My Borgata Review- sort of longish

[Lee]

Just got back from The Borgata today & had a good time. It’s the start of my vacation & what a way to start it off.

The Borgata is a very nice venue. Quite small though, holds about 3,000. Besides the casino, as you come in from the parking garage, it has shops & restaurants. It’s like its own city. Can you tell that this was the first time I’ve been there? And no parking charge on leaving. I guess they didn’t want traffic to back up getting out of there.

Chris Isaak came on first @ about 8:00 p.m.. I’m really not into his music but he was really funny. He also interacts with the audience. He jokes around, comes out into the audience several times, all the way to the back. Once he waited for a woman to take his picture & he said, “Well, take it! I can’t hold this pose forever!” He said that the audience was the best dressed crowd that he’s seen, & he’s seen some scruffy audiences. He jokes with his band. He told us several times that he’s there to save us money, keeping us from spending money in the casino. And Waddy came out once & played guitar with Chris & his band. Chris is quite the entertainer.

Stevie came on at about 9:30 p.m. Now when Chris got done, they started playing music. Bootylicious was the first song they played. I think everyone thought that Stevie was coming on then, even though the stage people were changing the stage set-up because some people started clapping. I thought at first, they were playing a Stevie iPod play list because right after that, they played Janet Jackson’s, That’s the Way Love Goes. And they played Tom Petty & Maroon 5, two of Stevie’s favorites.

I was in Row 4, far to the left. I did try to upgrade, but the woman @ the box office said that all they had was Row 19. (Hmm... thought it was a sell-out). She said that Row 4 is good. Yeah, but only if you’re in the middle of Row 4 because Stevie doesn’t move around stage that much, so it was not good for me.

The audience was pretty well behaved at least where I was. Over on the far side before even Chris went on, some woman threw up & The Borgata worker had to come clean it up. Glad it wasn’t near us (me & hubby). I like when the audience is into the concert. Before Stevie came on the woman next to me asked if the audience would stand to which I replied, “Oh yeah”. Clearly this woman had never been to see Stevie before. Her friend with her was a Stevie fan, up & dancing. Very excited girl came out of no where in front of us, dancing to Edge. Put hair up like Stevie during B&TH, & took off past security woman to the stage. Very slick.

The Borgata said no cameras or video recorders. The woman security guard looked in my purse. Didn’t really search it, but alas, I did have my digital camera, it’s no SLR though. So the shots I took are from a distance. At first, I was afraid to take pictures because we were on the end of the row where a security guard could see us. But as the night wore on & everyone was taking pictures & security didn’t do anything, I took some.

Same set list minus FFG. I thought Stevie was spot-on with her singing. I didn’t think anything was off-key, though hubby insists that Stand Back was a little shaky, the only song he thought. Landslide & B&TB were awesome. Landslide showed a lot of Stevie’s family, a young Stevie & pics mostly of her dad. Her family is dear to her you can tell. A very touching moment. She dedicated Landslide to our families & fathers. B&TB is so good live. The B&TB video was showing in the background. This song always gives me chills when she sings it live. I don’t know why, but it’s her only song that does. Outfits; black top & pants & boots, coo, but the black dress & brown boots don’t go too well, JMO. Hat with feather, cool. Gold shawl a must during GDW. Gloves now during Edge, I can understand this, germs. The audience loved Stevie last night & let her know it several times, by shouting, “We love you, Stevie”. I tried to get up there for the Edge walk. Husband went up first & I was right behind him, but we got stopped though people snuck down from way behind us. The audience went down even before How Still My Love. Edge has the longest intro when it’s live. The drummers were great as usual.

At the band intros, Stevie announced that it was Sharon’s birthday. Stevie lead the audience in singing Happy Birthday. Stevie said to Carlos, don’t get so teary-eyed, it’s not your birthday & laughed. And then introduced him.

At the end, Stevie said to us to go out to concerts, listen to the radio, save the music. It’s a dying breed or something to that effect. Maybe people aren’t buying the CDs, but they are still buying the music; it’s just on-line. I was kind of puzzled by that statement.

Another rocking performance by the Queen of Rock.

Pics to follow later, but nothing to get too excited over sorry to say.

Hopefully some other Ledgies went (I didn’t get to meet any though) & maybe they got good pics.

Lee