Blissed Out

Wednesday.

February 3rd, 2010.

2:55 pm.

My life was changed forever.

I will never be the same. I can never go back. And it’s about damn time!!!

I scored a ticket at 2:55 pm to see Elton John & Billy Joel perform a mere 4 and 1/2 hours later. The ticket was not only for a seat somewhere in the building, but it was a seat on the FLOOR. And not just anywhere on the floor but Row FOUR. That’s right, Row 4 baby, row 4! I had a plan and it worked. The only small glitch was that I wanted to be in row 1, 2, or 3 because those rows are the ones that they let go up to the stage. Row 4 was going to take some serious scoping out of the situation and some quick thinking (and footwork) and hopefully with any luck at all, I might get the coveted position of standing in front of the stage. I throw on my Elton jacket with the newly attached fur collar and head down to Key Arena. Once inside I descend to the heavily guarded floor. At the bottom of each staircase, there is a security worker making sure you have a valid floor ticket before you can even set foot on terra firma. I do so and the guy starts to helpfully direct me to my seat. He barely utters the first word when I interrupt, grinning. “I think I can find row 4″.

When I find my seat, I have a momentary millisecond of panic that there’s some sort of mix-up with the seats since there is a good sized camera sitting on it, with a coat in the seat next to it. My fears are quickly set to rest as a guy rushes over to move the camera, apologizing. We sit down and start to talk. Before long he’s showing me his iPhone FULL of closeup Elton concert pics. I try not to drool on him or his phone. I’m thinking to myself “I’ve found my people!”

I suddenly remember that this concert will be over 3 hours and the LAST thing I want to have to do is leave it to run to the little girl’s room. So I head off to pre-pee. When I come back there’s a huge backup on the staircase nearest my seat. Thinking some moron is holding things up by trying to get on the floor where they don’t belong or something, I try to see the front of the line. What I see is that security is stopping everyone so that some of the crew can climb up these little rope ladders up into the mammoth lighting system that’s hanging from the ceiling above the stage and floor area.

Detour time! Down another staircase and onto the floor then head back toward the soundboard. Nobody doing anything there. Back up another staircase to get a coke and I manage to get in the LINE FROM HELL. It doesn’t move. Seriously, how difficult is it to pull a handle and pour a beer? You’d think they’d get this figured out after, oh, I don’t know, the first couple thousand people?? I was in line so long I was worried I might miss the opening and trust me, that would not have been pretty. Btw, guy that was behind me that switched lines and got to the front before I even got close? Thanks for getting my coke for me!! You saved me having a possible stroke! haha

Coke in hand, I dash off down the stairs again. I have managed to go down a different staircase each time, so I have to dig out my ticket everytime. As I’m digging, the security guy from the next staircase over, walks over and tells my guy that I’m ok because he remembers me. Nice! Yeah the jacket does that. Back to the soundboard and this time Clive Franks, Elton’s sound guy, is there. There’s quite a buffer between the barrier so I can’t catch his attention. Besides he’s talking with someone. The last thing I”m going to do is yell out or some dumb thing. I just wanted to say hi and tell him he’s appreciated. We chatted last time Elton played here in ’06. I think the sound guys are underappreciated. Face it, if the sound isn’t right on, your concert experience sucks. I notice what might be the beginnings of light dimming. Shit! Dash off to my seat!

I return to find fan guy thinking his Elton stories scared me off. Haha no way! I want to hear them all! While I was off running around and waiting in line, he had been productive. Ok, maybe not that productive. He had chatted with the security but they wouldn’t even tell him the “go song”, the song that is the signal for the first 3 rows to go up to the stage, but he, being in row 4, would not be able to “go”.

We discuss strategy. Maybe if the couple in front of us is really old, ie, not stage-rushing material, we can convince them to switch places with us. Or maybe we can just slip in and get lost in the crowd since our seats are right at the end.

The lights dim. The spotlights go up. Pianos rise from the stage. And the show begins. I can’t believe how close I am. And I’m on the correct side. I can see Elton’s fingers on the keyboard. The show starts off with both Elton and Billy on stage at their respective pianos, facing each other, hence the name of the tour “Face to Face”.

The music is awesome. The piano men are in top form. And I am SO DAMN CLOSE! Everytime they play a rocking song, I stay standing, dancing like many others around me. And everytime, the pissy woman behind me yells at me to sit down. I give her a look like “Are you serious?? We’re on the freaking FLOOR this close to the stage and you’re expecting maybe a reserved sitdown experience??”. I don’t push it too much… yet. Her date is even more grouchy. I think he’s afraid of her wrath when they get home if he doesn’t do anything. And I have flashbacks to the idiot in the front row of the Chris Isaak concert 2 years ago, who complained so loudly that security (tried to) make everyone at the stage sit down, even after Chris had ASKED people to come up. So I only sit when they yell at me. They’ll have to work for this. And it will not last all night. Later, there will be no sitting by me. Period. Deal with it. Billy and his band go offstage, leaving Elton and his boys to play their set. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding is first and the keyboard solo at the beginning is a sad reminder that Guy Babylon, Elton’s longtime keyboard player is no longer with us. Top 40 hits pour from the stage and I’m still in awe that I’m this close.