Chapter 2: July 6, 2007

A Night at the Opera

In Ancient Greece, the play houses were often put right next to the hospitals for this reason. Holistic medicine of the time predicted that if an unwell person saw a performance they could relate to, they would experience catharsis, and thus be healed of their illness. So patients from the hospital at Epidaurus would go to see Sophocles, and the Oedipus cycles, and thus understand through that drama what might be going on with their own lives. Art should reflect society, at all times, to be real and effective.

Music is the best medicine--Dr. Bob Barriatua (former base player for Providence)

I woke up the morning of July 6, ready for another day of fun and frolic. I had a horrible leg cramp, like the one that got Serena Williams this month (OOOH THOSE HURT) and after whimpering and rubbing it out, went for bananas at the next ice stop. Bananas have potassium, I hate the gooey things, but they are a necessary evil. My hands have cramped up too, and that is painful as well. I also had bad dreams about my dog, and my dog was likewise depressed, so had to call him. My dog understands telephones, what a smart pooch.

A report on-line from C. St M said most of the band had seen the venue doctor, Graeme was coughing during his poem. I think it’s the allergies here. I picked up a nasty little hack myself after the show at the Britt, and am fighting it off, it may have been my room air con, dirty filters and God knows how many airborne germs from previous visitors. I don't have to sing tho, and the band does. Yes Graeme was hacking a bit....... mine might have been from all the screaming I was doing, but viruses *do* carry "on the air" if you are close to the front (and I was). This is one reason they don't shake hands anymore after shows. My God, I just remembered that my great-nephew had the wheezes (I held him quite a while), I sure hope I didn’t pass it to anyone. Admittedly Graeme might have brought some Florida bugs, but concerts must be a paradise for germs, the flu buggies all fly around on the wind as people scream, and then the bacteria screw and share their RNA and get stronger. Everyone out there, band and fans alike, get your Theraflu out! lots of hot toddies!

I hope the Moodies got to travel by ground up to Portland, because the drive is very beautiful through Oregon, even if it’s long. That is the Rogue River and Applegate trail, they followed another path than that blazed by Lewis and Clarke, (down the Columbia and the Snake River, which most of the pioneers took coming to Oregon). Evelyn S. Lampman wrote a great book about Tabitha Brown coming up the Willamette on the Applegate trail, so I always think of that book as I drive up that stretch of I-5. Pretty country, but hairy in spots, like above Grant’s Pass, where the semi’s have a grade, and no mercy on small cars. People drive far too fast too. Oregonian drivers have to be the worst on the planet, I don’t know why.

I got to Portland early, and (having some time) went over to see the Oregon City museums, but wasn’t overly impressed. I lived in Portland quite a while, and never had a chance to really look into the whole pioneer zone across the River. I found a cute little place, Abigail’s Garden, and stopped to rest for a few moments. Then I got a flash on my Great-Grandfather………. And realized he had come through the same town, long long ago, because I know he did the Oregon Trail, and then went BACK to the Midwest. He was damn good with a gun too, a hired gun apparently, went on to be a US Marshall. It was a nice connection to make.

By the time I got to Portland, I was nasty again (no air con, I was sticky, the steering wheel was sticky, sun block lotion everywhere, UGH) and had to freshen up out of my cooler (it was one big camp out). I organized the fricking car too, somehow traveling shakes bags and boxes, and they all get mixed up in the back. Normally I stay with my brother, but it was a long drive out to Sherwood, and I wanted to take time to wander downtown Portland anyway.

I found Nike Town which was fun but overpriced, and met a Muslim in a Moody tee that was asking about Starbucks, in poor English. (that was weird). I cruised by the Schnitz taking pictures of the marquee. The Moody wardrobe mistress pulled up in back, with stage clothes in cleaner bags! (in a dirty white car with Oregon plates). She scrambled around, couldn’t figure out which door to use, griped a bit to another security type standing there. Well if she wasn’t so snotty I could have helped her out (really miss priss, I was hustling costumes while you were in diapers! Nasty thing.) I munched dinner from Carl’s Northernmost Burger Stand in Downtown Portland in the park behind the venue. (tempura’ed zucchini), watched kids in the park doing stunts on Stingray bicycles, and skateboarders too. I find young people give me the most amusement to watch: that’ s what comes of being a teacher. [The cops come along on bikes and round up the drunks now, thankfully, the bums used to lay around cluttering up the lawns in downtown parks]

The Schnitzer Theatre (downtown Portland, OR) is an old opera house (100+ years I'm sure), which turned into a vaudeville house sometime in the early 20th century (long theatrical history there, that's another story). The design comes from a time when electronic audio was non-existant, and the accoustics were part of the architectural considerations. It was restored and reinforced to meet current earthquake standards sometime in the 1980's (?) the Schnitzers are civil engineers and steel hustlers in the Greater Portland area, and known for their philanthropy. The theatre is fondly called "The Schnitz" by all who live in the Pacific Northwest, and is usually host to orchestral events. I know for a fact that the balcony rocks during a Moody show (been there, in the Dress Circle), but apparently the structure can handle it. Having said that, I still like to sit somewhere not under the balcony, and in a structurally sound part of the House (I was WAY in the back of the balcony last time). This time I was in the seventh row in the orchestra, off to the right. Not too bad. The exit next to me egressed into one of the most filthy alleys I've ever been in, apparently part of a labyrinth used by stars in their quest to avoid ravening hoards of fans.

The show: They kept us in the lobby a while so we would buy their drinks, so I explored a bit, it is a lovely old building, I sketched the lamp designs, one had naked nymphs, and the others beautiful goldfish with swirling fins. I asked the Cloak Room lady if she actually ever got cloaks "no mostly daggers" she asserted. Haha. The ladies bathroom had a HUGE room inside covered in full length mirrors, apparently where the ladies used to adjust their formals and change shoes.

Bummer, I was on the right side of the House this time, and couldn’t see Justin’s fret work. I hate it when that happens. Justin has stopped whacking the bottom of his Gibson during the jam on IJASIARRB and there are also no more electronic "glitches" like have plagued past shows. Maybe he was knocking the pick-up loose! Anyway, no sound cutting out this time. Last time I saw them at the Schnitz (about 5 years ago), they had one total black out during the show! yike!

A man behind me was very pleased with the seats, and said to his wife "you don’t need binoculars here!" Her dead pan reply "I do". It went over his head I think.

Most of the shows I saw were pretty White Bread, but I did pick out some interesting ethnic folks in Portland, "real" Indians (unlike me, I’m only a Toe Indian). We Indians have funny reactions to Moody music. I’m ok with it now (not Loony tunes anymore), but this was the first time I’ve seen real Indians show up for a Moody show. One was an audience member, a young man who was (naughty) drunk! He had braids, a flannel shirt, the whole thing. At some point he darted for aisle, weaving and dragging his date with him, apparently ill, but he came back eventually and had a great time. He was cute. The other "real Indian" was a security guard, whom I had difficulty not openly leering at, he was so nice looking. It was a vast improvement on the last slob they had guarding the stage there. Anyway this guy and I actually got into a fight during a good song about me dancing in the aisle. His aim in life was to keep the fire lanes clear, so I guess he was right. The people behind me and in front were up dancing too, so I thought he was a little anal about it. No hard feelings, but it was annoying.

Graeme looked a bit tired at the Schnitz, and rambled during his "patter" prior to "Higher and Higher". He also left early after the show, ahead of the Jays. He’s a sweetie, you can see these looks of concern he shoots at Justin sometimes. Justin and Graeme are closer than you think, they used to be roomies long ago, and I guess that carries over. One time, Graeme got a lost look on his face. I’ve seen that before, a performer thinks "I don’t know where I come in at!" but they always figure it out of course when the time comes. Performance cues aren’t like other memory tasks, and when it happens, you don’t panic…….. You trust your instincts. Graeme did just fine ( I think it was during "One More Time to Live") it turned out to just be a short dink on the cymbals.

I also think part of Graeme’s malaise might have been from a faulty head set, apparently John had trouble with one earlier as well, in Saratoga (?) Graeme sure looked upset when the roadie came out to help him with it, and actually left the stage during "December Snow" (no drums on that one).

The light show at the Schnitz was far f***ing out, it was really worth it. (We didn’t get the slide show at the lawn shows). Hope my pictures come out. I was a little annoyed with the projections of the "band as young guys" as I prefer the band as they are, but they kept flashing photos like billboards. There WAS one very funny shot of them all with their hands behind their heads I hadn’t seen before, but most were familiar photos. The slideshows did have some neat effects, like moving falling snow on the December album cover, and the star animated sparkling on the EGBDF cover art. I think the best was during "Question", they took the cover to Question of Balance, and did a twisting alien tunnel with it, very nice effects. I also saw geodesics being used in projections (for the first time at a Moodies show!) during "Lean on Me" like a little journey into inner space, complete with Bucky Balls and so forth. (Virus’s also have geodesics to them). H&H ended with a huge projected American flag which brought down the house of course, Portland being the Conservative Nation that they are. But it was a very kind gesture on the Moodies part, especially after the 4th. (All is forgiven apparently).

During "The Other Side of Life" they ran a chopped-up version of the video that goes with it. I hadn’t seen it in a long time, and got a big laugh out of it, it’s very funny in a twisted way. That video should have won an award.

My seat at the Schnitz was annoying in that I was in the Handicapped area (sorta) over on the very far right front; prior to the show they were taking out seats to make room for chairs. I oozed out of my assigned seat and over to a wall seat to not be crowded by this, and they held back a few tickets to allow room too, which was nice. ANYWAY I was super annoyed, not to speak ill of the handicapped, but one party arrived half way through the last half of the show, and totally interrupted the energy……… she had two mobile friends with her: if one is handicapped, you really need to start out sooner, you WILL encounter road blocks when in a chair. They should know better! To complicate all this, a young couple kept squiggling down into some chairs in front of me, and there just wasn’t room for them. They were run off twice and were really a problem.

Norda looked REALLY good, she has had a make-over, and has her hair longer now. Her flute playing is so good anyway, that is what counts. She smiled a lot, was hi energy,. and seems to have her own following in the crowd (some creepy stalker yelled out in Portland "that’s my girl!" after a flute solo). She wore a beautiful long formal, and really fit into the opera house theme, she looked like an old time star during her flute solos. Her flute playing is excellent, she and Justin have put in some long hours on arrangements there. John comes over to do the WHOO parts on IJASIARRB with the girls at their mike. Norda wears really high heels (she is really tiny), and I have to admire her stamina and poise, as she did quite a bit of dancing around, and maintained excellent balance. Ah for the good old days of Bernie kicking off her mules and playing barefoot, that was a treat!

When Norda did that flute solo at the Schnitz, there was overhead lighting on her and Justin both, and it was incredible. Great stuff for such a Grand old Opera house. Some of the recent Moody tours have been to these wonderful places, like out doors, and old restored heritage sites. I rather like it, and hope the trend keeps up.

Clothing check: Justin and John both wore all black at some point (I noticed no leather). Paul has reduced his clothing needs to white shirts and pants, and he does quite well over there in his corner, smiling and bopping along. Gordon was his usual pirate-ish looking self, and as always, just wonderful to watch on with his complex percussion things. At Britt, Justin came out in a shirt that had an old fashioned floral on it [there were daisy florals on a lot of clothes all over this trip, must be popular this summer]. I swear I had sheets out of that fabric when I was young in the 60’s, a very neat yellow floral on white. It went with the rustic theme of Jacksonville. It was tucked in, and Justin is so skinny in the butt………. I was glad when he let his shirts hang out, he looks more relaxed. Someone needs to feed that lad more, Marie is slipping up in the cooking department! Both the Jays are wearing black shirts, or light ones, pastels etc. Graeme is wearing something that looks like Florida Senior Chic (from the Tony Soprano collection), and the girls have been wearing some black tight pants, or bustiers, that sort of thing (except Norda‘s Schnitzer evening gown). Norda had a purple (?) gypsy skirt on once, and Julie has a black "sack’ dress which looks really good with heels. Julie has a very becoming Page Boy haircut, white-blonde. I thought Julie was hidden just a bit, in the back, it would be nice to see her a bit more to the front, or better lit or something. She seemed a really nice addition to the group.

Everyone’s voices sounded just fine for these shows, Justin cracked a few times at the Britt, but warmed up and was ok. All singers know you should find a room and do a few scales prior to a show, just to loosen up the instrument in your throat. It was a good thing to hear him doing a sound check at Woodinville, not a crack all night! yeah!!!! I also heard some sour notes, but the funny thing is, when you play back the tapes, it sounds normal. So it could be the sound warping inner ear bones or something, high decibels can do funny things.

AFTER the Schnitz show, I went out to "wait by the stage-door" and it took some odd twists this time. Downtown Portland is pretty familiar to me, I felt no fear of being out past midnight (people were walking their dogs at 11 pm!!!); usually the band doesn’t take that long to come out. Tonight something happened, but (like Hargrove lied) I would hesitate to put sinister implications to it. A group of fans stood ACROSS the street, and when I wandered over there I figured it out: they were watching the Moodies upstairs over the loading dock, in their Green Room. A very pretty blonde woman was sitting near John sipping white wine (we could only see the back of his head) it turned out to be Kirsten. She looks well, in a mid range with her weight (I know she has fought it, up and down. She's only about 5'4" if that, a small gal).

Reading the body language, it was NOT a frolic up there. John frankly looked pretty tense, kept fluffing his hair (it was probably soaked, as was mine after all that rocking out). And he was quite animated. I wondered if a band argument was going on, and kept watching, geeky-ly. About that time, Graeme came out the stage door by himself, surrounded by security and off in to the night he went in a van. I never saw the rest of the band (Norda, Gordon et al). John’s conversation went on and on, Kirsten got up and left, and two managers came over near John to talk. So it was about money, and not performance. Again, I wouldn’t read more than I should into it, but I did think "hey where are your band-mates to back you up, John!" hah! Justin was actually there, just out of sight of the window (wisely, I wouldn’t sit with MY head in a window if I were a Moody!) It was a new insight for me, that they don’t just sit around after shows, nibbling wine and cheese, there are contracts to debate sometimes, and that takes diplomacy and mental focus. That must be difficult after doing a rock concert.

Whatever was up, vans came and went without the Jays, and by this time I was the only fan standing, almost midnight. They shook hands, Kirsten donned her purse, John pulled on a jacket over his black undershirt……… they all disappeared from the window. By this time security was giving me funny looks and I felt a little silly being the only fan. (I actually think some of the fans went inside the Heathman to Lurk and Stalk. In 1992 when the band came through here, the band was in the bar of the Heathman, four of them stuffed in a booth, drinking after the show. Fans memories can be long). The bus was warming up, no other vans or limos in sight. I’m not an autograph hog, and it WAS late so I left, and I suspect the Jays and Kirsten took the bus. There ARE tunnels to the Heathman from there, and Graeme doesn’t stay with the rest of the band always by past reports (he's said things about "getting away from you crazy women!"). Who knows where they stay at night……… fans who think they know often don‘t; that is a will o’ the wisp chase indeed, tracking them to hotels. By the time I drove past the theatre again, a second semi had pulled up behind the purple one, so they had a lot of gear to move. This was in addition to the rental truck, which (of course) was NOT U-Haul.

Graeme was sited the next day in "a sports car" whatever that is, so he apparently drove on his own. That’s unusual, to see one of the band leave without the others. I’ve never heard of it, other than at Tahoe when they are trying to leave separately and split the fan hoard up.

After I had worn out the Schnitz as an object of interest, I headed for my brother’s house out in Sherwood, west of town. I feel sorry for those having to navigate Portland for the first time, I lived there a few years, and found my way ok, even though I was very tired. Luckily Ross left the door open, and I slipped in quietly in the dark. The doors creaked (Ross and Stacy have raised 5 children, and they like creaking doors, for reasons known only to parents). Didn’t last long after I rolled out my bag. The next morning Stacy treated me to a cup of tea, and I blazed out of there for the next show, determined to line sit one more time.