Did anyone who reads this blog (thanks to the 2 people who
do) really think I would not have attended the biggest concert of our
lifetime?!?! Special thanks to my Aunt
for her tireless efforts in securing tickets to the concert of the decade!
The concert was advertised but for the first few weeks, no
one knew when the tickets would go on sale.
Chase was a big sponsor which they mentioned a few times during the
show. I missed out on the pre-sale
because I was in the hospital (long story, read the Monkees post when I write
it). I also couldn’t get tickets when
they went on sale to the public. They
went on sale 10 minutes late too! I
wasn’t disappointed, due to the pain killers and caffeine. I sent the e-mail to my Aunt reporting the
grim news and thought that was the end of it.
Little did I know that her penchant to see the Stones, Bon Jovi and the
Boss was driving her to get tickets anyway she could, any I mean anyway! As I was getting off the train after The Who
concert (read the post), I got a forwarded e-mail from eBay. My Aunt forwarded me the e-mail showing that
she bought tickets!! I actually had a
tear in my eye and all I could think of was that I don’t deserve my Aunt. She treats me like the King I think I
am. We bought tickets from a broker in Brooklyn. The shit
hit the fan when we got an email from him stating that he is still working on
seat assignments and we might get an upgrade (broker talk for they don’t have
the tickets and are selling tickets they might not get). But our broker came through with an
upgrade. We were upgraded to the
floor. After being a proponent of floor
seating for a long time, now I like saving money and not having to stand the
entire night by buying cheaper level 2 and 3 tickets. Since MSG got a face life, there is no 3-D or
detailed seating chart so we had no idea what kind of seats we had, leaving it
for chance, I headed into the city.
We took an early train because there were many reports about
the show starting anywhere between 7 and 7:30 although the printed ticket start
time was 7:30. So to be sure, we wanted
to get there early. After a fantastic
meal at our usual chain in Time Square, we walked a few blocks over to the see
the ‘Miracle of 34th Street’. After a relatively easy security check (nothing
like Barclay’s) we were on our way. The
lines at the merch tables were out of control so we just decided to make our
way into the World’s Most Famous Arena.
We took 2 escalators up to the floor level. Since they restructured the arena, we had to
into the 120 section and walk down to our seats. None of the ushers really knew how to get to
our seats so we had to ask a few different ushers. We finally found our section, Section 1. We were above the floor (which the broker
told us) but I didn’t realize we were inclined.
The seats were about 4 feet off the floor, which gave us a nice perch to
view the concert of a lifetime from. We
also had end seats! It really doesn’t
get any better than that. It almost made
the 7 foot tall guy in front of us and drunken assholes from Jersey
behind us, worth it. I ran to the
bathroom and got a cup of water for 5 bucks!
The announcer welcomed us to the show and said that the show was going
to start at 7:30 so please be in your seats by then. As it got closer, he would say 2 minutes and
the crowd would roar. Then we got down
to 90 seconds, 60 seconds, 30 seconds and then a t-minus 10 count. The crowd was counting down, so if anyone
watching at home wondered why we were counting, that’s why. It started with a 2 minute intro film.
With the stage still blacked out, the Boss could be heard
starting one of his infamous 1, 2 counts.
The E-Street band then launched into Land
of Hopes & Dreams. Bruce’s voice
was coming through loud and clear, so loud in fact that I decided to put my
earplugs in. Bruce could have done a
“hits” set, but decided to do a few random songs that have references to Jersey in them, like Wrecking
Ball, a song off his new album.
There was quite of buzz on the internet about Bruce’s bulging pants (and
that’s all I will say about it). I don’t
know if it was from having Jon Bon Jovi joining him on Born to Run or what? They
swapped verses, he thanked us and left the stage. His set was only 28 minutes. I was a little surprised, thinking back to the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert where he played a 2 hour + set.
After an intro film and a short intro by Billy Crystal,
Roger Waters came out. Roger opted to do
a “hits” set and the crowd was on its feet for most of it. The audience really ate up his set. I am not a huge Floyd fan, but can appreciate
them. He then brought up Eddie Vedder to
sing Comfortably Numb which brought
the house down (to that point). Roger
commented that he didn’t want to talk because they only gave him 30
minutes.
Bon Jovi was up next.
I thought my Aunt lost her shit with Bruce and Roger, but she went crazy
when Bon Jovi came up (she’s a fan). The
casual listener knows the songs he played.
Jon started his set facing the audience on a road case. He then called The Boss back up and they did Who Says You Can't Go Home.
Eric Clapton did a mini set of three songs. He started with a sit down acoustic song on
his signature EC Martin guitar playing Nobody
Loves You When You're Down and Out.
He closed with Crossroads. He only had a bass and drummer. He had a full sound from only three
instruments and a voice.
The Rolling Stones played 2 songs!!! I was impressed with the two songs they
played, but felt since they were one of the big reasons my Aunt wanted to go,
we could have gotten at least 3 songs, c’mon Mick! Charlie’s snare had an odd sound, almost
distracting at times. After Mick said
“thank you” and they left after two songs, it had a lot of people scratching
their heads. The only thing I could come
up with was that they were going to be streaming a pay-per-view concert in 4
days and didn’t want people not to buy that by overplaying their market, but
what do I know, I’m just a blogger!
I don’t care for Alicia Keys, but her voice is somewhat
rough like a Carole King type. In fact
her voice was very harsh and sounded like she was trying to sing out of her
range. The drunken assholes from Jersey behind us had no problem booing her off the stage
during her two songs.
The fact that The Who (Roger and Pete) are still around and
rocking, is nothing short of amazing.
They also played a ‘hits’ set.
They did 2 songs from the album they were pushing at the moment, Quadrophenia. I was surprised to hear See Me, Feel Me. Roger had
his shirt undone after the first song.
It’s not that hot up there Roger, keep your shirt on! They closed their set with Tea & Theatre, a most intolerable
song, especially since for the most part, they had a stellar set and Roger’s
voice was strong, except for this song.
Just before they left the stage, Pete, being Pete, tried to keep the
censors on their feet and said “Have a fuckin’ beer!” Watching the TiVo the next day, the censors
weren’t quite able to block that from the broadcast. Pete is always pushing the envelope even as
he’s pushing 70!
I was not in the arena for Kanye’s set. But I did get a 5 dollar bottle of water and
13 dollar burger with onion relish. It
was cooked medium and it was juicy and brilliant. After woofing my half of the burger down we
tried to find my Aunt a long sleeved concert ‘T’. It seems that the Robin Hood Relief Fund
underestimated the demand for the merch, because MSG sold out and the website went
down because I tried to check during the show and it wouldn’t load!
Billy Joel was up next, and his set was probably the best of
the evening. His voice was strong and he
picked the right songs to pace his set.
His band is amazing, Crystal
was backing up Billy on the high part since most of the songs are down a step
or two to make them singable. The crowd
was on their feet again. I’m not a fan
of New York State of Mind, but how
could he not play that song? It was
funny that both my Aunt and I decided to sit down during this song and take a
rest. Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway) had specially
re-written lyrics for wrath of Sandy.
Chris Martin was up next.
He just had his Martin guitar and a microphone. He played a new popular Coldplay song by
himself. He has a nice voice, just not
really a fan of Coldplay. I wouldn’t be
able to sit through a whole show. He
then brought up a surprise that even the organizers didn’t know about, Michael
Stipe or REM fame. My Aunt was singing
along to Losing My Religion. Chris said he came out of retirement to do
this, but then he’s going right back in.
Michael did a great job.
I am and always will be a die hard Paul McCartney fan (even
over the Beatles!), but his set list was uninspired and unorganized. It’s like he picked songs that he knew he
wouldn’t screw up on live TV. He started
with Helter Skelter, a song that I
think is ready for retirement. He really
nailed the high parts, I was surprised, not bad for a 70 year old, poor guy,
still has to work at his age, lol. Then
he surprised me when he swapped the Hofner for the Lessy. I knew the only other thing he could do is Let Me Roll It, and let me tell you,
they did. The Mary Jane was flowing freely
by this point. Then he did an obscure
Wings song Nineteen Hundred and Eighty
Five, although I enjoy this song, I think ten other people of the 17,000
knew it. Diana Krall was invited on to
play for the equally intolerable song My
Valentine. Then Paul strapped on his
Martin to play Blackbird. His voice cracked really badly during this
song. After that he called up the
surviving members of Nirvana, including Pat Smear for a new song. Paul played some sort of 4 stringed guitar,
it looks like it was made out of a cereal box.
Paul swapped the cereal box for the Lessy again to play I’ve Got a Feeling. Since someone had been instragramming photos from rehearsals and
wrote something about fireworks, I knew he would do Live and Let Die. I love
this song, and it’s amazing the heat you feel even in the back of the arena
during the fire and fireworks. It’s
quite impressive. After that, Paul
called Alicia back to the stage and all the first responders came out and she
closed the show with a song about New
York.
It was 1:15 by this point.
I had been up for over 20 hours and was ready to leave. I grabbed my poster and we were on our way
out of the Garden. We easily found a cab
at 1:15am and made our way to Grand Central for a 1:45 train. After getting in at 3:30 I tried to get some
sleep and just drink in what had happened.
The concert of a lifetime! Thanks
to all the artists and my Aunt for making it happen! I owe you a long sleeve T-shirt!
Happy New Year and I’m sure we’ll be keeping busy with
concerts in 2013!
