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Xcel
Energy Center
We left Stephen's Auditorium, still marveling about the synergy between the audience and the performer creating that special concert, and piled into the rental and drove off toward St Paul. The 225 miles passed without a hitch and with few stops. I rode shotgun and attempted to keep MYSELF awake by peppering The Redhead with philosophical questions. She's full of surprises and a proved again to be a deep and thoughtful person. The road trips are a metaphor for life for me, with the journey being as important as the destination. We gained an hour and so arrived in St Paul at 1am. It was cold! I now understand Justin's sniffles during a tour, for I'm delicately dripping as well. The stress of sweltering in Florida one week, then freezing one's tush the next, the hotel rooms and life on the go wear on you and no amount of vitamin C can undo what exhaustion does to your body. Our hotel looked to be a nice place, but no one was waiting at the door, and I momentarily feared that we might have to wander the halls trying various doors until we found an empty room. I had wisely informed the hotel that we would be arriving after midnight, and they had a room waiting for us, but the desk clerk seemed surprised that we might need or expect help with our copious amount of luggage. It surprises everyone that we appear with 10 bags of various sizes (and substantial weight) for a one or two night stay! We're required to make repeated explanations and usually forced to admit our "hobby". I have to say that almost everyone we meet wants to chuck his humdrum life and join us on the road. Apparently, our hotel did not often have middle of the night arrivals, but the desk clerk offered us the security guard's services. Young Aaron proved to be a gem, and not only schlepped our bags to our room, but agreed to undertake a search and destroy mission to find us COFFEE. SueC is famous in hotels all over the world for her unique ability to drink pots of coffee day or night. Make that day AND night! We were hungry too, but room service had petered out at 11pm and Aaron could find nary a crust of bread to feed us. Still, the coffee warmed us up, and we promised ourselves a nice breakfast in the morning at a hour more suitable for our hotel. 24-hour room service is a gift from God, is all I can say. Our hotel's restaurant redeemed the honor of St Paul the next morning with a fabulous brunch served by a delightful waitress. The dipping sauce for the fruit was worth the trip and we argued over which one of us was going to get to lick the bowl.  I caught
up on email and various hanging matters while The Redhead and SueC went
out to check the shops. Their reconnoitering was spent profitably
and they returned with one of the funniest cards I have ever seen and a
fair idea of "how" to get to the nearby venue.
THE VENUE The Xcel center is a hockey arena. I don't think I ever saw the outside of it, or enough to figure out what it looked like. Our hotel had a shuttle that ran us to the box office door. There were a great many hanging hockey jerseys as the main decoration. There was a plethora of women's restrooms. Yeah! This is always a good thing. The hockey arena had been cut down to half for the concert, and a friendly security guard told me that the entire arena sat 19,000 for hockey, and would seat perhaps 8000 max in the concert configuration. He said that around 5000 tickets had been presold for the Moodies concert and thought that attendance was between 5000 and 6000.  Seating included the floor
(over the ice), sides, two club levels and seating above that. Some
sections looked sold out, and some had only a few people in them.
The stage was high enough that you couldn't see their shoes from the front
row and there was a gate. I overheard one of the security guards
say that he's always reassured that it will be an easy concert (for security)
when he sees a bunch of walkers and canes come in the door. I wanted
to whack the young whippersnapper myself with the nearest cane. I
think a gate is stupid with the stage that high, but if it reassures the
venue and keeps security calm, that's ok with me!
Since Xcel is first and foremost a hockey arena, a temporary floor is set down over the ice. One guard told me the ice is there 12 months a year. While that would be great in July, it's not too great in October. I haven't had problems before with it, but tonight I did notice the cold. The front of the seating next to the gate had some kind of metal platform on it, and I could feel the cold air swirling around my ankles. It wasn't too bad, but it was noticeable. THE FASHION REPORT RT- White long slvd shirt, black slacks, no change at half GE- Red car shirt (black shirt with a red car), black slacks, no change at half JH- White tux shirt with the pin striped front, white tshirt worn underneath the tshirt, black slacks with the stripes down the legs, no change at half JL- Black long slvd ruffled shirt (like the white one), cuffs undone, black slacks, white Oxford shirt second half  JL's
new ruffled shirts (both the black and the white) are a great look for
him. The white Oxford in the second half had an additional button
undone so that his necklace and cross peeked out from time to time.
: ) VERY nice! It was another outstanding hair night
for JL. Ray and Graeme's hair looked their usual fabulous,
lest anyone think I don't notice. I do! LOL
THE CONCERT The permanent setlist was ably performed without incident and included the usual 20 minute intermission. I'm very curious about what The Band does at intermission. Do they sit down and rest? Have a smoke? Drink more water or get rid of the water they did drink? Chat? Play pingpong? Check their hair? The audience was quite different from the night before at the University of Iowa. The college campus venue attracted an intellectual, hippie type crowd. Xcel was a rougher group, heavier drinking, though not as unruly as Kalamazoo. There were a number of serious/internet fans there mixed with the locals. I was "entertained" by a pair of local fans in the second row behind me who were thrilled to be there, but liquor fueled. The gentleman in the new Moodies t-shirt talked through most of the concert; he was just so excited to be there and uninhibited enough that we all knew just how excited and thrilled he was. When he wasn't talking with his buddies through the songs, he was SINGING. Very loudly. I considered pointing out that his behavior was a bit much for me, not to mention a bit loud, but I suspected he would not appreciate or heed my helpful comments and that I might be wearing his beer for the rest of the concert. To be honest, his singing wasn't all that bad, and I felt like I was hearing The Actor in stereo, with Justin singing on the stage and his drunken fan lustily singing away behind me. At least he was on key! LOL My only true moment of worry was during Words You Say. SueC had run off for a quick ladies room break and missed the fellow's sobbing during that song. I glanced back, and his girlfriend had her arm around him and was attempting to comfort him, when he raised his head, and gasped: "I think I'm going to kill myself"! Whoa Nelly! That sure caught my attention, and the attention of the fellow in the seat next to me and directly in front of overcome sobbing fan. Our eyes met and he looked as alarmed as I felt. I believe I spoke for both of us when I said, "oh, shit!" I fervently hoped that sobbing fan was fondling a large bottle of aspirin in his pocket rather than a Smith and Wesson. I wonder if John caught this scene from the stage as the fellow was almost in front of Ray. Sobbing fan made it through WYS, and I breathed a sigh of relief. There certainly are songs I don't particularly like, but I'm not ready to kill myself over Words You Say. The sound was "different", but not bad for a hockey arena. By different, I mean that Justin's vocals in the first couple of songs sounded reminiscent of Rudy Vallee singing through a megaphone. JH's vocals were much louder than usual in Gemini Dream and JL's couldn't be heard. All in all, it was a good concert with a good crowd, but not the more enjoyable concert experience provided in Ames, Iowa. MaggieMay |
