We begin at the important stuff, and mine is sitting right here on my desk as I type, close encounter of the Bruce kind number one. Hey, I'll go to Fargo for that!
Ended up on the plane back to Detroit with Paul "hey, that's Garry fucking Tallent!" Kaytes. Hey, Paul, you missed the best part. Get a look at the ticket stub. No, I just did the "Thank you, Bruce," part, but at least I didn't drool on his leg. Paul says I shoulda asked him what he's doing for New Year's. I was going to ask for "Night" in Cleveland, but then Brian started hassling him about "Incident," well, not really, just seemed that way, so I didn't. I just decided to drive around that side of the building to get out, and... there he was. I started to ask Bryon and Lauren if they wanted to get out, but they had already gotten. Fastest exit from a moving car I've ever seen. And there he was, in a crowd of 20 or so, and no one was pushing and everyone was nice, and Bruce was talking about how flat Fargo was, and pivoting around, so Lauren was on one side and we were on the other, and we were passing our stubs back and forth *across* Bruce, in the hope that he might get to 'em. Which he did, except for Bryon's, which probably had nothing to do with Bryon asking about "Incident." Lauren asked for "Back in Your Arms." We'll see. I was going to ask Bruce where he got his leather jacket. If you've seen that thing, it's... really nice. Nice to the touch, too. It's ok, if he can tap my finger during the show, I figure I can give him a nice pat on the shoulder before he gets back in the car. If Yvonne had been there, I mighta had to kiss him, but as it was, I didn't think of it. But, anyway, that leather jacket. I gotta have one.
So, how was the show? I got my finger slapped. At the end of "Ramrod," when Bruce comes racing down the front row, and I got my hand up, and, damn, he hit it pretty hard. Just got my index finger, though. So, there I am, staring at it, like it's the first time anything has ever hit my finger at that speed, and -- whoosh! -- there he goes, the other way! And on to the somersault, out of the barn and into the night.
"Ramrod." Well, he couldn't close with LoHaD. Not on a Saturday night. This is way too much fun. And, is that Clarence doing the twist after the first line of his solo? And, is that Bruce doing a Townsend thing with the guitar? And, Bruce, oh-by-the-way, get a kleenex for goodness sakes! You're going to hit one of us down here, and as much as we love you, we don't want your snot! And Clarence and Nils and Danny are all doing this eye contact thing with us down front, and Clarence is just eating it up. Ate it up so much he lost his voice. Patti was missed a bit during "If I Should Fall Behind," but Nils and Bruce covered well enough for her part. And, did anyone notice that Garry sang a bit?
Everyone should get to do the stage rush at least once. Fourth row is great, but get down front, and it's like, 10 inches to the stage, and I haven't felt a spotlight like that since I was in "Kiss Me Kate" in high school. Look up, and I'm looking right at Bruce's elbow. And he's holding out the mike for the crowd to sing "Hungry Heart," and I'm going to sing LOUD, 'cause this crowd doesn't seem to know the songs real well. And the bass drum is coming through my throat, and the snare through my legs, and it leaves me doing a semi-voluntary boogie, and I can't say I mind. Where's Craig? Did he rush? Oh, there he is, with Mike. Mike's putting his head on the stage, and Craig is taking a picture, framing it so that Bruce is in there with him. Now that is a concert picture!
It was loose. "Light of Day," and Steven is there singing a chorus to the wrong part of the song. With Bruce and Garry cracking up watching it. And it was tight. "Jungleland," as good as it has ever been. Even though it seemed that no one recognized it outside the front rows. But if they don't recognize the old favorites, neither do they leave during the quieter segments. And they recognized the acoustic "Born in the USA," for sure. Funny thing, though, the biggest cheers were for the BitUSA material -- 5 songs!, when was the last time that happened? -- and the preacher shticks, and, of course, the stripping and pelvic thrusts. Too bad there aren't a whole lot of local references in Bruce's catalogue. A few people clapped for the Mesabi reference in "Youngstown," but that's in Minnesota. And if Bruce had done "Highway 29," someone might have cheered for the major north-south interstate going through the town. "Red River Valley." I'd have liked to have heard that one. But, with Patti gone, we got "My Hometown," in the Mansion/Factory slot, and it sounded pretty good. And, come to think of it, not a bad choice for this night.
Paul noticed it before the show. No mike stand for Patti. Not there! I guess the ear didn't heal enough, and they couldn't just cancel the rest of the tour. So it was just the boys on stage. Steven pumped up in the mix. His guitar seemed much more noticeable, a welcome addition for me. And, without Patti's guitar in the mix, the overall sound seemed cleaner. It was also nice to get more of Steven's voice. I'll miss "Mansion on the Hill" if it doesn't return, and the "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" seems a bit odd, with only 7 of the 8 members standing with Bruce at the river.
Not that we'll get too many more shows in places like this one. Was it an arena, a football stadium, a barn, and airplane hanger, or all of the above? What a strange venue! I was in seat 72 of my row. 72! From the $2 parking to the ushers who were actually nice, to the massive expanses of concrete, it was just... weird. I was hoping for Fargo merchandise, and while a $45 beach towel with the Asbury Park postcard image might be nice for some, I didn't bite. Speaking of which, the Subway in the arena marked up its sandwiches by all of 11 cents, and the cold beer was actually served at a reasonable price.
We actually found someone from Fargo in the row behind us. Wearing a Philadelphia Flyers' jersey, so he wouldn't stand out, I guess. He said that Garth Brooks sold out 3 shows in Fargo within 45 minutes. Country music is big there. But Saturday was the start of hunting season, so the town was half empty. And we're talking about a town where you get Happy Harry's, a Taco Bell, the FargoDome, and then the airport. And Highway 29. We didn't even realize there was both a 17th avenue south and a 17th avenue north coming in, so we almost ended up at a Pizza Hut. Gee, the Fargodome is supposed to be here, where are they hiding it?
Fargo. 230 miles, straight shot from Minneapolis. Lauren and I drove up, talking about older days, about concerts we could have gone to and didn't, and wondering what we had been thinking back then. Makes us feel saner, knowing we're *both* doing this. Lori's staying in Minnesota with Aaron and the in-laws. I hadn't visited them in 5 years, so this was serendipity of the highest order. We get to visit, I get a concert - and a temporary escape. Seems downright ingenius to me!
Fargo. 4th row. I dunno. Seems... tempting. In November. Could be snowed out -- or in. Don't make me think about it, I might do something weird!
Fargo. North Dakota??? Isn't that the movie with the wood chipper? Uhhhh.... I... don't... think... so...
What would I be thinking? That's crazy!
Fargo? North Dakota? Never been to North Dakota. hmmm... Fargo.
The Orel Family