Blue Darlin's Review of CI&S's Seattle Concert! - Part I

Posted by Blue Darlin'

I am putting the weekend as a whole and what we did while in Seattle -- because many people have said that they enjoy the long version and feeling like they are there. So, you can visit the city through my eyes, ok?

Ok, enough explanations.....now, to business:

We are dubbing this the Bologna Blowout Seattle Spring Weekend w/CI&S - hahahaha. More on why that name later.

Minx and I managed to change our flights at the airport on Friday, so that we could enjoy a whole extra day in Seattle. We were originally scheduled to fly out on Friday evening, but changed it to bright and early Friday morning, touching down in Seattle about 11amish. We got our sporty (ugly) red (orange) Geo Prism, and motored off down the highway to the hotel. Omigosh, I LOVE Seattle!! The Emerald City, indeed. It reminded me of home, and all the trees beginning to bud out with the flush of early spring growth was just pinching my heart. There were flowering trees everywhere, and white birches, which I have SORELY missed seeing, living on the West Coast. Not a eucalyptus tree was in sight - hallelujah! And they have some gorgeous kinds of evergreens.

We couldn't help ourselves and visited the Nordstrom Rack at their Supermall for what I will term "Shoe Debauchery #1" of the weekend. I found (but didn't buy) the most OUTRAGEOUS pair of pumps I have ever seen. They would have been perfect for vintage. I called 'em the Formica Shoes -- they were off-white patent leather with some overlay that made it look like a formica table, and some clear plastic too, so you had toe cleavage. They were just insane shoes and made me laugh. I wanted 'em BAD for vintage wear (and I'm crazy about formica) -- but they were too big! Waaah. Not to mention white shoes look heinous on big feet -- and I've got big ones, for sure.

After Nordie's, we drove into the city, and went through some INTENSE commuter traffic (we had done lots of driving, shopping, and poking around by this point). I felt like I was driving through Boston's commuter traffic. Egads, it was intense. We found the hotel alright, and were totally psyched when we saw the location and the room. Minx has a friend who works in the hotel industry, and she had gotten us an insider (friends and family) discount. So we had a "room" which was more like a suite and was bigger than my damn studio apartment!! The room was the size of your basic one bedroom in San Francisco!

Now the rooms in this particular hotel usually go for up to $179.00 a night. We got it for the insane price of.... $39.00!! Yowsa!! So, that was like $20. apiece each night, for a living room, balcony, full kitchen, bedroom, sliding door closet, iron and ironing board in room, ice maker in fridge, coffee maker in room, dishes, etc. snax, split bath, blowdryer in bathroom, health club, pool, jacuzzi, grand lobby w/constant freebie food service (desserts at night, etc.), and WATER VIEW! We were on Lake Union, which is very nice, semi-fresh water/salt influx waterway, with ducks and geese paddling about.

The day we arrived was incredibly warm and sunny for Seattle, and people were just reveling in it. It was definitely warmer than home. We lazed about in the sun, and walked around the lake a bit. The water looked pretty clean. And it was not manmade (??) -- unlike the "lakes" (er, ponds o' E.coli) in California (one of my pet peeves, can you tell?). We watched the big boats tooling around, and debated whether to find a sugar daddy with a boat, haha.

Then it was power nap time, as we'd each had about 4 hours of sleep the night before, what with busy lives and frenzied packing (and overpacking) the night before. I woke up a bit crabby and disoriented (we conked out for like 2 hours!), and it took some bread and chocolate (pan e cioccolata), a little of MTV's Loveline, and coffee to wake me from my stupor. We got dolled up and headed downtown to the club district to check things out.

Seattle has this neat thing where you can pay one price and bop between six participating clubs, checking out all the bands and music and people. We seemed to keep entering clubs when the band was on a break, but finally wandered into one that was "just right". There was a really good blues band playing, and we ended up staying there for the evening. I was asked to dance by a pretty handsome-looking guy, and we really hit it off. He was an excellent dancer, and we did some swing and lots of blues dancin'. His name was Maximiliano, and since he was South American, we were talking half in English and half in Spanish. We talked about salsa dancing, and maybe getting together to go salsa dancing after the concert the next night. Great guy! Had a lot of fun. We exchanged numbers and promises to call each other the next day. Meanwhile, the Minx had met a nice Frenchman (Canadian?) and she was conversing with him in French and English! A good time was had by all.

The club/waterfront district was really quaint. We both loved the historic buildings and how they are so well-preserved and obviously well-loved. Nice sense of history there in Seattle. Again, very reminiscent of New England for me, which warmed my heart no end.

After closing down the bar, we stopped in for a late-night bite at some Italian restaurant, and I ended up meeting/talking to someone with my SAME last name!! Now, this is very unusual, 'cause my last name is not common, and there aren't many of us. I used to belong to the ________ Family Association of America - that's how few of us there are, so we're all "related" somehow, here in the U.S. It was really neat talking to this guy. Our ancestors had come from almost the same place in England and in New England. That made my day, I tell you. We're probably related somewhere down the line. I think he mentioned someone in his family (a descendant) who had the same last name as my grandmother's maiden name - freaky.

Saturday we enjoyed the huge, free "continental" breakfast downstairs. Nothing continental about it - it was a full breakfast. We nicked some snax for later, to save even more on our meal expenses during the trip. Just like at Konocti, the Minx had a full-on jones for bologna sandwiches -- all bloody weekend -- and we were makin' up bologna sandwiches from our cooler up to twice a day. I don't care if I ever see another nitrate-d meat product again at this point. 'Cause I was also gnawin' on some jerky, and had some breakfast sausages. That pork is makin' me a porker, I swear!!

We then hit the road to see some sights, but unfortunately, got lured AGAIN into some serious shopping. The beacon of Nordstrom's loomed in our sights downtown -- the flagship store -- the mother of all serious customer-service-based shopping. So, in we were sucked, in the Nordstrom tractor beam, where we (guiltily and giddily) shopped away. "Shoe Debauchery #2" took place almost immediately, and we were surrounded by a sea of shoes being tried on, in grand female fashion. I WISH I had taken a pic of when the Minx and I were both trying on the amazing CI mirrored mules together. The straps (4-5 of 'em) are just COVERED in little tiny square mirrors! We were just cracking up, imagining ever getting up during Bonnie Bee wearing those. These shoes were over the top, and perfect for a CI concert. And it was quite comical, seeing Minx with her dainty little size 5/6 feet, and me with my size 10+ hooves! I ended up getting the mirrored mules, while Minx scored on a cool "tattoo" pair that I seriously coveted (must find them here at home!).

We were still trying to plan the "perfect" outfit for the show. So we cruised around downtown Seattle's shopping district all afternoon, when we shoulda been tourist-ing, and then went to find the Paramount. We wanted to know where it was for later. We took a picture of us kissing CI's picture outside the venue. Great lookin' place!

Then we went back to the hotel to get 1/2 ready, to then return to the Paramount to wait in the line at Will Call for some tix that were being released. It had been announced on a local radio station that 50 pairs of tix would be released at a certain hour on Sat., and we wanted in! I already had a single seat ticket, pre-purchased weeks ago, but the Minx had nothing. We were going on a wing and a prayer, as in Konocti. So, we sweated it out a little, as there was already a damn line, longer than we expected, when we got there. But we met some cool people in line, and we got our tix. They were for halfway back on the main floor, though. I had thought they would be better than THAT -- what with being released tix that the band wasn't going to use for comps (?? or so we heard). Also, a lot of people seemed to be there more for Shawn Mullins than CI. Huh?? I wanted to see both acts, equally.

Next on the agenda was rushing back to the hotel (only a 5 min. drive or so) to finish getting ready and changing into our concert outfits. Minx wore her man-catchin' ripped jeans ensemble with black half cowboy boots (just like CI!!) and a black top with leopard sweater. I wore my black mesh, flower-strewn, knee-length skirt with my illusion net (cleavage!!)-topped body suit, with my silver heart necklace nesting in the cleavage, and a little white girly sweater with 3/4 length sleeves and lots o'jewelry. And of course THOSE shoes -- the mirrored mules. Damn, those suckers are high. I had a wee bit of trouble controlling my gait - plus, my heel pain had been acting up.

Of course, (probably due to me, the dawdler) we arrived late, and missed about 3 of Shawn's songs. We had to park far away, too. And I had been in a somewhat pissy mood (why??), because things didn't seem to be going too smoothly, or as originally planned. And I didn't want our Seattle visit to be ending by tommorrow! I now had 2 tix and didn't know whether my pre-purchased seat was crap or not, and didn't want to "desert" the Minx. She said she could go either way, no problem. Wotta gal! We get to the front door and I've hidden my camera and get in with it AOK. A guy out front is trying to sell a ticket and getting no takers, so I don't feel too confident about selling mine. And I don't want to miss any more of Shawn Mullins, 'cause I've never seen him open for CI.

So we sit down in our seats and enjoy Sean's set. I brought in some opera glasses/binocs, since we're sitting halfway back in the hall, and we check things out from time to time through the binocs. I got goosebumps on some of the songs. He had that ol' acoustic guitar amped up high, and it was sweet, with full, lush sound. He really is a modern troubadour. And has such a great voice. I had woken up that morning with "Shine" just spinning around and around in my head, and he sang it so wonderfully! I really enjoyed his whole set. Great back-up band, too! Loved the bass/guitar chick, and his sorta unusual looking keyboardist. Shawn looked as if he was wearing a flak jacket, but on close inspection, it was really a well-worn sage green suede jacket with big ol' brown boots or hiking boots. He really gets into his singing. He can be a bit scruffy looking, but his voice is fan-tastic.

So, then it's intermission, and I trundle off to ostensibly attempt to sell my other ticket (ha!), but end up going to check out my other seat instead. I had been told it was "against the wall" -- but it was not. It was a great @#$%ing seat!! 8th row and really close. Perfect sight lines. Su-weet. I motion Minx over and we end up chatting with this really cool couple about CI. They were true-blue CI&S fans, and had been for years, and we ended up swapping e-mail addresses. I pulled out some Konocti pix to show them, and they really dug 'em. The guy was wearing a red and silver glittery shirt that I KNEW CI would love. Some other guy up in front was wearing a CI mirror dots kind of shirt (like CI wears on stage - it's not really mirrors) -- but he was bald, and it didn't have the true CI effect!:-)

Part II-- CI & S take the stage, and after the show...

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