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I
had quite a weekend in L.A., with lots of partying and not enough sleep (I
loved it! :-), so hopefully I still remember enough to put something
together :-)
I
didn't take my camera, but no worries, because a few other people did...
so, feel free to check out Camille's,
TeaRose's,
or Darlene's
pics... :-)
The
last show... wow. Reality is beginning to set in... I cannot believe
the AMAZING summer I had! So many wonderful memories! So many
beautiful people!
So,
let's start at the beginning... :-)
A
couple of weeks before the show, we began conspiring about doing something
special for Melissa's last show :-) After some high level
discussions, we came up with three things:
#1
- To hold up requests for all the songs she hadn't played, including any
rarities we could find :-) (decided to do it after the second song)
#2
- To hold up THANK YOU signs for her (when she came out for the
encore)
#3
- To wear a special t-shirt... :-) After some discussion, we finally
came up with this one. Doggie on the front, heart on the back :-)
I
had decided long time ago that I couldn't be anywhere but the front row
for the last show... I mean... come on! :-) So, I spent a pretty
penny on the Ticketmaster Auction and got my front row seats (always money
well spent!) :-) My concert buddy FallenAngel seemed to
be happy with that :-) We had some really good True Fan™
representation up there! YAY! :-) My best friends Dunie
and Jen (aka etheridgerox and Skittles) went the eBay way and got front
row too. Frank the man and his friend Lisa got the seats next to me
through Ticketmaster, Kathy and Sandy were in the front too... And Rhondda
surprised Camille with front row seats (now, that was a hard secret to
keep!) :-)
Oh!
For anyone who doesn't believe in the power of prayer, well... check out
Camille's prayer from 23 August... (little did she know it had already
been answered) ;-)
Lord
I pray you let me sit
Right up close there in The Pit
I will have so much more fun
If I’m seated in Row One
Let my pals stand next to me
Some are short and they can’t see
If I ask too much of you . . . . . . .
I’ll be happy in Row Two!
So
there...! :-) As I keep telling FallenAngel... dreams DO come true!
;-)
I
got to meet my buddy ML from Minneapolis, who I've known online for a long
time! That was way cool! :-) Also met Mags from
Ireland... what a sweetie pie! :-) Kim invited a bunch of us over to
her house before the concert for pizza and laughs... it was a fun time
with a fun group :-) Kim's a wonderful hostess and person! :-)
Since
I had the front row tickets, I gave my MEIN tickets to my friend D and her
sister T. However, the seats weren't the best (6th row/10th from
pit, all the way to the left)... Not that they were baaaaad, but
since this was only the second show for T, I really wanted her
to get a good seat. I was bummed out about it...
But
karma intervened! :-) Kathy wanted to get rid of her MEIN tickets... Row A
(right behind the pit), in front of Philip! I snagged those off her
hand faster than a speeding bullet! :-) :-) :-) Whoo hoo!!! D
and T were already inside, so I ran in there and showed them to their new
seat. They were pretty happy... yay! :-)
So
now I had two extra tickets that had already been scanned... what
else was there to do with them but to "pay it forward"... I
looked for the people who were sitting the farthest... Waaaaaaaay up there
on the benches I spotted this couple, so I went up there and sat beside
them... :-) I asked if they were fans... the dude said
"no"... the lady said "Of Melissa Etheridge?" I
said "yeah"... she said "YES!" :-) So maybe she
was the fan, and he was just with her ;-) Anyway, I said...
"Well, I have these tickets for seats down there on the floor...
they're free if you're interested"... They looked at me like I was
speaking some strange foreign language... then they reacted...
"Free?" "What?" "Really?"
"Are you serious?"... :-) I explained that I'd gotten
better seats for my friends and these tickets were already scanned, and I
certainly didn't want the seats to go to waste and they could have them...
more puzzled looks and one more "Really?" "Are you
serious?" and then "Yes thank you!" :-) So... I
showed them to their new seats and they were happy which of course made me
totally happy :-)
On
to the show... I didn't write any notes, so wish me luck! LOL!
:-)
The
one bad thing about being on the front row at the Greek is that you
never really hear anything Melissa says. Grrrrrr. It is a
dead-zone when it comes to sound, really... But it's the sacrifice we make
to have our interaction with her :-)
Our
seats were in front of Fritz... way cool! :-) I SO love interacting
with him throughout the show... he's so cool! :-)
Dunie
and Jen's seats were over on the right, but they stayed beside me and
never had to leave... awesome! There was a moment when it got iffy
when the couple sitting who had the two seats on my left showed up... sat
down and began enjoying the show with popcorn and soda (WHAAAAAATTTT!!!!????)
So, we had to leave a gap for them to see the show from their seats... go
figure! :-) Kel ended up standing at the stage with Rhondda and
Camille... awesome!
Before
the show started, we passed the signs around and explained to everybody
how it would play out :-)
Melissa
came out and began to sing "Come On Out Tonight", which is my
absolute favorite way to start a show! :-) :-) :-) It gets me
pumped up like you wouldn't believe!!! I couldn't wait for the chorus
so I could start jumping my bootie off! :-) And when I did, Melissa
came over and jumped with me... tee hee... Too cool! :-)
She
noticed the t-shirts and really liked them :-) Cool! :-)
After
the second song, we all held up our signs with the funky song requests...
she got a kick out of that! It was great!!! All of them were
actual songs Melissa has done... except for the request Kel was holding...
"Puff The Magic Dragon"... Melissa REALLY got a kick out of
that one... I'll have to ask Kel what she said, 'cause of course we
couldn't hear her... :-)
During
"The Different" I held up my sign saying "One of the best
songs ever recorded!"... Because it sure as heck is!!! I LOVE THAT
SONG!!! :-)
During
the acoustic song (which she changed from "Ruins" to
"Cherry Avenue"), everyone had the signed instruments that were
auctioned off on eBay for a breast cancer charity. So I showed
Melissa a sign saying "Wow! It's the $56,000 guitar!"
(which was the last amount I'd seen on eBay. It actually sold for
$110,000!)... She made a funny face :-)
I
am sorry, but I get incredibly annoyed by people who get drunk and stupid
at the shows... so I held up my sign "Next Tour: Ban
Alcohol!" Mark saw it first and nodded in agreement...
then MLE saw it and she laughed... but hey! I'm totally serious!
Later on I was trying to show it to Tammy, who was hiding behind the
curtain over there on the right :-) I'm not sure if she saw it, but
Fritz did and he totally nodded in agreement too and said "I
know!!!"...
When
Melissa sat at the piano and said the song was from Breakdown, FallenAngel
and I got all excited, 'cause we thought she'd be playing our
favorite, "How Would I Know"... but she did "Sleep"
which is amazing on the piano and one I totally don't mind giving up
"How Would I Know" for... just beautiful!!!
It
was time for "If You Want To"... I then heard Melissa tell
the guys to do "Must Be Crazy For Me" YAY! They were going
to do it for Darlene! I told her "She's gonna do your
song!" (she had shown Melissa a sign asking for it and told Melissa
she'd asked for it at the NY shows and she (Melissa) hadn't done it then...
When
it started I held up a sign saying "Party Time!"... Melissa said
some words I didn't catch and then said "PARTY TIME!" :-)
I tell you what! This version of MBCFM was beyond excellent...
easily the best I've ever seen!... HOW FUN!!!
During
Bring Me Some Water, A LOT of confetti went up in the air... so I just HAD
to mess with Chainsaw... I wrote him a sign that said "Le
Confetti!"... LOL! He made a face and then went inside...
A
little later someone told me he was trying to show ME a sign... I caught
his attention and asked to him to show me. His sign said "Tabarnac",
which I later found out is french canadian slang meaning "damn
it", or "f***"... I guess he wasn't happy about "le
confetti"... tee hee... :-) He later came out with
his leafblower before the encore... Great! NOT!!! :-)
There
was one really special moment when Melissa was singing the high notes (one
of my favorite parts of the show, if you didn't know!)... she was taking a
long time to finish it... you know, to say the last word... then she told
the guys "I don't want it to end..." BIG BIG SIGH...
During
"Piece Of My Heart", she looked our way and said something like
"alright, just for you" and she gave us the "feed the
dog" story... Then I held up a sign asking Melissa to
"Scream Here!"... she looked at it, and then saw that on
the other side someone else was asking for the same... :-) So
she looked at both of our signs and decided to scream in the middle of the
stage... for both (well, all) of us... she then gave me that
apologetic look like "they were asking too, so I couldn't do it just for
you" (yeah, this is just my read on it)... She's so doggone sweet!!!
I wrote a sign telling her "Thank you for sharing" ;-)
We gave Melissa two
doggie t-shirts... my sign said "One for you and one for the pretty
pregnant lady :-)" She thanked me and gave me a nice smile.
Don't know if she got them or even wanted them, but I know she did like
them, so maybe she'll keep them, who knows... :-)
A
couple more signs I made were "Hurry up and get here 2008!" and
"Can you say withdrawals?!" -> She liked that one :-)
When
she came out for the encore, we held our "Thank You" sings...
She thanked us back :-)
When
she came by shaking hands, she held my hand and we both told each other at
the exact same time "Thank you SO much!"... Awwwwwwww....
Before
she left the stage, she went over to the guys and gave each of them a big
kiss. She gave Stephanie an even bigger kiss and off she went...
sigh sigh sigh!
Some
of the major highlights of the night:
-
Camille and Rhondda tying Melissa's shoes... LOL! :-)
-
Melissa taking off her leather bracelet and giving it to Rhondda at the
end of the show. OK, how cool is THAT!!!???
-
Tammy waving at us :-) She's so cute! :-) I tried to show her
a couple of signs telling her we miss her in the Zone, but I'm not sure if
she saw them :-)
-
Probably THE highlight for me was during "Precious Pain"... when
we got to hear Melissa's voice... as in HER voice... not through the mike,
not through the speaker... Oh... my... Gawd! That was something I
will never forget... so so so so so so so so soooooooo incredibly
beautiful! I get goosebumps when I think about it!
So... my
new tour nickname is "Troublemaker"... yup, that's right.
After the show, we were hanging out outside the venue, when someone poked
me in the arm... I turned around and there was Mr. Chainsaw telling me
"You're a troublemaker"... What? Me? Nah!
He's so cool! I really like him. He hung out with the fans a
bit... and even posed for a picture with Golfie and eaglefeather :-)
As he was leaving he came back to me and told me again that I was a
troublemaker... so I told him "You know you love me!" and
he first gave me a look like "yeah right", but then he nodded...
he loves me :-)
I
love him. I love EVERYBODY! :-)
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