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Santa
Ana Star
It's a long long way to Tipperary, and a REALLY long way to Albuquerque from St Paul, MN. Gig scheduling interests me, and we often shake our heads in frustration at the travel difficulties involved in any particular tour. I don't understand "why" The Band doesn't arrange the Florida tour to make it easier on the traveling fans; we crisscross the state in a highly inefficient and puzzling fashion, putting hundreds of extra miles on our rental and on US. (memo for next tour: lease a Lear jet) I can only thank God that SueC is a mastermind of maps and dubious directions and a god at the wheel (as long as you keep her liberally supplied with coffee and maple-nut goodies). A bright bulb pointed out to me some time ago that the next gig can only be as far as the equipment truck can go in 8 to 10 hours. That was something that hadn't occurred to me. It was a 26-hour drive for the truck to Albuquerque, hence the tour day off this week was Monday for travel. The Redhead had scoured the internet and had found us a cheap flight out of St Paul. Unfortunately, said cheap flight left bright and early at 7 a.m.! It sounded like a good idea at the time. Sigh My heart fell as I sat on the side of my bed at 2:30 a.m. after the gig, holding my travel alarm clock and worked back when I needed to get up. Let's see: the flight leaves at 7am, we need to be there 90 minutes before, that's 5:30, have to drop off the rental, need 30 minutes to get to the airport, an hour to finish packing and get dressed. I grimly set the alarm for 4:30 a.m. thinking that a 2 hour nap is better than no sleep at all. Next time I'm fronting out the extra 50 bucks and going America West at 10am! We made our flight with only minutes to spare. We were confused by the two terminal system at the Minneapolis Airport. Rather than define one terminal as "main" and the other as "charter", the powers that be had given them proper names that didn't mean jack to us. We flipped a coin in the car, and picked the Humphrey terminal. Wrong guess! What we needed was Lucky Lindy. We had picked the charter terminal and had to turn around and find the other one. It was a blessed relief to get on the plane and strap myself in to the seat.  I closed my
eyes and pacified myself with thoughts of the pool at our hotel in Albuquerque,
of lying in the sun with a Margarita in hand, turning from side to side
and roasting myself to an attractive pink. I was startled from this
pleasant daydream by the plane's captain who helpfully pointed out to the
passengers that Albuquerque was a couple of degrees warmer than Minneapolis.
Wait! He was joking, right? Or did he say a couple DOZEN degrees
higher? We were going a 1000 miles south! Isn't Albuquerque
WARM???
It is not! At least not in October. Big Sigh! The disappointed, nee heartbroken and bedraggled travelers arrived without incident and made their way to the rental car counter. I told SueC to pick the car of her dreams and she opted for a white SUV (that's the car of her dreams?). Rather than flipping another coin to choose our direction on the highway, I jerked open the map and frantically found Las Cruces; a town located in the opposite direction of our hotel. Things started to look familiar on the road as we passed by Albuquerque and headed to Bernalillo.  I love
Albuquerque! One of the best things about following a rock 'n roll
band around the country (and the world) is going to places you might not
go on your own. Yes, Wilmington, DE is a place I'd prefer not to
go to again, and sometimes it works that way. We didn't spend much
time in Albuquerque proper last visit, and I'm not a fan of the city.
But the area around Albuquerque is nothing like I have ever seen, and I
love it. The mountains, the air, the bosque and the southwest light
that has inspired so many artists, invigorates me, charges me up somehow.
I've thought a lot about Albuquerque since our first Moodies visit, and
enjoyed it just as much the second time around. Our hotel on the
reservation is a lovely place, with a kind and friendly staff and has the
best guacamole I have EVER had. Put that with one of their turquoise
Margaritas and you're sitting close to heaven. My opinion on their
guacamole is shared by My Favorite Bass Player, who was seen lovingly sharing
his platter with his beautiful and friendly wife. It was indeed cool
here, and the pool was out of the question, but I ventured out very early
yesterday morning to see the sun rise over the mountains, and experienced
a feeling of peace and satisfaction that more than made up for it.
THE VENUE The Santa Ana casino is an Indian casino and is new and attractive (though nothing compares to Mohegan Sun). The venue itself was nothing special and in fact, reminded me of my high school gymnasium. I'm amazed at the list of stellar performers that opt to entertain at the Indian casinos, so even if the facilities tend to be sub-par, the list of entertainers is not. It was a large room with a temporary stage at one end, with flat seating on the floor and bleacher type seating on the sides and at the back. A local told me that it seated about 2800. There were a lot of empty seats immediately before the concert, but it seemed to fill in quite a bit during the first several songs. I would guess attendance was around 2000. The stage was moderately high and the front row was about three feet from the stage; I could see the Jays shoes from my seat. There was no gate at this venue and the stage was shallow; the mikes were close to the edge of the stage, perhaps four feet. Not a lot of room up there! I watched Justin very carefully lean back to avoid hitting Ray's mike as he walked behind it during the Shuffle. Security is not a problem at most Indian casinos and this one was not an exception. I've found Native American security men to be tough and stern and they mean business. (They tend to be spectacularly good looking too, but that's another story!) This was emphasized at Santa Ana last night when two seat-hoppers in the very center of the second row with forbidden cameras were nailed by security. Instead of complying with the guard's demand for their cameras, they whined and whoozled around and completely ruined Tuesday Afternoon for the surrounding legitimate patrons. They did not immediately comply with either the request to turn over their cameras or the subsequent demand to see their tickets (which were obviously for other less desirable seats), and the guard finally told them to "get out of this row". While seat-hopping is a common tradition among Moody fans (and I've done it too), the gracious and considerate fan leaves immediately and with as little disturbance as possible to the rest of the audience. I've returned to my seat at Atlantic City to find it occupied by hopefuls, and I don't mind as long as they slip out immediately and quietly. How The Band carries on with all this commotion RIGHT in front of them is a marvel! It showed a distinct lack of consideration to the performers, too. BTW, the guard returned later and leaned over ME to return one of the seat-hopper's cameras, sans battery. It just never ends! LOL Though not a sell out, it was a good crowd. THE FASHION REPORT RT- White long slvd shirt, black slacks GE- Black long slvd two ladies shirt, black slacks JH- White long slvd Oxford shirt, black jeans : ) JL- Black ruffled shirt, black slacks GM- Black sleeveless shirt – ooooooh! There was no intermission, therefore no change in clothing. THE CONCERT The permanent setlist was performed without an intermission as is often done at casinos. Got to get those suckers back out there stuffing quarters in the slots! The concert started off rocky, with a major screw-up right off the bat, courtesy of TDMH. Justin came in several measures too early with the ending triplets on The Voice. John gave him a very surprised look! Even though Justin recovered at that point, he had thrown Gordon off and the song ended in complete disarray. One fan couldn't wait, and gave JH flowers at the end of Tuesday afternoon. He laid them on top of the speakers behind him. A fellow in the second row was inspired to join Ray and sing FML to his wife beside him. Loudly! His embarrassed wife joined in the collective shushing. Love is a wonderful thing, but PLEASE keep it toned down during the concert! The Actor sounded wonderful tonight, Justin was in great voice and it took that song to the next level. TSIYE missed some lyrics this evening (a rare occurrence) when JH didn't make it back up to his microphone in time. YWD saw new audience "participation" when a pair of lucky seat-jumpers in front row center punctuated the keyboard's ascending part at "When the music plays" by rising out of their seats and pointing skyward as if to hit the top note. It was cute! GE was seen hitting on oxygen at Albuquerque as he usually does at Tahoe. One time caught him waving to the audience with one hand, as he held the oxygen mask to his mouth with the other hand. Justin wasn't alone tonight at center stage, but shared it for most of the concert with a small blue triceratops at the foot of his mike. The stuffed dinosaur didn't sing, but added a bit of color to the usual black and white stage scene. Great concert, good audience! We were quick to return to our hotel bar and I thoroughly enjoyed what was to be my last turquoise Margarita and platter of guacamole. Jenna was not our waitress this evening, but came over to chat and thanked me again for gifting a pair of second row tickets to the hotel bartender. His excitement at getting to hear the Moodies, and his obvious enjoyment at the concert were my reward. SueC and I raised our glasses to toast Albuquerque, and we shared the hope that the town of mountains and light will be a stop on many more Moodies tours. Yakki Dar! MaggieMay |
