Coachella 2009

Coachella certainly wasn’t getting high marks from everyone. We were stoked to be able to go again this year. Waiting patiently in January for the day when they would announce the line-up. And finally when the line-up made it’s appearance there was a bunch of hand wringing from the local news rag – the Desert Sun – how could Paul Tollett ruin Coachella by inviting Paul McCartney, the Killers and the Cure. Mr. A. had told me of his experiences at past McCartney concerts – what energy Paul would put out on the stage and I was sold. We both wanted to see Morrissey, Leonard Cohen, the Presets, Los Campensinos!, Franz Ferdinand, Joss Stone, Drive By Truckers, TV on the Radio, Henry Rollins, Booker T with the DBT, GlassVegas, the Chemical Brothers, The Killers, Lykke Li, Antony and the Johnsons, Paul Weller, the Orb, the Kills, X, Peter, Bjorn and John, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Tall order and then with the set times bumping into each other we saw some – missed others and added some new sounds to our experience. It was a great time.



Somehow out of some greater luck and Mr. A working for the resort he does we not only had bought tickets but we got Side Stage passes – we had entered the realm of the world of the proper wrist band, a purple cloth band with the words SIDE STAGE in black that got us through the entrance gates for the VIP areas, and to the backstage areas for Outdoor Theater, Gobi, Mohave and Sahara Tents. The plus side of these wrist bands was that we were allowed into areas that had clean toilets, alcohol (really expensive for the shit scotch brand they carried (Dwers) and down right miserly poured and to top it off ice seemed to be as precious as it is in the small bars in France), and the advantage of moving around the back areas although we were not allowed into the main stage area – we didn’t have the proper rank and of course when the act became higher ranked – at the outdoor theater – the less access we had. When Leonard Cohen was slated to be on stage – access was closed as it was for Paul Weller and the security guys got to be pretty testy during the Lykee Li concert. As for the downside – well the worst thing you could say about it was that instead of seeing your favorite group head on you were on the stage with them off to the right or left and you got a side view of the whole process. I really would rather see the show from the front of the house instead of the side – but it was an experience I wouldn’t pass up on again.

The weather could not have been better. There were some slight breezes and the temp the first day Friday was in the mid 70’s. We had spent the morning out in the desert on our bikes and had a great ride and Mr. A went off to work and I was to come get him later in the morning. Taking Avenue 50 from the LQResort made for a straight and easy road to get into the line going directly into the parking lots. I think it took us about 20 minutes from the moment we left LQResort. It was to be a very long and enjoyable day.

Once we were in and sure that the side stage passes were for real and usable we called up some friends who had asked if we would give them our Friday tickets if we weren’t using them. We passed on our good fortune and walked over to the VIP area for a drink and to scope out how the day would open up for us. We sat and listened to the Courteeners and We Are Scientists while we at some lunch, the vegi burger with cheese – barbecued – it was tasty and filling with a coke. I have to say everybody working behind the counters of all of the food and drink concessions were very nice. I really liked We Are Scientists. After a while we decided to drift over to the tents and took in a group called Cage the Elephant. I’m not sure what they were like from the front of the stage but they certainly were exciting from the sidelines. The group hails from Bowling Green, KY and their intensity for their music is energetic. Matt Shultz (vocals), Brad Shultz (guitar), Daniel Tichenor (bass), Lincoln Parish (guitar), Jared Champion (drums)  really put on an exciting electric blitz of sound – these guys were a great find. This is the first song of their collection on iTunes and the rest of the songs are of the same great sound. The lead singer Matt Shultz was truly enjoying himself and jumped out into the crowd to be carried away across the sea of hands. Great act. Enjoy.

After Cage the Elephant we walked over and took in the crazy sounds of Los Campesinos! The drum crazy lead singer was downing the beers like there was no tomorrow and had the crowd going crazy with his quick voiced lyrics. Posted on their myspace page is a couple songs they have posted – of course their “We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed” is loud and upbeat. They remind me of PWEI and some Bloc Party thrown in – oh yeah I forgot to say we got see Bloc Party on Wednesday right before the Coachella Festival – at the Palladium – oh my god they are back and back with a vengeance – with their bass player back in the lineup they redeemed themselves from their horrible set at the Glass House… And what ever happened to PWEI – that’s what I want to know - 

After Los Campesinos! we wondered over to the outdoor theater hoping to see if we could get to the side stage for Leonard Cohen but that was a no go – so we stood out front and listened to Conor Oberst – his set was enjoyable but I have to admit I was only interested in one thing getting in close to the center and as close to the front of the stage as we could. It was surprising how many young people were crowding in to see Mr. Cohen. There was a bit of a wait – I think he came on ten minutes late but the anticipation was like a smell in the air that the desert breezes could not dissipate. Although disappointed that we wouldn’t get on the side stage – getting right smack in the middle about 10 rows back was a great vantage point. I can’t tell you how long I have been listening to Mr. Cohen’s music – I remember listening to Judi Collins, Joni Mitchell and others covering his songs and then when I’m Your Man came out I couldn’t get enough of him. The Jennifer Warnes covers album, I’m Your Fan covers by many of different groups and the tribute to Leonard album were all cds that have been on Mr. A’s and my playlist since the 90’s. Of course the Antony rendition of “If It Be Your Will” is the most heart aching song I have ever heard sung. And to think that we were about to see Mr. Cohen. What an honor. He came out and just started singing after a look of surprise at how many people had gathered before him. Dressed dapper with suit and hat he did each song with a showmanship that is missing in many acts these days and at the end of each song he would tip his hat to the audience and to the members of his band. When those musicians he had on stage with him were playing solos he stood raptly watching them, paying them his respect as we all were as he sang songs from I’m Your Man and The Future, and he sang Bird on the Wire and Who By Fire and then finishing up with Hallelujah. I have heard Rufus Wainwright sing Hallelujah and he does it justice unlike KD Laing who tortures it, John Cale is my all time favorite singer of the song, but we have never seen him do it live and now – now we have heard Mr. Cohen sing his great song in person and the feeling was overwhelming because of these things, the combination of desert night air, the presence of Mr. Cohen and his band, and the crowd who joined into the chorus as if it was a hymn. The night air was filled almost as if a cathedral with all of us raising our voices louder and louder as we moved through the song. I think we were all regretting that the show was about to end. Mr. Cohen chose to do one for song which was unfortunately having sound bleed from the Morrissey show that had started. This was definitely a highlight of the Festival and we had been able to see it.

Unfortunately we had to eat so we missed some of the Morrissey set, but from what I heard he sounded great – especially when he did two songs from the smiths and I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris – one of the best songs in my opinion he has ever written and sung. We made our way as close as we could to the stage to see and hear Paul McCartney – for all of the poopooing that went on about having the old Beatle being part of Coachella the area was filled with expectations of sharing a special evening. He came on about 15 minutes late – not like the hour wait we had for that ass Prince the year before and he did such a much better more energetic set. Starting off with Jet, and playing so many songs from the Beatles’ catalog is is impossible to say which ones were the best – it was like a mounting crescendo of pure joy and energy. He play some songs from Wings, and he did My Love which brought tears to a lot of people’s eyes (everybody around us was wiping the tears away), and then there was Live and Let Die with the fire bombs and the fireworks – and then it was Helter Skelter, Sergeant Peppers, The End. And the evening was over and it was the best day we had at Coachella. Unfortunately we had to miss the Presets whom we really wanted to see and we missed seeing the new sensation Silversun Pickups whom I would have really like to catch.

Silversun Pickups:

 

The Presets:

Saturday we caught Drive By Truckers twice once in the afternoon set and then later than night we saw them play a very simple elegant set with Booker T. It was a very cool set with Booker T and the DBT playing Green Onions. We were able to watch the act from the side stage and I think we got some rather good shots. The Henry Rollins talk was enjoyable and of course I don’t agree with Mr. Rollins on alot of things, but he had the entire tent filled with people listening to him intently – a small miracle when you think of the din that is the sound of coachella. We were hoping to see Glasvegas unfortunately the lead singer got sick and they had to cancel hopefully they will be back next year. Tinariwen were great sounding but I got to be frank I have a hard time watching these guys in their desert robes without thinking about the killings that have gone on against gay people in the Muslim world – we left the tent rather quick – I’m sure their music is good just can’t get past that though. We went to the dance tent and enjoyed the set by the Bloody Beetroots and then headed over to listen to TV on the Radio from the VIP area. We had no desire to sit and watch the Killers and so instead joined the dancing with the Chemical Brothers – that was a great evening of just plain dance music really ramped up. We left after the Chemical Brothers – watching one song by the Killers and found that to be saccharine enough for our tastes – and we did have to be back for Sunday so we called it an early night – 12.

 

Sunday kind of sucked because we wanted to see alot of different groups but they all were playing at the same time. We watched Okkervil River and enjoyed their music, I would have like to see Peter Bjorn and John, Brian Jonestown Massacre, X, Devndra Banhart, but we did get to see Lykee Li – we were back stage but were not able to get up on the stage as there were alot of people who were there before us. And as I told Mr. A I wanted to see Antony and the Johnsons from the front of the stage. We enjoyed the Lykke Li set and moved quickly to center and 3rd row to see the Antony show. Although there was a sound glitch on the second song – he did and his group did not disappoint. I found myself overcome with emotion with each song he sang – I can’t say much more about how much he thrilled me, other than we were able to steal back stage and have his organist get us an autograph – oh my god Mr. A was just choked up by this small gesture by Antony. He will never know how much joy he brought us that day. We wandered around after than sort of in a daze and watched Yeah Yeah Yeahs from the VIP area and then wandered over to hear Paul Weller. Weller was great and we got some great photos of him but we were just drained by Antony’s set and slowly made our way out of the crush of people seating themselves for the Cure at 7:30 and they weren’t going to play for another 3 hours. We exited and were totally wiped after a full three days without seeing the Kills and the Cure. Oh well.

Just a short shout out to the blog staff at TDS (the Desert Sun) maybe if you had left your little tent in the VIP area you would have seen the surprises you complained weren’t available this year. Cage the Elephant and Los Campanios! put down some fun sets, the surprising silence in the body filled tent when Henry Rollins gave his talk, Paolo Nutini’s set at the main stage, Leonard Cohen’s singing Bird on a Wire and Hallelujah with a rousing chorus from the crowd that sounded like a chant, the energy that was Lykke Li and the songbird tremulous sounds of Antony and the Johnsons, the great dj set by Busy P sunday afternoon, the Bloody Beetroots, Crookers, Chemical Brothers and of course 2 and half hours of Paul McCartney. Come on Fessier you need to think about how bloated with self importance you must be when you trash on a once in a lifetime opportunity for most people to see one of the Beatles, let alone it being Paul, who played Jet with the energy we saw the young kids play in the afternoon, and to do Helter Skelter better than U2 and man who would have thought we would ever hear it  – not in a million years – and then to finish off with Sergeant Peppers and The End from the While Album – have you become so bloated with your backwater paper bullshit to believe you could come up with a better set list that included Live and Let Die, Yesterday, Long and Winding Road, Paperback Writer and everybody and I mean everybody in the crowd singing with him and never drowning out his sound system. Bruce Fessier you are a hack.

Paris June 18, 2008 – July 9, 2008

This year our trip to Paris was just incredible. We were able to see so many concerts, ride our bikes (two dahons – packed away in their own special suitcases), be with friends Jack and Victoria, marvel at the sites and sounds of the city, eat fabulous food, buy some great clothes, incredible weather, and espeically have time to spend alot of time together walking, riding and just enjoying the whole day and night together for 3 weeks in our favorite apartment building. Here’s some pictures of our adventure this year. Everybody asks why we go back to Paris over and over – and I think the pictures tell the story.

We were able to see so many concerts this year in Europe:
Joseph Arthur – Café de la Danse
The Bravery – La Maroquinerie
Bruce Springsteen – Parc des Prince
Radiohead – Westerpark – Amsterdam
REM – Westerpark – Amsterdam
La Moche – World Premier – Chatelet Theatre
Richie Havens, The Foals – Soidays – Le Bois de Boulogn
Bike riding in Le Bois de Boulogn was incredible especially when we got onto the bike route around the Hippodrom and found ourselves with packs of other bike riders.
We didn’t get to see any of the Tour de France this yet but for what we saw on TV once we got back to the states, but the trip was the very best.

Patti Smith Orpheium Theater Los Angeles, CA

We had a great September and October. We were very busy going to see concerts. We were able to see David Byrne perform one of the most exciting concerts I’ve ever seen at the Greek Theater. Man did he get the crowd moving with his band and dancers performing music from the Talking Heads, his solo pieces and the collaborations he had made with Brian Eno. We were supposed to go to the Disney Hall that night to see the first casual friday night performance, but when push came to shove we decided living composer trumps dead composers, and we are glad we did – the air was crisp, the sky was slightly cloudy and the temp was perfect and like I said we found ourselves really moving along with his music. If you get a chance to buy the newest CD created by Byrne and Eno – pick it up and give it a listen.

We got to see Bloc Party at the Glass House in Pomona and although we both really like Bloc Party, after having seen them 5 times and having bought all their music – we had to say the performance that night was off. It just wasn’t tight and they were having trouble remembering words. Maybe it was the venue – not my favorite, maybe it was our mood – but we just really didn’t enjoy this one – but are looking forward to seeing them again. The newest album is a very rocking piece of sound.

Duffy at the Orpheium was incredible. That tight little gal has a voice that really rocked the house. I loved “Distant Dreamer” that she used for her encore. And her new song “Rain on Your Parade” is going to be a hit – especially when the djs get to mixing it up for the dance floor. And her opening act was just crazy. Eli “paperboy” Reed – what a great sounding band – tight music and what a voice. Hope to see him again in the future.

Patti – what can I say – I have been converted into a Patti fan and I can’t get enough of her. Her performance was incredible – the best we have seen – at the Orpheium. Her voice as strong and so were her emotions. Her rendition of “Are You Experienced” was one of the best pieces of live music I have ever heard. She had the whole audience in her hands.

Joseph Arthur Café de la Danse Paris, FR

One of the concerts we were really looking forward to when we got to Paris was the Joseph Arthur concert at Cafe de la Danse. We had found tickets for his concert while looking for things to do when we were in Paris and purchased them immediately – unfortunately we were going to have to pick the tickets up at FNAC. We went out walking that day – oh my god did we walk – we walked up to the Opera from our apartment and then walked all the way over to Le Bois de Boulogn looking for the rose gardens – we never did find the rose garden – but we did find ourselves in this wonderful garden filled with peacocks, flowers, grottos and statuary. We got alot of great pictures of that park.

When we got back we were exhausted and were going to settle in for the night but then realized that the Joseph concert was that night. We had about a half hour to make it over to the Bastille area, pick up the tickets and find the theater. We raced out the door. Oh god it was hot that night. We were both sweating like pigs. We got over to the FNAC only to find it closed for the night – so we decided to try to find the theater anyway and see if there were any tickets available at the door – and we also thought well concerts never start on time we’ll make it. Wrong. We got to the theater and did find that there were tickets available – but that he had already started the show – right on time. We got in and stood the entire show over on the sidelines under the stairs watching Joseph give a great one man performance.

Once the concert was over we decided we wanted to buy one of the CD that was recorded of the nights performance – this is one of the things I really like about Joseph – he is always recording his preformances and you can take them home with you that night. We got in line and it was a long line. I didn’t think we were going to get a cd – most of the people up in front of us were looking at the tshirts and some were buying cds – i didn’t see anybody buying anything and i signaled that i wanted to purchase a cd and the sales guy handed one over to me – my luck – it was the last one of the night. Right at that point Joseph came out and was gong to sign things for his fans. David got him to sign his ticket stub and i got him to sign the back of the CD cover. I didn’t make any small talk with Joseph – but David did – told him that he thought “tonight’s show was good but it wasn’t as good as the one at the Troubadour” – that illicited a chuckle from Joseph and we left for the night feeling giddy – and had dinner.

Radiohead and REM Amsterdam

When Radiohead announced it was going to do a tour for in Rainbows David and I said – “We have to go!” and hopefully we would get to see them in Paris when we were going to be there in June/July of 2008. I got on the ticket sites and started searching. On ticketmaster for the netherlands ticketmaster.nl I found the tickets I wanted. Radiohead was going to play in a park called Westerpark. Great – it was GA and we love GA – so we bought the tickets. Last year we were supposed to go to Amsterdam and Marshall our hairdresser told us all the fun he and Douglas had in Amsterdam – so we wanted to go – but for some reason – possibly cuz i was still stressing about my Mom being gone – I just didn’t want to do anything other than just sit around Paris after we had gone to Barcelona. So we didn’t go. But this year we had to go – WE HAD TICKETS FOR RADIOHEAD.

Westerpark is a great venue for a outdoor concert. The park wasn’t too far away from the hotel we stayed at The Times Hotel (Herengracht 137 Phone: 31 20 3306030 ) – it was clean, quiet and within walking distance to the park.

Amsterdam turns out to be a bit warmer than we expected. I went out and got a sweat shirt so I wouldn’t be cold at the concert – but never had to put it on. We got to the concert area about 2 pm – David likes to go early and we sat out in front of the venue with others who hoped to get a spot close to the stage. The nice thing about the venue is there is a restaurant near the entrance, bathrooms and the ticketbooth for upcoming concerts. When we walked into the area we noticed that there were tickets still available for the next nights performance which was REM – someone we enjoyed for most of the eighties and much like Springsteen we let drift away musically, but we had recently purchased their new cd and wanted to hear them and since we were in Amsterdam and there were tickets available – why not? While sitting outside the venue we talked to people, and enjoyed the sun and listened to Radiohead doing their sound check.

When they did finally open the gates we were pretty warm – the sun had been beating down on us all day, but it was well worth it – we got into the pit area and fairly close to the stage. Unfortunately there were these three morons who decided that they should sit in front of us and smoke pot the entire show like it was going to disappear. Their annoying smoke was irritating yet the over indulgence was the most exasperating – they used so much of the stuff – they all fell to the ground at some point in the show and were oblivious to the great music that was going on in front of them.

The music was great though and I am so glad that David was able to capture some parts of the show.

The next day we came back for the REM concert and although less crowded than the night before – these guys really put on a great show and declared that if it rained they would owe everyone a kiss but it did not come to pass – instead we had a brisk evening air filled with great music from a great band.

Madonna Petco Park and Dodger Stadium

When David and I first met Madonna had just released her song Borderline. The song was great and I loved the video at the time. We didn’t buy her LP at the time – but I do remember buying the 45 of the song Borderline – i think it was one of the first purchases we made together. I love this 45 – it was such a hot concept – the cover for the 45 was a poster folded up to hold the piece of vinyl. We still have it and it is in pristine shape. Of course the type is difficult to read – it seems in the early 80’s that was a big thing typesetting wise – make everything indescribably difficult to read. I’ve scanned in some of the cover for you.

Of course she was the sensation all over the place at that time. And we thought just like everybody else she would soon just be another name, but we were all wrong. She has continued to be a great musical wonder – changing her style all the time and yet able to keep her fan base.

Our next encounter with her was with a man whom i had gone out with a number of time in the past in Seattle. Chuck Gerra “Upchuck” (by the way there is a new CD out with Chuck’s music on it if you’re interested Upchuck) called to tell me he was going to be in a Madonna film “Desperately Seeking Susan”. I remember watching the movie a couple of times just to see Chuck in the elevator with Madonna.

We have been buying her cds for sometime now and always have enjoyed her music but had never seen her. While I was looking on francebillet.com I noticed there were going to be tickets available soon for Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet tour in Nice – of course we weren’t going to be in Nice for the concert – but I wanted to see her and we had to get tickets to see her in Southern California. It was imperative. After seeing her at Coachella Fest in 2006 we couldn’t miss her. That show at Coachella Fest had been one of the most exciting experiences we had come across in the many concerts we had attended, especially great was how Paul Oakenfold played non-stop for over an hour in the big tent before she came on and the hot sticky nature of the tent filled with thousands of people just hoping to catch a glimpse of Madonna was just incredible. We had to go – so we had three computers fired up to get tickets in Los Angeles.

We wanted to get up close but when it got to purchasing the tickets for the LA show we got tickets in the first tier behind 3rd base line row M. Not bad – when we did see her at Dodger Stadium – it was a great site line to the stage, but I’m jumping ahead. David was on another desk and wanted to see if he could get seats closer to the stage – and decided since we couldn’t get tickets for Las Vegas – we might as well try to get tickets for the Petco Stadium in San Diego. I don’t know how he did it but he got us seats in the 24th row from the stage. I thought that was pretty cool. Of course our bank account didn’t like the hit – but you only live once – right? So we bought them. Oh my god they were so much better than we thought they would be. When we got into the stadium we found the seats – they were about 8 seats away from the catwalk that she was going to use during most of the performance.

The spent the morning of the concert in a line that we didn’t expect waiting to vote. It didn’t take that long but if there was a line in Las Palmas then there were going to be lines all over the country to vote. So we voted and got on our way to San Diego. Well since we had just got married and we had spent money to see Madonna we decided to stay at a hotel close to the stadium. We stayed at the San Diego Marriott Hotel & Marina – the room and the hotel were very nice – a bit overpriced – but it made it very easy to get to the concert and to get out of the concert. We went out and walked around the stadium, picked up our tickets at the will call and then we went out to have a nice dinner. We ended up a a restaurant called Blue Point – we had enjoyed a meal there a couple of years earlier and decided to try it again. The food was great, the wine was wonderful and we had a great time. The anticipation of seeing Madonna was getting to us – so we decided to just go over to the stadium and get to our seats. Well we didn’t rush in – instead we bought some t-shirts – which cost of fortune and then made our way to our seats. Man were we close.

We heard there was going to be a opening act but nobody knew who it was going to be. Then the dj stand appeared on the catwalk and it was our favorite DJ – Paul Oakenfold – this was an added bonus and it was great because he had played before Madonna the last time we had seen her. We took a moment and went up to the stage to give Paul the thumbs up – we really were enjoying his music. Or course everybody was involved with their phones trying to find out what was happening as far as the election was going. I had the blackberry tuned into the web and was getting updates as fast as they were coming in. I finally got an alert saying that Obama had won and that McCain was going to concede. When I told David this he just stood up and said very loudly – his hands cupped over his mouth – “Okay – listen up everybody – Obama just won!” – oh my god – the cheer from all around that heard David’s shout was very loud and exciting and I guess disturbing to Paul Oakenfold – read what he has to say on his myspace blog about that night. – His set over the crowd became anxious about Madonna coming out and we didn’t wait very long. Oh my god what a show. We didn’t get any video of the show and David’s camera went dead after we took the first couple shots before the concert. But there are plenty of postings on youtube that can give you idea what it was like that night.

Here is one of the opening song from that night – Madonna had some great visual graphics going on before she came on stage – I hope she puts it on the DVD when she does release a DVD of the concert because it was incredible.

Every song was great even the one where she forgot the words – her energy was explosive and every person in the park was up and enjoying the show. David and I both especially liked her performance of the song “Devil Wouldn’t Recognize You” – I found this one video on youTube that shows what a great performance this was even though it is not from that night.

here is one from san diego – even though it isn’t very close to the stage – it captures the feeling.

Of course one of the high points of the night was when she talked about the election and the crowd cheered and cheered – it was such an exciting feeling to be with all these people and cheering in the new and getting rid of the old. I have to say though that the most visually exciting piece of the concert was the “4 minutes” piece. The use of video and sound was just over the top – especially the four rolling stands that had videos playing on them of speakers and then became videos of Justin Timberlake dancing and Madonna dancing to the videos – it was an exciting moment of stage performance. We were pretty exhausted by the end of the concert and struggled through the sea of people to get outside of the stadium and back to the hotel.

Thursday we left Palm Springs at 5:30 pm to get to the Dodger Stadium by 9. It should have been a piece of cake and it was easy getting all the way into LA. We were at the 101 and Grand exit by 7 – and with the Dodger stadium only 1 mile away you would have thought that we had got there in plenty of time. But no – we were caught in a traffic jam the likes I haven’t seen in my life. It tooks us until 10 pm that night to get into a parking place and finally start walking to the stadium which was a good distance away. Fortunately Madonna didn’t go on until 10 and we only missed the first song and while we were taking our time getting to our seats, bathroom break was really needed and then a good stiff drink – Britney Spears came out and did a song with Madonna. Finally we made it to our seats and we had a really good time. The seats allowed us to see the show from a different perspective and it really was a solid show even from the distance of the ball field. The big moment of course was when the song “4 minutes” was played instead of the videos – Justin Timberlake – came out and did the song with Madonna. That was the topper. It was a long day especially after having sat in the traffic jam – but we really had a great time.

Springsteen Parc des Prince Paris, France 27 June, 2008

While we were visiting my Dad and Sister and her kids we stopped into a Starbucks and purchased the newest cd production from Bruce Springsteen. David and I had both been big fans of Bruce’s in the 70’s, some of the eighties but had not really followed him in the past two decades. “Magic” has been on both of our playlists since that week.

iTunes says we have played “Radio Nowhere” 59 times – that’s just on the main computer – doesn’t count the iPods and the cd turning in the car stereo. Listening to him sparked our interest and we started looking for tickets. Lucky us we were able to snag tickets for his concert in Paris when we were planning to be there – after having scored tickets to see Radiohead in Amsterdam at the Westerparc. We had seen Robbie Williams Parc des Prince two years ago and now we were going to see Springsteen. We were really stoked. Our friend Jack and his sister Victoria had decided to join us in Paris during our stay and we kept asking them if they wanted to get tickets to the Springsteen concert – and they could never decide. So we were going to go by ourselves.

The morning of the concert Jack called us and said do you think you could get tickets – I’ve decided I want to come along. Well that was a tall order, but said we would try. We walked down to Les Halles to FNAC to see if there were any GA tickets left for the concert. And guess what there were. We bought one for Jack – Victoria being on crutches wouldn’t be able to attend. So we met up with Jack and took the metro over to the Parc des Prince later than we had gone to see Robbie – it was about 2 in the afternoon. There wasn’t a huge of a line, but there were plenty of people waiting and hoping to get into the stadium early enough to get a good spot in front of the stage. When we got into the line one of the security guards put a wrist band on each of our arms. Wow – we got wrist bands that allowed us to go into the pit area of the stadium – we were only 75 feet from the stage. We sat down on the hot plastic they lay out over the field so as not to ruin the grass and waited for the show to begin.

The videos in this slideshow were captured with a Flip camera. David got alot of footage of the show until one of the security guys came over and told him he had to stop filming. The third film David caught me talking on my Blackberry to Colleen in Palm Desert – I love it that I can be in Paris, in the middle of a huge stadium and talk with a friend in the US. It is an incredible world we live in. I was able during our time spent in Paris to upload videos for the Bravery to YouTube from our Paris apartment, take phone calls from the IT department at work when the servers were down and I was out walking around the streets of Paris with David, Jack and Victoria and talk to my Dad while we were out bicycling in the Le Bois de Boulogne. The last video in this slide show is of the crowd going down into the metro after the show.

The energy level of the concert was over stimulating. When he and the band played Candy’s Room I was filled with a great deal of wonderment. He played almost all of the songs from “Darkness on the Edge of Town”. I couldn’t believe it – here we were two decades later and he was playing the songs I felt the closest to of all his music. How had we come to this point in our life – where we were able to travel so far to see someone we both truly enjoy as a music maker. Luck is all I can think of as the answer. And we are both enjoying this luck as long as it will last. Who’s to say when it will run dry, but in the mean time we will continue to follow our dreams.

I have so much more to say about Bruce Springsteen and what a big difference he made in my life. “Darkness on the Edge of Town” came into my life when I was very unsure where my life would be headed. I was married at the time to my high school sweetheart and yet my desires and wants were not fitting into that world. The music from that album spoke to me about turmoil, about yearnings, about going to the edge. I was in a great deal of denial and anger, i was distroying myself inwardly and distroying the friendship i had with this woman I had been close to for almost 10 years. Everyone of the songs filled me up with different emotional experiences and I was so twisted in my head I couldn’t see them just as music and songs at the time. When we finally were able to make the decision to make the break things had been distroyed that could never be recovered – much like the destruction in the songs – at least I thought so at that time. I put Bruce’s music away from that point on because I just couldn’t see it as part of my new world and life. I occassionally listened to the LPs that we had and they just didn’t fit anymore. But when he sang those songs there on that stage that night I felt the music come back to me – felt that the past had been wiped away from the pure essence of his music and I was just overwhelmed.