pretty good seats in the pavilion, within the first twenty rows. I didn't own any of Stevie's individual albums yet, having just gotten into Fleetwood Mac the previous year, but I knew all of the songs since I had bought Enchanted the week it came out. (I remember I watched her appearances on Letterman and Leno that week, and then on Saturday afternoon my mom and I biked down to the mall to buy it. It was the weekend of the Ft. Lauderdale Air & Sea Show, so we biked along the beach and gaped at the monstrous crowds and cool planes going by.)

The show was fantastic, pretty much everything I imagined it would be, and Stevie was in great voice. Of course I loved hearing all the warhorses (especially "Outside the Rain"/"Dreams," "Stand Back" and "Edge Of Seventeen") since it was my first time, but even then, my absolute favorite part of the show was the acoustic set ("After The Glitter Fades" - "Garbo" - "Rose Garden" - "Sleeping Angel"), because it felt so intimate, and Stevie told her little stories before each song (and unlike Lindsey, even when Stevie gives the same spiel at every show, she makes it sound like she's talking just to you and telling you this for the very first time), and she seemed so excited to be playing these long-lost gems, and the crowd just fed off that excitement and was so appreciative to be hearing these songs, and of course I nearly fell over when she launched into "Sleeping Angel," which was one of my favorites, since she had said that the acoustic set would just be three songs. Beyond that, my other favorites of the night were "Gold & Braid" and "Twisted" (which was really awesome, as I'd only heard the demo at that point).

So that's my problem with Stevie now, I suppose. I got good and spoiled at my first show, with that amazing acoustic set where Stevie seemed to be so happy and excited to be singing these obscure songs and telling her little stories, and they all sounded so beautiful and intimate with the stripped-down acoustic arrangements. And now all those songs are gone, while the warhorses have remained and are more tired than ever, and everything is all chugging guitars or syrupy-synthy keyboards and lord how I wish she would do something like this again.