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#17
06-22-2010, 04:17 PM
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Wow, the venue is gorgeous!
 http://www.sbbowl.org/photos.htmI can't wait to see my girl in just over a month! There is just nothing like that feeling of looking up and seeing Stevie singing right before your eyes. It's like "pinch me". 
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#18
06-22-2010, 04:54 PM
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I like your line "cause its what we do"!! 
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#19
06-22-2010, 05:20 PM
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Has Stevie been to the Bowl since TISL?
epinions Stevie Nicks, Trouble in Shangri-La Tour, 8/17/01, The Santa Barbara Bowl Aug 19 '01 (Updated Sep 18 '01) The Bottom Line ~ It is that time again. Time to go to a Stevie concert. Stevie Nicks is touring for her new album, "Trouble in Shangri-La." My sister and I never miss a Stevie tour. We planned this out very carefully. My sister is in school in Santa Barbara, working on the very last shred of her sanity. I decided I'd drive up there and pull her out of her delirium long enough to take her to the Stevie concert at the Santa Barbara County Bowl. It would be easier than trying to arrange for her to drive down for the San Diego show. It was going to be perfect, of course, but we ran into a series of difficulties. First of all, we discovered that we have lost our crimping iron. We looked everywhere, but it was hopeless. There was momentary panic. How are we supposed to go to a Stevie concert without crimping our hair?? And there was not enough time to put in any purple or green streaks, either. So we put backup plan #2 into effect: little braids and black ribbons! There is always an answer. Second, I had heard that right in the middle of her tour Stevie had come down with bronchitis, and all of her concerts this week had been postponed. All except for the one we had tickets for. Her Bay Area concerts would be rescheduled, but the Santa Barbara show was supposed to go on as planned. I was a little nervous as I got in the car to make the 4-hour drive. What if I got there and it was cancelled? We might not be able to make it to another concert. This would be tragic. But there was no need to worry... the show would go on. Please remind me never to go to the Santa Barbara Bowl again. You'd think it would be a charming place, and it is, in a way. But it's too irritating to be worth it. The problem is the same as what's wrong with Santa Barbara in general: too much crammed into too small a space. Do not drive to the Bowl if you can help it. It has some 4400 seats plus a lawn area... and only 100 parking spaces. There are 500 more at Santa Barbara High School, which is right around the corner. We got there early enough so that we were able to get one of those, and it worked out fine for us. Where everyone else parked, I have absolutely no idea. Once you actually get there, it's a walk up a gravel hill to the venue. The Bowl is on Milpas St., all the way at the end up in the hills. It is in a tiny canyon, and from the seating there is a view out over the ocean and part of the city. Once the sun goes down everything lights up and you can see the glowing offshore oil rigs on the horizon... which is weird. So we settled in to wait for something interesting to happen. Stevie Nicks does not appear onstage until precisely one hour after the concert's scheduled start time. You can be as late as you want and not miss anything. We had gotten there early solely for the purpose of getting parking, as we had no other way to get there but drive from my sister's little house in Carpinteria. So we had plenty of time to kill. Luckily, I had crossword puzzles! At 7 p.m. the opening act came out... Bob Schneider. I had never heard of him, and it doesn't really matter now that I have. His music, which is some sort of roots-blues rock, was pretty good, but then he decided to start talking to the audience and proved himself to be an annoying brat. Only half of the audience had arrived by then, and none of those already present were paying attention to Mr. Schneider and his bad attitude. My sister and I certainly weren't. We had had a little bit too much wine at that point and we were giggling stupidly over our crossword puzzle. Schneider got some halfhearted applause and disappeared eventually, and the stage hands cleaned up his stuff and made everything ready for Stevie. The stage was decorated just right. It looked exactly like the Trouble in Shangri-La album cover, complete with an arch, a blue-green ocean beyond, and columns covered with pink and purple flowers. The center mic had ribbons all over it, flowing in the ocean breeze. Things started to happen. With a thwack of the bass, the song "Trouble in Shangri-La" began and the band scattered into place on the darkened stage. The audience started screeching, and when a spotlight hit Stevie, the crowd exploded. She came slowly up to the mic, looking perfectly Fleetwood-Mac-ish in her standard black, gripped the ribbons and did the first verse of the song. She sounded unusual, all full of grit and very rusty, and the bronchitis had obviously done something to her. And nobody cared. She was doing it. After that first verse the band shifted flawlessly into "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," which they played in full. Stevie looked happy, singing with pride, with guitarist Waddy Wachtel next to her coming in to do Tom Petty's part. The audience was up and dancing already. The Bowl was almost completely full. The sound was excellent, with not a single problem. I think the canyon is good for acoustics. The lighting was a bit overdone, though. The stage lights came in all colors and were carefully synchronized with the music, but there was a projector shooting fuzzy images up on the back of the stage, little stars and lightning and abstractions, and this was all unnecessary. Stevie doesn't need any help. She smiled and greeted the audience, looking glad to be out on stage. She glanced backwards and her band started playing "Dreams." Here's where it started going all wrong. By the middle of the song her voice was failing her. She'd start a line and then rasp silent on the high notes, which were filled in by her always marvelous backup singers Sharon and Mindy, and then she'd finish the line herself. At one point her voice broke. She looked like she could barely breathe. She was toward the back of the stage when the song ended. She stalked up to the front, grabbed the ribbons on her mic, yanked them hard, and huffed "Well I know you all just heard that!!" She was clearly upset, but trying to keep steady. "I need to get over WHATEVER THE HELL IS WRONG WITH MY VOICE!" She yanked on her ribbons some more, and explained about her bronchitis. Then she said "If this is going to harm my vocal cords I'm going to have to stop... and we'll just sit and talk for an hour." The audience actually liked the sound of that and started screaming so loud we could hardly hear her. She dropped the ribbons. Then before she turned away from the microphone she just sighed and said quietly... "this is my worst nightmare." She looked disappointed in herself and it was awfully sad. As if it was her fault. I was about to cry. But I didn't, because she had put on her gold shawl. The gold shawl! The band started "Gold Dust Woman." Stevie looked nervous, but determined to continue and try to get through it. The lights went all red and gold and the band was loud. She spun around and sang the song perfectly, as if she had gotten her voice back. She made the long notes really, really long and she seemed to know it sounded good. The audience fell all over itself and sang along. At the end she was smiling and grabbed the mic and yelled "There IS a God!!" Then it was all right. She had a couple more rough spots, but she sang well throughout the rest of the show. The audience only had to hear the first three notes of "Rhiannon" to begin freaking out. I have to say this was a really great audience. They knew all the songs. I have never heard an audience sing along with her like that- all the people around us were singing. Not quite everyone had memorized the Trouble in Shangri-La songs yet, but the older songs... they had those down. The crowd was standing and dancing in the aisles during "Rhiannon." When she started the more low-key "Every Day" and "Too Far From Texas" everyone simmered down to listen. Her vocals were especially good on these. She sounded a lot stronger when she could just take her time. She introduced "Planets of the Universe" with a story about Lindsey Buckingham, and how she is, in fact, NOT mad at him anymore...  and so on and so forth. All of her new songs were pretty much played just as they are on the album, except she thinned out "Bombay Sapphires" a little. "Fall From Grace" is a perfect concert song. Lots of dancing and twirling around involved there. "Sorcerer," which my sister and I agree is our favorite song from the new album, was well done. Stevie took it slowly and carefully, and her voice was clear. "Hey HEY... (yeah yeah!!)." Stevie managed at least three costume changes, and at one point came out in a sparkly black thing that looked like bat wings when she held out her arms. She used this get-up to make a scene while flipping around during "Stand Back," which is always the best Stevie concert song. It has a long lead-in which doesn't really sound like anything until she starts with the lyrics, which she sings loudly. The band was strong on this one. I think the bass drum was really well amped, because we felt every beat. The mist machine went into action here too, and Sharon and Mindy had their choreography down as always. And at the end, Stevie's high kick. I still can't believe it when I see it. "Edge of Seventeen" came near the end, with Waddy Wachtel doing the amazing guitar... he performed it on the original version. The drummer, Mark Schulman, was awesome. I love this guy. He got every last nuance of "Edge of Seventeen" in there perfectly. At one point he lost his grip on one of his sticks and it flew up over his head and bounced off the backdrop, and he picked up another one and kept playing without missing two beats. He had a three or four minute solo with percussionist Lenny Castro while the rest of the crew ran backstage, and it was a huge scene. The encore was just two songs. Stevie started with Tom Petty's "I Need to Know," and she nailed it. Her voice was all cleared up and the audience was going wild. This song rocks and she was going nuts with the tambourine. Finally, she closed, as always, with "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything For You." She came out wearing a huge top hat with a big floppy feather in it. She finished up and said "You all take care of yourselves so we can come back and do this again. I love you!" Missing from the set were the concert staple "Gold and Braid," one of my favorite Stevie songs: "Whole Lotta Trouble," and, unbelievably, "Landslide." There was a good balance of her new material and lots of her older songs. Her voice problems didn't affect the quality of the show at all. I hope she gets rested up a little before plunging into the rest of her tour. I'll keep going to Stevie concerts as long as she keeps touring!
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#20
06-22-2010, 05:59 PM
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Does anyone know why Stevie doesn't play MSG anymore as a solo act? Last time was RAL, to my knowledge.
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#22
06-22-2010, 06:05 PM
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#23
06-22-2010, 06:50 PM
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#24
06-22-2010, 07:29 PM
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^You think? I'm not sure how many people it holds, but she always does Jones Beach, and to my knowledge that venue holds 15, 000. Not sure.
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#25
06-22-2010, 07:48 PM
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I don't think Stevie Solo has played an "Arena" this century. And I don't think she will. And it really isnt anything to be ashamed of. She consistently played Amphitheatres and 5,000 or so seat indoor facilities while her female counterparts have not been able to pull this off.
__________________
Never Dance with the Devil He Will Burn You Down
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#26
06-22-2010, 07:53 PM
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June 27, 2008 . Wantagh, NY 7,254 paid of 13,855 tickets available 52.4% $352,128 June 13, 2007 . Wantagh, NY 7,095 paid of 13,829 tickets available 51.3% $479,577
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#27
06-22-2010, 08:00 PM
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still she plays to 7,000 plus people. I'd rather have too many seats then not enough, like Neil Young playing small theatres and selling out in 5 minuntes, good for him but danm it i didn't get to see him last month.
__________________
Never Dance with the Devil He Will Burn You Down
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#28
06-22-2010, 08:14 PM
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#29
06-22-2010, 08:18 PM
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I would love to go to the show in Santa Barbara as I think it would be an amazing intimate venue to see her in, but truthfully my main concern is with her voice. She sounded pretty poorly in those last Australian/NZ shows. And I dont think she would change up the set list or even the staging, which has been taken out one too many times. She needs some inspiration & I would hope that the next time we hear from her she displays some.
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#30
06-22-2010, 08:47 PM
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__________________
Skip R........  Stevie fan forever and ever amen.......the Wildheart at Edge of Seventeen and the Gypsy..... My sweet Buttons .I love you. RIP 2009 to 08/24/2016
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