Tulsa-Denver: my experience

[DavidMn]

Well, I'm back from my latest adventure, and it never gets old, I have to say!


Tulsa, 5-3 I left Minneapolis at 9:15 PM on the 2nd on the bus, arriving in Tulsa at 12:30 the day of the show. I wandered around Tulsa for awhile, by the Brady theater where Lindsey played and eventually over to the BOK center. This is a very nice new venue, albeit an unusual outer design, with excellent sound inside in my opinion. Anyway, I was waiting back by where the limo's would go in and Brian(estranged4Life) walked up and intriduced himself. We hung out for about 3 hours before the show and ate at the Mexicali resturant, which I thought was very good. I was very surprised at the quality of the show itself. After having played Houston the night before i thought they'd be flat but it was exactly the opposite. Tulsa I can definitely say for me was the best show Ive sen on the tour so far. Gold Dust Woman was the best I've heard live, and Lindsey really rocked I'm So Afraid.

St Louis, 5-5 After spending the off day with my friend and his family in Springfield Missouri it was off to St Louis for another show. I arrived in St Louis at about 1:00 PM and went over and wandered around by where the Arch is for ab out an hour. THen I went over to one of my very favorite resturants in the many citites Ive been to, a little hole in the wall Italian place called Charlie Gitto's. This place has very good food, and it's not expensive. I highly reccomend it if you're ever in St Louis! I made my way over to the Scottrade Center at about 3:30 back to where the limo's enter, and I met up with this very interesting guy. He said he'd worked with Fleetwood Mac from 1975-1982, and had travelled with them on every tour druing that time. One thing he mentioned that I thought was interesting is that on the Rumours tour especially, they would pour thelselves inot the tour bus and hope to wake up at the next gig! I knew he wasnt bull****ting me because when Mick's limo pulled in Mick obviously recognized the guy and within about 5 minutes Micks manager came out and took the guy into the arena with him. The show itself was solid if unspectacular. The venue was about 3/4 full in my estimation.

Omaha, 5-7 After the St Louis show I came back to Minneapolis on the bus for a short but needed break. My friend has relatives in Omaha, so on the morning of the show, we left Minneapolis at about 8 AM, arriving in Omaha at about 2:30. His sister, brother-in-law and I enjoyed a nice meal at my friend's mother's house before the 4 of us were off to the Qwest Center. There I met up with my dear, longtime friend named Glenda and her 2 sons, 16 yo Neil, and 12 yo Dylan. Dylan is a very interesting kid. He's loved Lindsey bacically since he was about 3 years old, and this was his first Mac concert ever. They had travelled from McCook Nebraska to be there, and Dylan was very excited. Now, Glenda had gotten 3 good seats, on the side of the stage about 20 rows up, but on the day of the show she was able to get a 4th row seat right on Lindsey's side for Dylan. I have to say here that it was really exciting for me personally to see a young kid like Dylan so excited for a Fleetwood Mac show! SO since Glenda had an extra ticket she invited me to sit with her for the show. I talked it over with my other friend and we agreed to meet back at the car after the show. Dylan was able to get right up to the stage right in front of Lindsey, which made me really happy because I knew how much this show meant to him. Now the show itself was another solid performance. Nothing really stood out, but it wasnt weak either. However the crowd was not very good. Everybody knows about the thread that was started here about Omaha being cancelled, and as I scanned the crowd, there were 4 or 5 rows all around the upper level that were empty. I would estimate the crowd was about 8,000. SO they couldve easily cancelled this showm but I'm glad they didnt. The good thing was the crowd that was there made up for those who werent and I have to give the Omaha fans a Thumbs up for enthusiasm!

Kansas City, 5-8 This is where I pretty much entered the twilight zone for a couple days. After the Omaha show I caught the greyhound for Kansas City at 12:30 AM, arrving at 4:30 AM. I didnt get a motel room, so I basically slept on the bus station bench for about 4 hours before getting up and cleaning up as best I could. Of course if you're in Kansas City you HAVE TO enjoy some of their legendary bbq, and where better to start than the original Arthur Bryant's on Brooklyn avenue. I had lunch there, a full plate of ribs with fries which were cooked lard. MMM GOOD!! Although I called my cardiac doctor immediately afterwards to schedule a cholesterol check soon. After lunch I went back to the bus station to rest for a couple more hours before heading over to the venue, which was a short 10 minute walk from the bus station. Now this venue, called Sprint Center only opened about year and a half ago. It has a very unusual design on the outside. I can only describe it as it looked like a giant glass salad bowl. Now this show I have to say was subpar compared to the others. The guys looked flat and tired. Definitely not at their best. But hey, we're all human and have our off days right?

Denver, 5-10, the curse of John McVie strikes again! After the Kansas City show, I caught the bus for Denver at 1:00 AM. I was very lucky because I had a seat to myself which I desperately needed for at least a little sleep. Now I had no plans to try to find out where the band was staying, but let's just say that information basically fell into my lap. As the bus pulled into the station in Denver, I noticed 2 tour buses sitting in the street right across from Greyhound. I looked up and sure enough it was the Ritz Carlton hotel. I found that rather ironic, a hotel like that right next to a Greyhound station. Anyway, I decided to go to my motel, shower up and go back down to the hotel to see if I could see anything. After waiting around in the lobby for about 45 minutes I saw Neale out at the edge of the driveway having a smoke. I wandered up and right away he said "DAVE, MATE! GOOD TO SEE YA" and gives me this big bear hug. We chatted for about 5 minutes and who wanders up? None other than my new bff Lindsey Buckingham! Lindsey came right up to me and said how nice it was to see me again and gave me a biug hug too. He asked how I was doing and the 3 of us talked for about 10-15 minutes before Lindsey had to leave and go back up to his room. It was funny too because as we walked into the lobby one of the hotel people came up to me and asked what I was doing there. Both Lindsey and Neale said Don't worry, he's fine. So they didnt give me any more trouble and I decided to wait to see if I could see anyone else. Now I must prefae this by saying John and Stevie are the members of Fleetwood Mac I havent met. We all know how hard it is to see Stevie, so I pretty much gave up on that idea. John is a different story however. From everything Ive heard hes a nice guy and easy to talk to. It's been an absolute comedy of errors how I've managed to screw up meeting him, snd this was no exception. I was standing just inside the lobby when I saw him walking around the corner. He was carrying one large shopping bag in one arm and a small one in the other, plus he was with his manager. As they approached and came in I completely froze up. I just let them both walk by without saying anything! I was kinda thinking I didnt want to bother him when he had 2 handfulls of stuff, but damn, he was right there and I didnt say a word! UGH!! Oh well, cest la vie I guess right? That night, Saturday, I went to the Colorado Rockies/Florida Marlins baseball game. Coors Field is one of my favorite baseball parks, and they have this unique feature. There is a row of seats that are purple that ring the entire upper deck which signifies exactly 1 mile above sea level. Of course I sat in them. The next day, show day, I did a baseball/concert double-header. Rockies/Marlins at 1:10 PM, concert at 8 PM. What a day! And what a trip. After the show I want back to the hotel just in case I could se any of them and I ran into Brett and Neale and they we chatted in the hotel bar for like 30 min. Those 2 are such nice decent people. I also ran into Marty Hom the tour manager and asked if he would mind if I waited until the band came back. He said no problem but they've already flown to Calgary. I thakked him and said it was nice to meet him and said my goodbyes to Brett and Neale and went over to the bus station and waited for my 8:00 Am departure back to Minneapolis. I arrived at 5:45 this morning with another full bank or concert memories!


To Be continued in Lipstick City, L.A baby on May 28th.......