Cleveland Rocks

[BigAl84]

Hey Everyone,
I had one of the most memerable weekends of my life! I was invited to stay with my good college friend kate because she was having a birthday bash for her and her sister. I got to her house in the afternoon and all of our college buddies were there and we had all of our tents set up in the woods behind her house. We joked and talked all night, roasted marshmallows and had a blast. Spent the entire weekend with Kate and her sister going around cleveland and many awesome parts that I had never been to, (cedar rd, coventry..etc, case western) We had a blast.

Sunday rolled around and I was pumped!! totall psyched! I left for Blossom around 5:30 and got there around 6:30, maybe a little later. Grabed my awesome ticket, the buckingham nicks gatefold,a sharpie(it didn't get signed () and ran for the gate. When I got to my 4th row seat, I thought I was going to mess my pants. I've never sat that close and the stage was LOW!. As i'm sitting in my seat I realized that a fellow ledgie and livejournal friend was sitting right behind me (Josh) so we talked a bunch before the show started and then we both heard crickets!

We both made a mad dash for the stage as well as everyone else. It was histerical because I had to climb over the chair in back of me because the family to my right in my row would not move up so I just avoided disturbing them and climbed over the row behind me because they had left for the front. I knocked the chair over, felt like and ass...and better yet...tripped on it again as I put the chair right side up again.

So we are about three rows from the stage and once again im next to josh, we were deffinitely concert buddies for the night! We were off to the left but not to the extreme so it was a nice "centered" feeling. Neither Stevie or Lindsey were far away from our view. It was a blast!! The band was HOT! Stevie looked and sounded wonderful, although appeared to be quite pissed for a few moments. Somone was smoking and kept blowing the smoke up into her face on stage!! At the end of beautiful child she said "I need to ask you guys one thing, I love you all , but whoever it is that is smoking up a storm down there, please stop blowing it up here because it's really really bothering me" Before "I'm so Affraid" she was off in the shaddows rubbing her eyes repeatidly(from the smoke I would presume) and looked as if she was venting to the wardrobe lady. She came out for "Im so Affraid" and she was really really into it! it was great. Lindsey came over to our side of the stage and stood directly over us and just whailed, it was mezmorizing.

Say You Will was so much fun. Josh and I had the dance down and only a few other people really seemed to know the whole lasso deal. It looked as if Stevie and Lindsey were going to Kiss...it was weird but a real sweet moment.

"Come" was a major highlight because lindsey basicly stood over us again and did nearly all of the solos right there. He was right over us for almost the entire second half of the song and then moved over to the other side, but he wasn't there as long. He bent down to us and I was FINALY ABLE TO STRUM HIS GUITAR(im pretty sure this happened durring come..almost positive, usually its GYOW but he did it for come). It was just the coolest f*cking moment ever! Josh and I joked about wanting to be the "come girl" but we agreed we were deffinitely the "Come crowd" of the night!!.

I should also say that Lindsey was all over the place on sunday. He was hacking that guitar over his shoulder, sliding it accross the stage all the time. He kept jumping up and down and saying something like "Yes....YEH!!!" and "Thank YOU!!!!"

There are so many little things I could go on about but I will keep this review a bit tame.

Gold Dust Woman was super cool because it sounded as if Stevie changed the ending a bit differently. She repeated "shaddow" like she usually does but she really got into it and put lots of accent on it when she said it and moved her arms a lot !

I think mick and I exchanged looks durring red rover(and i swear I wasnt wishfully seeing things). I didnt get a chance to tell Josh this, but at one point mick was making these faces like his eyes were popping out of his head while sitting on the big rhythm block. He was looking right in my direction and so I made a crazy face back at him. Imidiately he made another face while looking towards me and I again, made an even crazier face...he then again made anothe crazy face at me and I sent another crazy look back at him. If it was just a coincidence then it was a weird one because their were pauses between the looks, he wouldn't do it unless I kept making a face back at him. I stoped and then he stoped and I just started cracking up. I'm 6'4" and I had a baseball cap on so im sure I wasn't too hard to spot from the stage.

A bad storm rolled in and got really bad durring Tusk and it was so cool! It was just cool to hear the thunder and lightening as the rumble of "Tusk" starts to shake the entire crowd.


I need to hit the sack...I will post more comments later!

[Rumours]

Hey there, BigAl....thanks for posting your review. It was an incredible night wasn't it!!!??!!!

I had seats in the second row center.....I was right directly in front of Lindsey's mic stand.....I almost peed myself....so it looks like you and I both could have had real messes there!!! LOL

I had THE BEST night!!! My brother-in-law & I sat and eagerly anticipated what we were about to see from seats so close to the stage. I've never been that close before! And it was about to get even better!! We heard the crickets (funny, since there was still light outside, but they like us to imagine nighttime and darkness!!!)....the band took their positions on stage......silly me, I thought everyone would give it a couple songs before charging the stage! Uh-uh....they started into that first song, and everybody took off for the stage!!! So of course I said to my brother-in-law "forget this, I'm claiming my spot up there...let's go!!!!!" And proceeded to hurdle the first row of chairs and bolt up to the edge of the stage (you know, I should have been in track & field in high school, I did that rather well!!!). And that is where I remained, right at their feet, literally just a couple of feet away from them, the entire rest of the evening! I have NEVER in my life been THAT close....I was in awe, being able to see everything so perfectly and clearly the whole night, and watching magic happen, literally right in front of my face! Lindsey screaming on that guitar and out loud.....thrashing those guitars around (I just wanted to reach out and grab one and keep it!!)......Stevie twirling all around in front of me....I almost died when she came to Lindsey's mic and sang!! Mick spitting everywhere during his "vesturbation"......I mean seriously, it was hitting the monitor in front of me!!!!

Some of the highlights: Obviously being that incredibly close to them. Stevie was a twirlin' machine......man, I swear there were times when she strung like 20 of them together.....I don't know how she doesn't get dizzy!!! She was very active, very spinny, very playful....glad to see this. Seeing their interaction from that close up....my jaw was on the ground. And I would swear there were times when Lindsey and Stevie were looking directly at me! So cool!!!! Got to see the boots. LOTS of shawls, wraps, accessories, flowers, scarves, etc. I took many pictures, some of which really look wonderful. Lesson learned - using the flash results in much better pictures, just do it.....I tried to be nice and not disrupt the band too much with a flash, and as a result 2/3 of my pictures look terrible. If someone will instruct me how to get pictures from my computer onto The Ledge, I can post some of the best ones for you all to see. I won't do the details of all the songs, others have told about that.....just glad to be able to hear Sara live......the music was all incredible. I'm kicking myself for not bringing something from home to get signed....because I WAS ABLE TO GET LINDSEY'S AUTOGRAPH!!! Woooo-hoooo!!!!! He signed my ticket and he signed my brother-in-law's ticket too.....I was glad for that, since I had bought his ticket for him as a gift. I also got to touch Lindsey....twice!! Wooo-hoooo baby!!!!! All in all, an evening I will never forget!!! And those storms....yes, it adds coolness, and the whole ambiance thing to the show.....but geez!! I felt so bad for the folks on the lawn!! That lightening was WICKED. It didn't let up either! Then I was paranoid - since we were going to get completely soaked trying to get back to the car, I envisioned my signed ticket getting completely ruined and water-logged!! I put it in my purse and cradled my purse underneath my t-shirt the whole way.....good thing the autograph made it safely back to the car, unharmed. We were drenched, but the signature was saved!!!!!!

Since the Pittsburgh show had gotten cancelled....then losing my job on top of it and being so bummed and totally lost lately.....I held high hopes for this show......and boy it delivered!!!

Two words: Incredible and Unforgettable!!

Stephanie