Joe's (DownOnRodeo) Brisbane review

[wondergirl9847]

Joe asked to link his review back to the Ledge and around, so I thought I'd just bring it over. Here tis!!

(SORRY HAVE TO RUSH OFF TO CONCERT 2 _ WILL FINISH THIS TOMORROW)

Brisbane Entertainment Center, 19 February 2004.
"Lightning Strikes, Maybe Once..."

Disclaimer: I have a truly defective memory so any quoptes in this review will probably be more like the 'gist' of what was said rather than what was said verbatim.


BEFORE THE SHOW

JC (Lux) and I met up at 10:30 in the morning of the show, at a local shopping center where I was able to get my I Know I'm Not Wrong T-Shirt printed. I had made the image the night before and was pretty happy with it. JC was wearing her 'Tusk' T-Shirt made the day before and it looked very chic. The lady working at the T-SHirt printing shop must have remembered JC and her shirt because she looked at JC and remarks "It looks great, hey". Then she loads up my I Know Im Not Wrong image from my disc and goes 'Oh, is this Fleetwood Mac?' Like so many other people I have heard in the past few weeks, she goes 'Oh, I wish I could see them' and sounded really envious.Then she surprised Lux and I by looking closer at JC's Tusk T-shirt and saying 'Oh so is that Lindsey Buckingham?'. That makes this woman officialy the fifth person in Brisbane to know who Lindsey is.

At about midday and a foot-long-Seafood Sub and choc-chip muffin later, we caught a bus to the city. First we went to the old LP shop. JC said she had been in the day before and hadn't found anything other than the usual Rumours, Tusk etc. But I had a good feeling so we had another look through. And what did I find? The Visitor, Law & Order, and singles for EOTW, Sara, Gypsy, You & I Pt 1, Oh Well pt 1 & 2, Monday Morning and Never Going Back Again. Plus I also picked up an LP of The Wild Heart, my first Stevie album, in case I was going to meet Sharon like Maz and the other Newcastle folk did. I can't wait to hear it after all the good things I've heard (too bad I don't have an LP player at home!?!). The loony guy who runs the shop said he did have Buckingham Nicks LPs, but they were out the back and went for $100 or something. Um, as much as I want one... I don't think so mate!

As we left the LP shop, my man-bag was near bursting. It had half the Mac catalogue in there. Then we went to the nearest newsagent to buy a pen for any prospective autographs. Even this exrecise took a great deal of time and consternation. Ten minutes later we were moving out towards... The xxxx Hotel. I cannot give you the name of this Hotel - you'll find out why soon.

When we got there, JC and I are standing outside and going 'What are we doing?' 'We are insane.' 'Are we really gonna do this?' 'Are you doing it or am I?' Eventually I got up some cahones and lead the way. I went up to the Concierge desk.
"Hey, um, this sounds crazy but, would you be able to tell me whether Fleetwood Mac is staying here?"
Well the Concierge we spoke to was really cool! First of all he said that 'No, they're not staying here.' He was saying how he usually gets tickets from the bands that stay there, like the Stones etc. He was saying how miffed he was that he couldn't get tickets to Bowie from two nights ago, cause Bowie didn't stay overnight in Brisbane, he flew out the same night of his concert. So he was feeling sympathetic with us and seemed to realise 'Well, they're not too crazy' and said 'OK, look, give me one second and I'll make a call, cause I think I know where they might be staying'. He made a call to the Concierge of another hotel in town. They were talking like old buddies for a few minutes, but he also asked about whether Fleetwood Mac was staying there. A few excruciating minutes later he ended the call and looked at us and said quielty: "Now you did not hear this from me, OK? You didn't hear it from me, but ....they are staying at the Stamford Plaza." JC and I probably reactedly in a very goofy way like getting the giggles or something, so he goes again: "Now you didn't hear it from me OK." And I go: "Who are you?" "That's the way," he laughed.
So after getting some directions, off we headed to the Stamford Plaza - full of the excitement of the prospect of meeting someone associated with this band that we idolise, and, if nothing else, just a great caper. I love a good caper! Not the fish kind. There is no good caper of the fish kind.

We get into the lobby of the Stamford. It was so opulent. I instantly had a good feeling that this is where the band might be staying. It looked like Stevie had been personally retained to decorate and furnish the lobby. Now that I think about it, she does have a fair bit of spare time. Maybe she runs an interior decorating firm under a pseudonym? Hmm. Straight away we saw these three goofy looking guys in shorts and T-Shirts sitting down on the other side of the lobby. let me tell you - it was like looking into a mirror. I knew straight away that these guys were fans also in the process of stalking. We exchanged a few glances. But it was one of them who had the guts to come up and approach us. He advanced towards us and was patting his man-bag - his suspiciously LP-sized man-bag. 'Hey guys,' he said.

This, we soon learnt, was James. His friends George and Michael came over to join us soon after. This was about 2:30pm. We sat there, the five of us, for the next three hours, talking about this and that and showing each other albums etc. Each of them had an LP-filled man-bag like me They were all from Melbourne and were in brisbane for the week to see Bowie and hopefully meet Fleetwood Mac. George had seen them on the SYW Tour last year at Madison Square Garden, and showed me his photos taken with Lindsey, which spun me out. I was seeing a photo taken with Lindsey and someone I was sitting next to. Somehow that just spun me out. Anyway, these three guys had been staying at the Stamford for the past week, and had not seen FM yet. So it soon became clear that they had not checked into the hotel yet but probably would after the concert.

Now these three guys were not actually going to the Brisbane concerts. James and Michael will be going to the Melbourne ones though. James will be bootlegging the Melbourne shows with his MD. Now eventually I got up the courage to suggest to him that I could use his MD for the concert that night, to bootleg it. They were all really happy with that, cause that means they'd be able to hear it that night when we got back from the show. The let me hear a sample of the Bowie concert they'd recorded and I was blown away by the sound definition - it was like being there. So James hooked me up with his MD and showed me how to set it up in the bathroom at the venue ten minutes before the show. Apparently the Bowie bootleg starts with the sound of flushing toilets.

We went across town to get a new mini disc and get some KFC for dinner. We aren't cruel to the chickens in Australia, don't worry! My step-mother's sister works at a 'chicken factory' for want of a better name and there's even a vet there apparently so that if theres any chickens who are in pain etc, at least up until the point that they get humanely killed, then they are taken care of. This is way off topic - sorry. I guess this is more for Dissention's benefit if she's reading

Then Geroge showed us his amazing little camcorder. It didn't take me very long to say to him: "George, if you are happy to risk taking video footage of the show tonight, I will all too happily buy you a ticket." Needless to say, George was all too happy to accept!

Now we were set. We had the audio setup. We had the video setup. We had Lux on photo duty. What could go wrong with this whole concert bootlegging process?

...Everything!

At 7pm, Lux, George and myself got picked up by Lux's mum on the road outside the Stamford, and we were on our way to the concert. Everyone was talking, but I heard Don't Stop on the radio after a few minutes! It took Lux a while to realise but she soon cranked up the volume. The traffic was terrible as we got closer. The Brisbane Entertainment Center is in the middle of some sort of bizarre outback swamplands that just happen to be situated to the north of Brisbane. But when we got there we eventually rolled out the door at the best available opportunity. We had to hotfoot it through the unbelievable (14,000 strong) crowd. Let me stress - this was my first ever concert. Not just Fleetwood Mac, but period. But I wasn't really enjoying it as much as I could've been cause of how everything seemed to be up in the air like it was being juggled. The first juggling balls were my folks who were having dinner at the Entertainment Centre's main restaurant with friends from their work who were also going to the concert. I was to meet up with them at the restuarant. I walked through the restuarant but couldn't find them. I guess it was already going on 8pm (concert at 8:30) so they'd already finished eating. The other juggling ball was Karen, aka Sister Honey, who is going to the Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth shows as well, but had to fly in from the middle of the fair dinkum Australian outback. So Karen was who knows where and my parents were who knows where, and we also had to try to get a ticket for George. Well we lucked out because the lady at the box office goes 'We only have two left', and then I was about to buy one of those but some ladies to our left tried to intervene saying desperately "We have a ticket, we have a ticket". I said "But I only want a $100 one." Their ticket was $150, but 15 mins before they show, they were just happy to get anything for it so I paid $100 even to them, and so now George, the man with the cam, had his ticket! An attendant at one of the doors said I wouldn't be able to get inside with my man-bag as it was not A4-size. Well lady, thelast time I checked, bags don't come in A4 sizes - I think she must use a lot of paper or something.
Eventually I ran into my folks, and then Karen, and soon everyone was moving into the arena, while I stayed behind to go into the bathroom to set up the MD recorder. I got it all set up in my jeans pocket under my shirt. In I went, into the arena.



THE SHOW

I wish I had a photo or even better, video, of that moment, walking into that unbelievably massive arena with so many thousands of people, and then looking down to the stage and the giant front row streatching across, and seeing where I was to sit - directly beneath Lindsey's mic. I was suprised at how close SnL's mics were! For some reason that honestly suprised me. I thought they'd be really on opposite sides almost, but they were considerably close. Which meant that I would be so close to both of them... By the way, the arena looks exactly like the one shown in the Programme at the bottom of one fo the pages - sorry, I don't have my Programme here at the moment, but its the picture at the bottom of a page shown an empty arena with chairs and a stage. Hah, how unsurprising that it looked like that! But I guess I was just so taken aback by how long the stage and front row were.

Soon the cricket noise started, although it took me a while to realise what it was even though I'd been hearing it for a while. Lux quipped that maybe it was just the marshland insects from outside.

Now the lights went down.

The roar rose up instantly - the deafening, eery noise of 14 thousand fans in one room roaring as the lights went down... Some tribal, gladiatorial, primal atmosphere that cannot be described but must be experienced. An infectious fever of anticipation about an empty stage. If you've ever heard the noise and felt the sensation and drunk in the atmosphere, then you know how good it is.

Mick and John came out. Now I always respected Mick as an awesome drummer, but from the moment he walked out onto the stage, this concert was as much his as it was SnLs. I was catching glimpses of him and trying to get his eye almost as much as the others. He just has that innate sense of theatre, of showmanship. To see these guys moving around right in front of my face was uncanny.

Then the biggest roar went up and I realised that SnL were walking out - I hadn't even noticed. Now I was freaking out. I was freaking out. From this point until the end of The Chain I was not dealing well at ALL, and its a wonder I didn't have a coronary and get airlifted to the hopsital. Like minds do in crisis situations, mine made a quick realisation: that I would not be able to cope, for the first song or so at least, with drinking in the reality of both Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham being right in front of me about to perform. Instead I made the decision to focus on Lindsey at first. Well the lights were still down, the crowd was still cheering, and Lindsey was standing with his back to the audience, one leg up on Mick's drum stage, as Mick began the bass kick. Stevie was positioned in the center in front of Mick, with her back to us. I was not getting any less used to the fact that the real, living group was in front of me - instead, I was getting worse! The whole arena was clapping to the beat. Then Lindsey eventually started playing the intro notes, turning around slowly as he did so. I need to mention that what made it even harder to deal with Lindsey being right there in my face was that I was expecting him to have a very nervous temperament like he does on The Dance. Instead, from the moment he walked out, was checking out the audience, to the moment he started playing these opening notes and began to walk up to us, the look in his eyes, the knowing smile on his face, and just his gait,. those deliberate footsteps - it was an aura of composure that seemed to be saying to me and the others all standing now right at the stage "I know you're excited and a little nervous, but it's cool, don't worry, we're gonna have some fun and you got nothing to worry about." OK I just realised how sexual that sounded but now I think about it - that's sort of how he did it. It was like he was trying to seduce us! And for some of us, it was seduction in a sexual way, the rest of us obviously in a non-sexual way, and he was succeeding!

The fans up the front were awesome. Awesome fans. None of them were so interested in Stevie that they weren't interested in Lindsey - everyone semeed to be just as into both SnL on equal footing! So during NGBA and SG, there were no annoying 'I love you, Stevie!!' people shouting - everyone was respectfully silent for Lindsey at the appropriate moments. Yet for the rest of the time they were dancing, moshing, arms awaving, you name it! Just looking around was great to see everyone so happy and enjoying the experience. I was asked later what songs didn't go down particularly well, but I had to say none, because even if there were some songs that weren't very well recieved, I wouldn't have known from down there in the thick of it.

Now forgive me because these snippets are all completely out of order. If something's missing its not cause they didnt play it - they played the same setlist we're all familiar with.

Dreams: Now was my chance to start drinking in the presence of Stevie Nicks, four feet away from me. But I also found myself looking over to Sharon and Jana. But it was seeing Lindsey in person two feet away playing the Dreams guitar licks that did it for me for this song.

EOTW: You gotta love it. I was looking over at Shraon & Jana for the 'Ooh ohh bits'. Oh and at the beginning I found myself singing the Christine 'Oh oh ah ah' bits! I stopped myself. I had a few moments like that.

SHN - "I know there's nothing to say," began Lindsey. After Lindsey sang that first line, I happened to look at Stevie and caught her looking at Lindsey, and she said: "I know." That was so cool to catch that! She really pronouncedly mouthed it, as if to get the message across. She wasn't smiling when she said it, either.

SYW and Peackeeper went down so well. According to George who was up in one of the high banks of seats on the side, it was SYW that really got the crowd going. And I saw the SYW lasso dance for the FIRST TIME! Which meant I had to learn it very quickly!! lol I'll know it for tonight. Argh its so hard to catch Stevie's eye though. Lindsey acknowledged me a number of times, not just fleetingly, but Stevie's eyes were hard to catch.

NGBA - completely silent audience for the quiet bits, unbelievably pure falsetto by Lindsey. God I hope its on MD. AGHR!

SAY GOODBYE - not a whisper in the audience for the final part. Thank God. Ahhh it was bliss. There was too much low level hum though. Probably cause I was so close though.

SILVER SPRINGS - she was doing stuff at the end that was not on the Dance, not on the bootlegs I've heard so far. They were these new phrases that I couldn't even understand, but they sounded so good, so much more FIERCE than what she shouts on the Dance.

Landslide dedication: "Well we just like to take this time, Brisbane, to thank you guys for supporting us. We don't really know any of you," (lol!), "but we really appreciate you coming tonight."

For Beautiful Child she said that 'her gang' had let her do the song, which I thought was a cool turn of phrase for her to use. I've heard her say 'My band' in another bootleg and it sounded so formal, but this was just more fun and friendly. That is how Stevie came across the whole night - not a diva, not a self-absorbed princess, just a stellar vocalist. The 'Your hands held mine' vocals - I wanted to watch Lindsey for that great harmony, but my head flew back to Stevie because I couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth. No - not spit. Just the most pure, glistening, syrypy vocals. (Wow, syrypy has three 'y's.)

For Tusk before the singing starts, Lindsey approached us with his fender for this 'Little Lies video walk' up to the mic.You know how he has this one leg crossing the other swagger - very funny, I had to laugh for one of a few times at Lindsey during the show. I saw Lindsey do the Little Lies video walk right in front of me!! Arghh.

Lindsey did this bizarre but amazing full-body Epilepsy Groove during ALL of Taku's solo before Stand Back. I would've thought he was having an epilepsy attack if it weren't that he was gyrating and spasming in perfect time to the beat! It was awesome.

Another full-body movement that blew me away - Stevie's Vibrating Booty-Shake during one song - I forget which now. It was awesome. back to the audneicne, standing in one spot, wshe was going all out. Her hips were dancing to one rhythm line and her booty was dancing to the other. How could she have a hip problem and do that?? Geez they were so energetic, so intensely physical.

Come - This rocked (der, I guess) - but like all the other songs, the vocals were so good that there wasn't that strange warble to Lindsey's voice that you hear with some of the other bootlegs of Come. Instead the verse vocals were so pure, so haunting... the percussion and guitar of the Come verses - it's magic. Magic. That deep, sporadic bass drum thumping down, straight through my bones and out through the whole arena. I looked around during the following outstanding solo to see if there was any mass exodus like other reviews have reported but there sure as hell wasn't.

WTWCT - This song, with the arrangement they have developed for it by this stage of the tour, is just so good.... It really rocks, and it rocked there in front of me that night!
Mick was mouthing the chorus, and throwing his arm straight up to the ceiling when singing 'Everyone's go-one to the mo-on' while the other hand hit the hihats and his foot thumped the kick.

ISA - Lindsey, two feet away... playing ISA. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to describe that - maybe you need a degree in Literature.

Stevie going to either side of the stage and recognising the banks of fans during GYOW. GYOW - playing the guitar - had to really reach, but Lindsey made a point of letting JC and then me be able to reach the strings too, and I had this ridiculously awesome 'in synch' thing going with him where I would try to pluck madly at the string I could reach, then would pointedly lift my finger up so that he could pull the guitar back a bit to play the next little solo riff from the bridge, then he'd put it back down for us and we'd pluck and grab again, then I'd lift my finger back so he could play the next bit I knew was coming up.

Big Love was magic but it was ruined for me as at the beginning I realised the mic had come away from the MD player in my pocket. I had to risk taking it out and trying to fix it.

The GDW shawl fell down to around her waist at the end of the GDW pose. lol, the song went over so perfectly that I was looking for anything remarkable and stand-outish and that was it!

World Turning - Mick didn't seem to be spitting IMO. It was thoroughly enjoyable too, I don't know what people complain about. Maybe you need to be right in front underneath him?? I don't know. Anyway, I threw up my copy of The Visitor that I'd just bought that day to try and get it just next to the foot of the mic so if he had a chance to sign it or at least notice it he could. But because I didn't want to throw it at his feet and get hauled away by secuirty, the throw turned out to be really lame and of course it happened to arc across and then go directly down some gap between the speaker stage and the stage proper, never to be seen again. I've rung the Centre to see if they can find it, but they think they may only be able to get it when they pull it down after the band goes, which is no good cause I was hanging out for Mick to autograph it.
I was so absorbed by Mick's drum solo that it was only towards the end that I happened to look over and noticed Lindsey crouching down on the side of the stage, smiling. I swear we exchanged a few smiles and glances then, although from Lux's account it could have been her at that point, because when Mick was about done, Lindsey stood up and came over and gave Lux his blue towel. Woohoo! One out of 14,000 crazy screaming fans aint bad. Good work Lux!


AFTER THE SHOW

Long story short is that we had decided that the only way to possibly intercept them at the hotel would be to high-tail it out of the Center before Goodbye Baby.

*Sorry no time to write in the bit about who we met and what was said - I'm getting a lift now out to Concert 2. Will edit in this bit tomorrow.

(Here's my pre-written conclusion. I always need to finish with a flourish - its pathetic)

By virtue (vice?) of our devoted fanship, we all felt like we had earnt this opportunity. But as I said to everyone there, bathing in the afterglow of an encounter with our heroes, although we may have earnt the opportunity, it was the unsolicited graciousness of the individuals (Lindsey, Sharon, Jana, Brett and Taku) who had turned the opportunity of a late-night lobby encounter into the successful fan & band moment that it was.

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