| Humphrey's By The Bay
Pechanga was a nice place! 
I left there thinking I'd be glad to return,
but it looks like The Moodies are going to work their way thru the entire
list of Indian casinos, and there seems to be a NUMBER of them. I definitely
preferred it over Viejas. I felt very uncomfortable seeing my favorite band
play in the middle of a shopping mall. A DISCOUNT mall, no less!
LOL Pechanga is a bit far from civilization, but the hotel is decent,
the food is good and I won money. Two-nighters are always welcome!
As I left Pechanga to grab my cab, I turned to look back and had a good laugh
on myself. There was a large (fake, but *nice* fake) OAK tree in the
entrance - the symbol of the Pechanga tribe. How in the world had I
missed it? At least I left knowing its significance. We left the sunshine at Pechanga, too. There's a name for the weather in San Diego - June Gloom. It was a bit warmer than when I arrived on Wednesday, but it was obvious it was going to be cool in the evening. There was a great deal of traffic backed up in San Diego: the result of the marathon. Apparently ALL the runners had stayed at Humphrey's and wanted late checkout. I arrived to discover two other fans moping in the lobby, who had been waiting hours for their room to be ready. I was glad they had tipped me. I fixed the desk clerk with a steely eye and firmly told her I had been promised early check-in. sigh I'm going to have to work on my steely-eyed gaze. Luckily, I have a "mentor" who seems to have that gaze down pat, and freezes your soul with it. ; ) My room at Humphrey's By the Bay is huge with a triangular balcony and an expansive view of the marina. I was horrified though, to see a small kitchen included. Do they expect me to cook? It's an odd little place, but cute and with lots of personality. 
The staff is very
pleasant, the food is good and the beds are comfortable. It has two
major drawbacks: Room Service peters out at 10 or 11 (depending on
the day of the week) and they don't have high-speed internet access.
ACK! I'm reduced to dial-up! It's so humiliating. I took
advantage of the nice (though continued cool and overcast) weather and listened
to the sound check on my balcony. I *swear* I heard A Whiter Shade
of Pale on a keyboard echoing through the marina, and most definitely the
beginning of Stairway to Heaven. A little Tuesday Afternoon, too!Humphrey's deal is unusual as venues go. The tickets were expensive but they included dinner. One didn't have the choice - you're getting dinner whether you like it or not. The lobster bisque was good, the NY strip was ok and the fruit tart was inedible. I'll know not to order it tomorrow night! Three of us *tried* the bar for an after-concert nightcap, but the place was packed and LOUD. Since conversation would have been impossible, we retreated to one of the rooms and spent a few hours in laughter and stories. We tried to put the Moody Blues "puzzle" together, each of us contributing a different part. There's no way to solve it, but it's darn fun to try! THE VENUE I have to give Humphrey's points for convenience. It's a short walk to the restaurant from my room, and then feet from the restaurant door to the venue. They examined purses and bags for dangerous cameras, but did it in a perfunctory and nice way. The entrance and narrow corridor to the seating area is also the smoking section. LOL The venue is an attractive facility. 
There's a bar and restrooms at the back and a
view of the marina on your left (as you're facing the stage). The stage
itself is a large black box. It reminded me of the kind of box you
have puppet shows in. Both the exterior and the interior of it are
black. The stage was VERY high, probably to allow view from the back
of the venue. The seating area looked pretty flat to me. The
hard plastic folding chairs are tied together with plastic twist ties and
rest on a carpet of fake grass. There are three sections. If
you're on the side, you're pretty far off. The stage isn't very wide,
or very deep. I don't think a big band could get on there. If
they *did*, they sure wouldn't be comfortable!THE FASHION REPORT JL - Black long-slvd, bib-type ruffled shirt, leathers, boots - no change at half JH - Black t-shirt underneath the blue long-slvd shirt. I think he was wearing the Moodies long slvd shirt with the flowery/psychedelic print on front. Black jeans. No change at half GE - Graeme has a new shirt! Oh, and it's a beauty! LOL I'm not sure he had it on first half but everyone got a good look at it second half. It's black, with backstitching around the collar. When he turned his back to the audience during H&H for his trademark shimmy, I discovered that on the back of his shirt was a hula dancer! What made it remarkable was that the hula dancer had red fringe where her skirt was supposed to be. Said fringe swayed, so it looked like the dancer was dancing along with Mr Edge. It was a treat! It takes a real man to wear a shirt like that, and it's a hoot. Perfect for H&H. The audience loved it. Bernie - White fairy princess outfit, but with a black jacket. Norda - Burgundy pants suit Gordon - Black leather-looking shirt, light beige pants Paul - Long slvd striped shirt, brown slacks It was still light when the concert started and the lighting was more favorable than usual to the backups, so I could SEE Gordon and Paul tonight. They both looked great. Paul is a handsome guy and has the sweetest smile (both onstage and off stage) and it was a nice to be able to see him. (Gordon, you're handsome, too! LOL) My biggest tickle of the evening was again provided by Norda. I had seen her burgundy pants outfit before, during the last tour. It has almost a brocade look. Very nice! I looked over at her, and was startled to see that the top button on her jacket was unbuttoned and she didn't have anything ON underneath. I'm sure every red-blooded man in the audience thought the same thing! I realized I might have to resuscitate the Battle of the Buttons after all. When the jacket gaped open to her waist, I thought, Oh, MY, and intently squinted at her. Apparently she was wearing a top underneath that looked flesh colored in the lighting. LOL We won't have to nickname her Naughty Norda after all. THE CONCERT The 2003 setlist was performed in its entirety with a 20-minute intermission. As Dan Cook once wryly said to me "We're creeping up on the perfect concert". I'd say this one was close to perfection. Good start, fine vocals. The energy level was down from the second night at Pechanga and I didn't feel the spark I felt there. I would guess it was the audience. You have to be pretty well-heeled to drop $130 for an evening's entertainment, and it was largely a staid lot. I looked out over the crowd before the concert started, and I thought, Geez, they're old! LOL (OK, me too!) When you sit near the front of a venue, you can feel that "energy" rush over you toward the stage, and there wasn't a lot of it last night. Maybe we were all using that energy to keep warm! LOL A few notes - a small lyrics muff in English Sunset, which JH realized and corrected. It was um, definitely not time for the requiem. Literally! Great Jam - those have been inspired this tour. : ) JH has been delightfully *rowdy* the last couple nights onstage. During his introduction to The Actor (paraphrased)...An old song from an album we brought with us on our first American tour in 1968... a fellow shouted from the audience "I was THERE!" Justin stopped and with a humorous facial expression said: "They say if you remember the 60s, you weren't THERE!" He seems so much more relaxed onstage than during the first tour of 2003, and it's great. I've wondered many times how much the Jays can hear with their earpieces in. Evidently, they CAN hear. Hmmm! Graeme varied his intro to H&H a bit last night, saying When we put astronauts in rockets instead of bombs (instead of When we were pointing rockets at the moon instead of each other.) AYSC provided more onstage crack-up from Justin. He talked about TOAD and said (again, no notes so this is paraphrased)...The next song is from an album we called On the Threshold of a Dream, Are You Sitting Comfortably... He stopped and looked out, and perhaps he noticed those HARD little miserable and cold plastic chairs, because he went on to say: Apparently NOT! He seemed quite pleased with himself! ; ) I thought Singer was particularly good last night. I had despaired of it last tour and was ready to lay it in its grave, but I think it's making a comeback! There's new energy in it, or back in it I should say. It's a Johnsong, but it utilizes and depends on every member of the Band. It's always seemed to be more of a BAND song than a solo piece. It's a song, *I* feel a part of too during the performance and no other song in the setlist makes me FEEL that way, like we're in it together. JH again began to sing and then spoke the lyrics at the end WE'RE just singers in a rock 'n roll band (a correction from the second Pechanga review). I'd still have Ray back, scorching the earth for MaggieMay and throwing in the sardonic "Roll Over!", but I can honestly say that Singer is "working" again. The Jays played very close to the edge of the stage tonight at Humphrey's. They were perfectly safe - it would have taken an Olympic pole-vaulter to get up there. I've been rubbing my sore neck as a result of the awkward viewing angle. I listened closely, while trying not to shiver, during Nights. It was beautiful...very, very beautiful. I think the outdoor setting lends a special quality to that song, hearing it under the stars. I've always thought what a lonely song it is, and since I'm alone this tour (though WELL taken care of by the nicest Moody fans you could ever know), it calls out to me. The rock 'n rollers in the staid crowd had had enough by the time Question arrived and raced to the stage. Security didn't like it a bit and sent them back to their seats once, but they were overwhelmed and pretty much gave up. I was in the center of the second row and well-hemmed-in and didn't find it either necessary or possible to join the throng. I was glad to have the protection of the row of chairs in front of me - things looked a little rough up there to me. It seemed like a group of people just wanting to be a bit wild, rather than one that wanted to "touch" the music, and there was a lot of banging about. A friend on the front row told me afterward that she had gotten knocked around and actually hit in the head once, unintentionally. The good news is, no one was killed. HAHA Question was great and all the now-conservative and well-to-do former potheads of the 60s sang along. The crowd was *in* to it now, standing and anxious for the encore. See-Saw is always a winner - I have NEVER heard it otherwise. JL counted off and went stage right for the new little thing with The Girls. Norda and Bernie lean over Bernie's keyboard and thrust their tambourines out in time with the music, as JL shoves his bass forward. It's a lot of fun. The concert ended, as they all do for me, MUCH too quickly. The last thing I remember is Justin, center stage. He raised his fingers to his lips and sweetly blew a kiss out to some lucky girl in the audience. : ) To see it touched my heart, and I left with the feeling of how good things were...both onstage, and off. MaggieMay I feel the rhythm of the earth In my soul tonight, May it never fade away... |
San Diego 2