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Dodge
Theater
I knew that there would be some rocky days on the road, and steeled myself for the tough one. Wednesday, October 30th will be a day that will reign in infamy. Tourwise, that is! We left Albuquerque reluctantly for the quick flight to Phoenix, and then were left with a predicament. We heard the siren song of Las Vegas and didn't see any good reason to stay the night in Phoenix. Three great minds were put to the plan. After a search of the internet and calls to America West, we finally decided that it would be close, but we "could" make the last flight on AW to LV at 10:35. It would be risky, and require split second timing, but we could do it if all went well. Unfortunately, we ran into a BIG problem. The problem had a name, and it was Brian at the America West check-in counter. We've had our problems with America West over the years, lost luggage, WET luggage, canceled flights and rude representatives. SueC is still carrying a grudge against Troy at America West, and we're very careful not to remind her of Troy because we know the next ten minutes will be a violent rage of profanities and threats of mayhem, all well deserved. Brian has now replaced Troy on the top of our list and like the Alamo, he will be remembered. Grrrrrrrrrr. Our principal problem was what to do with our luggage. Red travels light, and while we admire her, and try to follow her lead, we just can't do it. A month long road trip which includes Minnesota and Florida requires a variety of clothing, and though we packed the minimum, we just couldn't do it in one bag. We briefly considered dragging everything to the venue in hopes that they might check it there for us. The pleasant gal on the phone line at America West told us we could check our luggage in and get our boarding passes four hours before our flight, but that there were no storage possibilities in the post 911 days at the Phoenix airport. We picked up our luggage, threw it on a cart and proceeded to spend a bizarre afternoon on a bench in front of the airport door waiting for 6:35pm to arrive. It was not without interest. As we smoked on our bench, the cigarette smoke effect enhanced by copious amounts of car exhaust, 2 white vans pulled up to the curb. White vans are a signal to the seasoned traveling fan, and we knew "someone" was about to leave the airport. No, it wasn't our Moodies, but it was someone in music. This band was apparently supported on tour by Nike, for a large number of Nike sports bags were brought out and piled in to the vans. A vigilant traffic cop tried to shoo the vans from the curb, and a yelling match ensued between the official and one of the van drivers. The van driver won! Eventually, several black men made their way out of the airport to the vans, followed by several young airport employees. I wasn't sure at first that they WERE airport employees, because they were smiling. Who were these men and why were the young ladies smiling? The three middle-aged, middle-class Moodies fans sat on the bench and wondered. Finally, The Redhead couldn't take it anymore, and announced to us that she was going to go ask the gals who the guys were. That seemed a better plan than approaching the guys and asking if they were someone famous. With a barrage of excited smiles, they told her that she was in the presence of Bone Thugs. SueC and I could hardly CONTAIN our excitement! The enamored employees did not want to risk their jobs by approaching the rappers, and convinced Red to ask for an autograph. As Justin says, it's ALWAYS a pleasure (and if you believe that, I have some nice seafront property to sell you) and Red did not want to deny Bone Thugs the pleasure of giving her an autograph. SueC and I watched as Red approached one of the Thugs and were amazed when Mr Thug began to pat and rub her back. Red has that effect on people! We saw Bone Thugs safely off, and Red came back and told us that Lazy Bones had nicely given her an autograph and upon asking her where she was from, asked her if she knew "Nelly". He told her that Nelly was his homeboy, and Red brightly replied, oh, mine too! Red then asked us what a homeboy was! LOL Having made our first connection with rap music, and having smoked ourselves into a nicotine od, we made our way to the America West checkin counter, thrilled to be finally rid of our luggage responsibility. A line was forming at the America West counter, and since we had e-tickets, we opted for self-check in. At exactly 6:30pm the computer allowed us to check in for our flight. We whooped and high fived and were in general good spirits. The three of us danced up to the luggage counter, knowing that in minutes we'd be on our way to the concert. And then we met BRIAN! Brian was not a happy person, and didn't like it that WE were happy. He reminded me of every little person I've met who is unhappy and has a tiny amount of power and uses the most inconvenient moment to point out to you his power. He was purposely slow, and when we encouraged him to rush a bit (and very politely) as we had a car waiting, he pointed out the OFFICIAL policy was that one can not leave the airport after being issued a boarding pass. AAAACK!!! Not one of the several America West employees had told us that, even after fully understanding our intent to go to a concert. We rolled back on our heels and exchanged meaningful glances. A clock began loudly ticking in my head as the spiteful Brian began to move in slow motion. Red made some lame excuse about finding "Char" an amiable America West employee in order to sprint down to the curb and hold our car. SueC and I endured a horrible 20 minutes with the evil Brian, who knew EXACTLY what he was doing. We waited and waited and I bit my cheek until it bled. Finally he could keep us no longer (after repeated comments of "what's your hurry? Your plane doesn't leave until 10:35!") and we broke from his death grip of misery and pain and sprinted thru the airport to our car. We found Red with her arms around our annoyed driver, holding him captive for us, slid into our car and made our way to the Dodge Theater. The president of America West will be receiving three letters about Brian, and my only hope is that his hands tend to chap when cleaning toilets. THE VENUE The Dodge Theater is in downtown Phoenix (the "hood" as Alvin in the airport told us), a ten minute drive from the airport. It's a big, brand new theater and it sucks. Intimate it is not! It's a big place, seating around 4000 and the floor was very full. The venue is WIDE and has seating past the stage on both sides. The two sections against the wall did not appear to have been sold, a mercy imo. The pit was the pits. Front row was a loss at the Dodge. The chairs were at least 15 feet from the stage and the only section fully in front of the stage was the middle three. The aisles between the sections were wide enough to drive a car through. It was a fairly low stage, around 3 and a half feet, and the mikes were pushed up to around two feet from the stage (for as much good as it did us with that huge gap there). There were a handful of attendees in the balcony over the two club levels. The damn place looked like a hockey arena. THE FASHION REPORT RT- White long slvd shirt, black slacks, no change at half GE- Black short slvd shirt with white embroidery on the right chest, black slacks, Jimi Hendrix shirt second half JH- White long slvd shirt, black slacks with black stripe down the sides, no change at half JL- Black long slvd ruffled shirt, black slacks, white long slvd bib shirt at half GM- Black sleeveless shirt : ) THE CONCERT The sound is admittedly hard to judge at the front of a hall, but hell, we were 15 feet back in the second row center of the pit (a gracious gift from a fan who WISELY passed on Phoenix). My impression was that the sound was weak in this bigger than usual venue. The permanent setlist was performed with a 20 minute intermission. I was very disappointed in English Sunset tonight. It sounded "dead" and was without teacup OR "England". I don't know if JL was asleep and it went past him, or if he just didn't have the energy to shout it out. There was no energy in English Sunset or in the rest of the concert for that matter! The boys in the band seem to do better with warm bodies right up against the stage. LOL I had to leave the ball before the stroke of midnight, actually, I had to leave at Nothing Changes. If someone fell off the stage, or climbed on to it, I don't know! The best part of the concert was catching up with a friendly fan behind us, and being dissed by a pair of unpleasant JL.com "mebers" in front of us. Most of the excitement of the evening was hoping and praying that the gal in the third row in the section next to us would not fall out of her very revealing top! Please, God no! Hopefully, she was sitting far back enough that the Band just thought she was wearing beige. This was a lackluster concert in an unlovable hall. For those that passed on Phoenix, you didn't miss nuttin! MaggieMay |
