| Marymoor Park On The Road With MaggieMay... The road to Seattle was very dark. I kept telling BG that it was quite beautiful during the day. I'd point at some lights at the side of the road and put the cd back on Nightflight. We made good time and avoided the traffic, and arrived in Seattle at 2am, had dinner and went to bed. I'm afraid she'll get over her jet lag and the time change just in time for her flight back to Disneyworld. LOL Not a darn thing happened during the day - at least there were no demonstrations and someone came to clean our room, so the janitors' power movement may be limited right now to Portland. A group of us had hired a car and driver to take us to Marymoor Park, but our driver got stuck in traffic. While we waited for our driver, a very long white limo pulled up to our hotel door. A couple of big guys got out, opened the trunk and took out and put together a gold wheelchair. I was amazed! The LAST time I saw a GOLD wheelchair was when the publisher of Hustler Magazine was having lunch at my hotel in LA. I told the girls, you know, Larry Flynt has a wheelchair just like that and out of the limo door came... Larry Flynt! How can anyone be lucky enough to see the Shame of Cincinnati TWICE in one lifetime? I called SueC just to "share" my good fortune with her. Oh, she was amazed. I had to wonder why it couldn't be Harrison Ford that keeps popping up. Oh well! I'm sure Larry has MUCH better stories. LOL It was a pretty and fairly short drive to Redmond. I had directions, another gal had directions and since our driver seemed tenative, we watched him like a hawk. We took our turn into Marymoor Park and saw a windmill. A large, old-fashioned Dutch-type windmill. What's up with that? LOL Our car was soon stopped by official looking people in khaki shorts and badges and they wanted our driver to unceremoniously dump us out, but as luck would have it, my bad knee was still aching from the numerous mountain hikes I've taken of late. Since I looked like a big tipper, our driver was loathe to leave me with miles to walk to the venue's front gate. SueC keeps asking my husband for a handicapped parking pass, but he has a "thang" about fibbing in writing and we don't have enough dirt on him to get him to do it for us. (Ed: Oh, he would if he had to *travel* with us!) Our driver did a darn good job of pitiful cajoling and the big woman traffic guard finally caved in and directed him toward the secret entrance at the back of the venue. As we got out, Angel whispered to me about limping and I was reminded of a joke... The little boy began limping, and his parents, concerned, took him to the doctor who found no medical reason for the limp. They took him to specialists who were stymied by his condition. STILL, he limped. Finally, his mother asked him: Honey, WHY are you limping? He replied: I'm Chester and I work for Mr Dillon! Sigh I suppose the girls will insist that my BACK hurts terribly tomorrow evening around 6pm. It's sad and sorry, but what else can I do? THE VENUE Marymoor Park is the poor man's Wente. There's an area of food and drink offerings , various porta-potties (horribly named Honey Buckets), some hills and a stage. There ain't much more than that! There are a limited number of chairs in front of the stage and a large area for lawn seating. They've marked a path with spraypaint and you pass group after group of picnicers sitting in low beach chairs munching out of coolers. There were kids running around and at one point I passed a group tossing a baseball to a pair of youngsters. The only thing missing was dogs and frisbees. It looked like a nice way to spend an evening. It's difficult to travel across America by airplane and bring beach chairs, coolers, dogs and frisbees so BlueGlow and I had opted for a couple of really bad front row seats. 14 and 15 don't sound TOO bad, until you realize that's how many seats you are from dead center. The seating looked very flat and there were a number of rows. The seating is split into two sections and divided by a center aisle. The stage is another black box, but is MUCH larger than the one at Humphrey's in SD. The sides and back are enclosed with black mesh screening. The stage is covered and there is an overhang, but nothing that would help the concert-goers seated in the risky open area. The weather report was encouraging, but I saw a number of dark clouds in the vicinity. The stage is high, at least 5 ft or higher and the front row is at least 10 feet from the stage. I'd guess that the mikes are at least 5 feet from the precarious edge. If you fell off that stage, you'd feel it and I didn't see any toes, booted or otherwise over the edge. Safety first! LOL There was quite a speaker setup: a large pair of 18 speaker units with a small speaker underneath flying and a pair of small front fill speakers sitting on either side of the stage. Underneath the flying speakers was a large 6 ft by 8 ft box. It looked pretty formidable. THE FASHION REPORT GE - Two Ladies shirt first half, hula shirt second, black slacks JL - White long slvd bib shirt, leathers, boots JH -Pink long slvd ruffled shirt with tshirt on underneath ( I didn't see which t-shirt it was), black jeans Bernie - Black see thru top, black slacks Norda - Black jacket, camisole, black slacks Paul - White striped long slvd shirt Gordon - Leather shirt first half, white shirt with black design second, white slacks No one's attire stood out this evening. THE CONCERT. I think I can best describe this as a situation of What Goes Up, Must Come Down. This concert barely hit the "Good" category. It was tired and lackluster with few bright points (this description fits the venue, too!) Despite the array of speakers, the sound was loud, but bad, poorly mixed and distorted. It was very difficult to listen to, and I spent the evening jabbing my ear plugs in farther and farther. Everyone on stage looked and acted tired, with even the ever-chipper and energetic Norda down a few notches. Playing seemed a huge effort. I'm not surprised at the performers since the audience was laid back to the point where I wondered if the people in back were taking naps. Both the performance and the applause was perfunctory. *I* began to feel tired just watching it. The two exceptions to this no-energy, no-enthusiasm performance were Singer and SeeSaw. Both had only a small glow - not their usual. Graeme did a nice job with H&H. Everyone just seemed TIRED this evening! Wasn't Friday the 13th LAST night? JH was particularly and noticeably off. There were a number of small (though not significant) guitar "fluffs" on too many songs to mention. His vocals were weak and strained and though it was tough to hear thru the poor sound, I thought his voice sounded "cloudy". I had noticed JH rubbing his throat last night, but didn't hear any effect on his vocals in Portland. He again was rubbing his throat, but tonight I could hear a difference in his voice. He looked tired, he acted tired, he played tired and he sang tired. There was no energy and no life to it. He TRIED, I'll give that to him. I just don't think he had anything to give tonight. Perhaps the Moodies should reconsider their time-honored tradition of playing 6 nights in a row. Maybe their excellent performance last night in Portland took too much out of them. <shrug> I don't know. I fished my Marymoor Park ticket out of my purse and looked at the price. It was a shocking $131.17 for a reserved seat. This performance wasn't worth that amount of money. It was barely worth $31.17! The only highlight I can think of tonight was viewing Norda and Bernie walking in a circle behind Bernie's keyboard like two female Groucho Marxs. It was too cute for words! All they needed was a fedora, black glasses with the big nose, a mustache and an unlit cigar to make the picture complete. Everything is relative and you sometimes need a lousy performance in order to appreciate a really good one. Tahoe may have been one of the best performances I've ever seen, and this was without QUESTION, one of the worst. Like everything else in life, tomorrow is another chance. My hope is that every Moody, big or small has hit the hay and is fast asleep in bed. Have a good rest and try again tomorrow. That's all ANYONE can do! MaggieMay I have love enough for one, And I have dreams enough for three, I have my hopes to comfort me... (Ed: Invisible photos on this page courtesy of MaggieMay. Hey, I'm not there, and can only work with what she sends me.) ;-) |
