My Record Store Day Story

Today, Elton John is being named the 1st Record Store Day Legend in celebration of its 10th Anniversary. Elton is releasing a special edition of my personal all-time favorite album 11-17-70. The entire setlist is on this new version and it is of course, on vinyl. Congratulations Sir Elton!

My record store flashback involves this same album. The year was 1995. I had (*FINALLY*) gone to my first Elton concert. Yes I know, hard to believe. I’ve been a hardcore Elton fan since I was 14. To my defense, he did not make stops in Seattle very often, so opportunity had been my biggest enemy.

Anyway, once I saw him live in concert, something switched in my brain, and I could not get enough live material, (read “bootlegs”). I was now on a mission. *looks all serious* I had to find more live stuff. More I tell you. More! So I started hitting all the record stores I could on a regular basis. Even started going to the record shows in Seattle. I did find plenty but that’s for another time.

I walked into a record store in Ballard and struck up a conversation with the owner. Since Elton is what I was looking for, that is of course what the topic was. He held up the newly released (1995) remastered CD of 11-17-70 and started singing its praises. I told him it was my favorite album. He said the remaster was so amazing. I argued with him. I told him there was no way it could be made better. I dug in my Taurus hooves and refused to believe him when he insisted it was *so* much better than the original.

Please. If I buy the CD, he makes

By |2017-04-22T19:00:54+00:00April 22nd, 2017|Categories: My Gig Habit|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments
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The Tonight Show Adventure

If you actually remember the internet of 1997, you’ll understand this when I say I have absofuckinglylutely NO CLUE how or where I found it, but one Friday night, I was hanging out with my best friend Nate at her work surfing the internet (Geek Girls Night Out!) and came across a notice that Elton John was going to be on the Tonight Show in 2 months. Seriously? I mean, even NOW with allllllll the information online, I don’t think I could find what guests are going to be on the Tonight Show in 2 months to save my soul.

Hey Nate! Tickets are free! Let’s see if we can get some! Yeah ok Julie, you go ahead with that. We have to get up at ungodly hours and stand in line for HOURS before Ticketmaster even opens (this was “back in the day” before Ticketbastard started the current Lotto system and it MATTERED if you were in line first) just to *maybe* score tickets to a concert in a venue that holds 30,000+ and the little Tonight Show studio holds HOW MANY? Of course we’ll get tickets.

So the next day, off I go to the post office (yes, remember, this is 1997) to send NBC a request for 2 tickets for the date Elton was to be a guest. Every day after that, I’d run down and check the mailbox. No tickets. Days go by. No tickets. Weeks go by. No tickets. Oh well, it was fun to try anyway.

A week before “the date”… *one* week… when I had all but given up on the whole deal, I found myself standing in front of my mailbox looking in my hand at an envelope brandishing the

By |2013-06-01T03:58:22+00:00June 1st, 2013|Categories: My Gig Habit|Tags: , |0 Comments
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So. Worth. The. Drive.

Yakima. Google it. I’m pretty sure the definition reads as follows:

Yakima (yak’·uh·maw) a city in BFE. Cow town. *cue “One Horse Town*

I really didn’t think I would be able to score a ticket to this show. And being as it’s in the aforementioned BFE, a good 2 and 1/2 hour drive over the mountains to get to, never mind my previous front row experience which has spoiled me forever, I had no intention of considering anything less than Row 3.

My day before the concert started bad. I got up, said something that *I* thought was nice, and got yelled at about it. Screw it. Went back to sleep. Got up again, said something (different) *I* thought was nice to someone else, and got yelled at about it. Screw it. While I’m curled up in the corner, feeling sorry for myself, I might as well make it really pitiful and check for tickets to Elton in cow town and wallow in the fact that I won’t be getting my gig fix anytime soon.

I type in “1″ under ticket quantity, faithfully reproduce the jumbled captcha letters, and hit “find best available ticket” and wait. The screen pops up that a ticket is available, so I read the location, fully expecting the same seat I’ve been finding for the past few weeks: on the floor but “way back” in row 12.

*blink*

I reread to make sure I’m not misreading.

LEVEL: Floor SECTION: 1 ROW: 1 SEAT: 4 Row 1…

Row 1???? Seriously… Row 1!

“Purchase”

OMG PURCHASE!!!

Concert Day

The drive there is uneventful, though I did learn a few things.

1)My car does indeed, like to go fast. And it likes to do so even while, and perhaps even more, when

By |2016-12-27T07:52:45+00:00July 23rd, 2010|Categories: My Gig Habit|Tags: , , |3 Comments
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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. JACKET_elton 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

By |2016-12-27T07:52:45+00:00February 9th, 2010|Categories: My Gig Habit|Tags: , , , , |1 Comment
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