Saratoga (Thursday Night) Review

Posted by mrsi

So first let me tell you what happened before the show, because I'm sure many of you will understand the anxiety involved. I had an interview scheduled that morning at Stanford and only had a couple of hours in-between, so I was prepared to make a day of "South Bay" activities. I was coming from San Francisco and was at VM last year and remembered being very cold, so I definitely packed warm! As any of you in the area know, it was a good 20 (at least) degree difference between SF and where the concert was being held. So I went to my interview and then headed off to Saratoga. I drove by VM to make sure they weren't, for some bizarre reason, letting cars in, oh, 3 1/2 hours early. They weren't, so I went to downtown Saratoga to get me some merchandise money and some food. Now, I had two plastic Safeway bags full of stuff. One bag being interview stuff and one bag of concert stuff (the precious ticket being in the latter bag). I had to get my ATM card out of the trunk bag, went to get money and food and put the card back in the trunk. When I put it back in, the bag broke and everything fell out. I was mostly concerned with my camera, seeing as the batteries were rolling around the sidewalk. I got everything (or so I thought) reassembled and went off to a little campground site to eat my food. I was there for about a half an hour and then decided that this was a secluded enough spot to change clothes. I go to get the bag out of the trunk and - gasp! - couldn't find my ticket. Now, my car ain't that clean so I frantically searched for awhile and then, one by one, took EVERYTHING out of the trunk. (And this includes many things.) I'm starting to panic and try to think of what could have happened to the ticket when I remember my bag breaking in Saratoga (and I remember seeing my ticket safely in the bag when I got my ATM card out). I'm totally stressed as I zoom back down there. There was some guy drinking beer at a cafe while my whole bag breaking thing happened. I went back and accosted the guy - asking him if he'd seen anything fluttering in the wind when my bag broke. He was rather amused with my anxiety level (and that kinda pissed me off, to be honest). I searched around but found nothing. Went back and took everything out of the trunk again. Passersby were laughing at me, but I was about to puke. I went back to look near my previous parking spot (which was now empty). My beer drinking friend said he had looked around for me, but had found nothing. I just stood there, horrified, when I saw a piece of paper in the middle of the road. I darted through traffic and, lo and behold, there was my ticket, getting run over by a car. PHEW!!!!! The cafe man was amused, and my stomach went back into normal pre-show anxiety.

OK, onto the show! I got there very early (third car in line). I was supposed to meet up with my friends, all Chris virgins. (Meaning they have never been to a Chris show before - I don't want the page getting yanked or anything because of that sentence getting misconstrued!) I waited very patiently, still amazed that I had found my ticket. It was still 90+ degrees, so I wasn't going to change into my jeans. I instead wore a half concert/half interview outfit which looked totally stupid but, oh well. I wasn't going to be uncomfortable! We got into the venue at around 5:45, but they weren't letting people into the concert area until 6:30, so we just hung out. I ended up getting my favorite seats at VM, so I was happy.

OK - SHOWTIME! It was pretty much the same show that he's been doing so I'm not going to go into a song list or anything. I'll talk about the few moments that were different. Chris did the usual "come on down" thing a few songs into the set. I had met someone I had talked to at a San Diego show, so we were Chris buds for the night. We both raced down and ended up in the front row. Yeah! It was pretty squished and, unfortunately, Mr. Security Guard felt the need to stand right next to ME (and I'm totally harmless, go figure!). All was going well until this one woman, who had apparently left her front row seat to go fetch wine or whatever during "Wicked Game", tried to get back to her seat. Guess what, Honey, you ain't gonna get it! She was complaining very loudly to the security guard next to me to make all the people sit down. Obviously, there was really nothing he could do at that point so the woman was just getting more and more pissed off. Finally, she jumped on the stage and started complaining to Chris! Ballsy! Unfortunately for her (and fortunately for us), he wasn't very sympathetic. She sat down in front of the drum kit and continued to complain, almost bursting into tears. Eeks! Chris asked the band to play some Brazilian dance music and, to this music, was mocking this woman talking about how the show was obviously centered around her and her enjoyment was more important than everyone else's etc. etc. Then he introduced himself as Chris, her very personal cabana boy who would be happy to do anything to appease her. It was TOO funny! "You need a towel, you need some soap? Please, allow me! I'll go get it for you!". Security did pretty much nothing to get this woman off the stage. Chris started in on them next. "Usually security would rush people off at this point but not here! Look - they're having a discussion!" He was not pleased, but his sarcasm was VERY amusing! He made some comment about going to Berkeley for 2 years to learn the art of "discussing". I can't remember all the sarcastic comments but I think you get the drift. It was very amusing.

The next "different" part was during the second encore. He scanned the audience and asked for ONE person to get up on stage. He talked to this woman (this is HER story, so I'll leave her nameless) and it happened to be her birthday. Oh my God! He sang her the sexiest "Happy Birthday" EVER! (Think male Marylin Monroe.) God, what a birthday present! They played "Hippy Shake" (or something like that, but it's not the Beatles "Hippy Hippy Shake", but something with those words.) The woman did an AWESOME job dancing around the stage. Chris picked a male partner for her out of the audience who also did a great job. It was very cool!

The signature line went pretty quickly. Security was being very anal about cameras (even pictures that Chris himself posed for!). Unfortunately, my camera got snagged on the way in, but my friend had a camera. I went to take a picture of Chris and the ()*&# security man put his hand in front of it. AGH! I was not happy. I did complement Chris on his handling of the woman onstage and he said that people are just "crazy" sometimes. Very diplomatic.

My friends all seemed VERY pleased with the show. Everytime I looked over at my friend (and she's the kind who would never admit to liking something that I like) she had the hugest grin on her face. Chris even gave her a little bit of individual attention at the autograph line (well, she is Asian). They all had the "Chris smitten" face afterwards. Yeah! Maybe they'll understand my obsession a little bit more now. We all got our picture taken with Kenney, too, who was just as nice as usual. What a great guy!

So another great show. It amazes me how many times I can see him and still love it all just as much as the first time!

For all of you going (or there already) tonight, have a great time! See you Sat. night!

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