LA HOB 2001

Greetings all. Adam, suggested this and I thought it was a good idea, so here are two bookmarks for you:

Feel free to click on one of those or just read on for all my usual junk. :)

My flights to LA were fine. I managed to get on the earliest flight out of Midland (thanks American!) However, "The Curse of Kim G" kicked in when my flight out of Dallas sat on the runway for 45 minutes. Apparently visibility in LA was bad so we had to wait. DOH! No matter, I still got in at least an hour earlier than expected, so I shouldn’t complain.

It scared me. The steering was way loose. I was glad I wasn’t doing a lot of driving on this trip. To make matters worse – there was only a radio. Yuck! If was gonna hear CT in the car, it was gonna be through the generocity of a local station. :P

It was a smoggy, hazy day in LA. Most of the junk burned off later in the day. Ironically I felt cold most of the time I was in California. What’s up with that? And what’s up with me being too dumb to pack a jacket? :)

Got into the HOB in time to hang with Lars and Rosie from Sweden, as well as the Hores and Stephanie – my buddy from Boston. Nice to see them all. Thanks to Stephanie for the gift for Baby J. It’s a cute bib from a famous children’s book in Boston.

Outside we queued up for the show with Shoandra and her husband Rick. We were soon joined by many other CT fans: Daria, Celina, Kent, Nance, Dawn, Zandergal, Janice and the 2 Adams. Lots of folks to pass the time with. We all helped ourselves to the numerous pieces of advertising for the CT shows. The HOB had printed up cards, a calendar, flyers – plus there were signs all around announcing the concerts. Gotta love it!

From where we were, you could see load in going full force. I bumped into George as he headed into the restaurant. Always nice to see him.

You could see the Harmony Riley guys loading in, too. Stephanie and I decided to go down and bug Miles. He was good enough to autograph my copy of "Four Songs" and let me bend his ear about the Saratoga and Anaheim shows. He agreed that the Saratoga crowd was a little funky. He said it was the second time they’d done an acoustic set and that they'd enjoyed it.

Stephanie noticed that he was left-handed and asked him why he played right-handed. He wasn’t sure – the only theory he had was that it was just easier because dad always gave him right handed guitars. LOL! Their new album is coming out around Christmastime and will be available on their web site. Sounds good to me!

Because parking was so funky around the venue, I just went with the valet thing. There was a nice guy at the booth who asked me if I was with the band. Ummmm – in what sense? ;)

Back upstairs on the porch, you could hear sound check. The guys at the venue were nice enough to open the door so we could hear better. (I liked the staff at the HOB. Despite the fact that their organization was lackluster, for the most part, they were all very nice and repeatedly did cool things like that…) We heard snippets of Ballad of TV Violence, Need Your Love, Words and Scent of a Woman. I love it!

Part of the deal at the HOB is that if you eat dinner you get into the show 15 minutes before the general public. Naturally, I’m gonna take them up on that! Ken, Charli, Flis, Danny, Rusty and Tony were all on hand for dinner. Great to see them all. Junko was there too and she'd come bearing gifts. Thanks again, Junko! I still feel like a heel being empty-handed. I’ll catch up some day, I swear! :)

By the time they were ready to open the doors, there was quite a crowd for the "skip the line" deal. Once they finally let us in, it got pretty hairy. We had to go down a couple flights of stairs and there was lots of shoving, obnoxious behavior.

Some day I’m gonna write a book on concert line etiquette. Apparently there are a lot of people out there who don’t grasp basic concepts like shoving in front of people who’ve put in hours of time is tacky, mean and (god willing) bad karma.

Oh well. Stephanie and I still managed to get a spot in front of Rick’s steps. Rusty and his big ol’ platform boots were right next to us. Hilarious!

The HOB is as beautiful as others I’ve been to. Lots of great looking, African inspired stuff. And you gotta love that bottle cap art! The stage had the usual crazy quilt curtain. Stephanie laughed at me both nights because I couldn’t stop touching the velvet scraps whenever it was closed. :) There were bars to either side, plus a large balcony area above it all that wrapped around the floor area.

There were 2 opening bands for both shows: Simi from New York and HR, of course.

Tonight Simi was on first. I think I’d really like their music if I knew WTF they were saying. The lead singer was interesting. She's beautiful but I lived in fear the whole time that if her boobs didn’t pop out on top, then her ass was coming out the other end. YIKES! She was also having some problems keeping vertical. She had a big time wipe out on the first or second song. Doh!

Anyhoo, their music was kinda cool – she played electric violin and guitar. It was a really interesting sound.

Harmony Riley was next. "Four Songs" has been on heavy rotation at the Jebsen house ever since we got in July, so it was great to hear some of them. A couple new ones were in the set, too. I don’t know the names, but my favorite of the new stuff is the one with the lyric: "It’s alright, it's alright if you wanna stay late, I just need to know your name." :)

They all looked like they’re having fun. I could watch Miles play guitar all day. He’s definitely got his own style, but every so often you see shades of dad. Very cool. At one point, he talked about how great it’s been to tour with CT for the last 3 months. Awwwww!

Dream Police	Cool opener! Got 5 picks! The new bass/drum intro psyched me out though. Didn't recognize it at first.
I Can't Take It	Best live version I’ve heard of this one. A good mix. Rick spat a pick at me. :)
She's Tight	So glad they’ve put this back in the set - it's such a crowd pleaser. Rick looked at me and sang "Who’s she talkin’ to, could it be Lisa?" LOL!
Lookout	WAAAAAAAAAAAA HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I FING LOVE THIS SONG! FINALLY GOT TO HEAR AN ELECTRIC VERSION LIVE AND IN PERSON! I’M SORRY I’M YELLING BUT HEARING THIS MADE ME* REALLY HAPPY! THANK YOU CT!
Oh Candy	Rick introed this as one off their first album and Silver
Ballad of TV Violence	Hot damn!
Special One	I like how this starts quietly and builds.
Anytime	Cool! I hadn’t heard this one live before, either.
Tonight It's You	DOUBLE WAAAA HOO!!! Seemed like Rick was messing around and cracking Tom up. I never get tired of watching them do that to each other.
A Matter Of Time	Another new one! I like it – it rocked and had a good hook.
IWYTWM	Robin had an abbreviated intro on this one. Just said "I want you…" I thought it was a mistake, but it happened again the next night…
IKWIW	Good god. Rick handed me his red Gibson. (Sorry, I have no idea the year or model…) I was one happy camper for all of 2 seconds. Dave retrieved it that fast. Doh! Rick saw this and yelled, "WTF?!" at him. LOL!
She's So Bad	OK guys, you’ve obviously got a lot of killer new tunes. Get that new album out on the QT!
On Top Of the World	RN fed up and laughed at himself.*
California Man	How apropos
Surrender	This wasn’t on the set list, but I had a feeling it’d get played. Imagine that!
Scent Of A Woman	This is still one of my favorites of the new ones. Great freakin’ song! Flis helped Robin get a clear view of the lyric sheets, which he thanked her for.
He's A Whore	Chad Smith joined them for these last 3. The dude brings his own mega cymbals. That’s how hard he plays!
Auf Wiedersehen	Yes!
Goodnight Now	Several endings. I love it!

Rick said it was great to be in such a "morally upstanding town" and said tonight they’d be doing stuff from Budokan, new stuff and some in between stuff, too. He also added that tomorrow night would be a totally new set except for 2 songs. Ummm – it was 3, but we knew that the big 3 would prolly hafta get played both nights. :)

After one of the new songs, he said they were going back in the studio this fall to work on the new album.

There was a nasty buzz at one point, so when the tech came out to replace a cable, Rick introduced him and said he’d worked with AC/DC.

He introed Robin and Tom – who stood stage left. Tom put his arm around Robin. I forget what Rick said they looked like, but it made everyone laugh. His intro of Daxx was very sweet. He prefaced it all with "Perhaps you’ve noticed that something’s missing besides my beard." LOL

There was the usual run down of fans from all over. After rattling off several places he wondered if anyone from California was there. During this time, I gave him a CD with some mpeg files on it. After he'd informed me in Anderson, IN that he’d never actually seen the infamous Homer clip, I got a friend to do a video transfer. (Thank you, Doug!)

Rick got bombarded with presents that night. Someone out in the crowd tossed up a round black bag with famous CT logo on it. He thanked them and commented that it was great to have such an "awful" logo to use for so many years.

After his intro for Chad Smith Robin said, "Who?" So Rick said he was a guy in "some band called Red Hot Chili Peppers." Robin shrugged and walked off like he'd never heard of the dude or the band. LOL!

I forget the song, but Rick mouthed the words, "Blow me," to a photographer in the front row. LMDAO!

No John Candice at these shows! Stephanie found out the next night that he’s had to go back in for tests. Poor guy. Get well soon, John! I picked up one of the new lanyards and asked the guy if they had any sweaters for sale. (The HOB was freakin’ freezing that night!)

While we're on the merchandise subject, I wish there was a line of maternity CT clothing. I’m gonna be grown out of mine in a couple months. :)

Early on, Tom saw my Homer sign and gave me a nice smile. He and Robin were interacting a lot with the crowd. Gotta love it. I think Tom was very confused by me holding up a CD that said "The Simpsons" on it. LOL! I tried to explain but I don't think he got it.

Maybe it was just me, but Rick seemed to be throwing in a lot of new little gestures that I hadn’t seen before…

I was really hoping that Chad Smith would turn up at these shows. The man cracks me up - not to mention that his drumming kicks my butt. He is by far the most aggressive drummer I’ve ever seen. Rick and Tom made frequent stops upstage and laughed their fool heads off every time. Afterwards, Chad came flying out from behind the kit and Daxx joined them onstage for a photo op. He told us all that we were lucky to see "one of the greatest American rock bands."

We were also "lucky" enough to get mooned by the guy. :P He tried to pull down Rick’s pants, too, but gave up and settled for slapping him on the butt. The man is out of control. I love it.

There was the usual milling around. Rusty invited me to the party in his room, although we bemoaned the fact that I wouldn’t be partaking. Gotta be good while I’m expecting! Flis cracked me up when she told me she'd wondered if Rick was going to give me back my CD. I assured her it was for him. :) Caught up with Ken and Charli, too. Glad they could make it – a nice unexpected surprise - hadn’t seen them since TF3. We had fun at the expense of Simi’s lead singer. Poor thing. All of my smart ass comments aside, I’ve got nothing but love ‘n respect for women making their way in the R&R world…

Outside you could see some of the famous folks who’d come to the show. Weird Al and The Knack’s lead singer were there. I found this highly ironic, given the fact that one of Weird Al's first spoofs was of "My Sharona." :) BTW – if Cindy hadn’t pointed him out – I’d’ve never seen Al walking by.

A little later, Rick emerged from the club with George and Scott Hamilton! That was a cool sight! Even though Scott walked right by me, I missed my chance to bug him. If I’d been thinking, I would have introduced myself as a fellow Bowling Green State Univ. graduate and asked for a picture. Damn! Oh well.

I did get a photo op with Rick. Thanks to him for obliging me and to George for taking it. :)

While I did fully intend to stop by the Rusty’s Hyatt party room, I was exhausted. Not to mention the fact that I hadn’t seen my friend Jack yet. He lives about a mile from the HOB. He was kind enough to put me up for a couple nights – thereby saving me a LOT of money!

Ahhhh – what a great night. Nothing like that tired, ears ringing feeling you have after a kick butt CT show…

DN	funky blue and black striped shirt, black pants
RN	long black coat and pants, white tee with some sort of Japanese embroidery
RZ	jean jacket, black pants and long sleeved shirt
TP	long black coat with silver pinstripes, black pants, shirt and boots