HOB LA 2001

This is a bittersweet review for me, as this show will prolly hafta tide me over for awhile. Baby J is due on March 10, so it looks like I'll have to wait until next summer to see the guys again…

The Show - all the concert stuff, including openers, Simi and HR
The Set List - CT's set and nothin' but
Some photos of the 2 days festivities

I stayed in Hollywood with my old high school pal, Jack Plotnick. Jack is my only actor friend who's living the dream. No day job. He makes all his money acting. The best part is that the boy deserves every bit of the success he's had. He's one of the most talented people I've ever known - not to mention one of the most generous. He had no problem with me basically treating his place like a hotel. The only time we had together was an hour or so after I rolled in from each of the shows. Thank you, Jack!

Anyway… I didn't get much sleep Wednesday night. Too pumped from the shows, I guess. Between that and the daylight, I woke up early and decided to just go to the venue. Don’t ask what time. I'm embarrassed to say. Suffice it to say that the folks at the HOB thought I was kinda goofy. LOL…

It was a nice day - despite the haze. There was a group of school kids there to visit the HOB as part of a field trip. Nino (HOB staff dude) told me that Tuesday - Thursday they have groups in to check out the art and get a taste of some music (which I could hear in the hall downstairs). What a fantastic idea. Get students some culture and give some work to musicians. The kids were dang cute, too.

In the mean time, another staff dude handed me a Robin pick he'd found backstage. How cool is that?! He let me blather on about the show the night before. He's a RHCP fan and was impressed to hear about Chad Smith's appearance…

Then in another act of kindness, Nino gave me a coupon for a free entrée that night. Don't know what I did to deserve such coolness, but thanks guys!!!

Dawn and Nance showed up a little later - I was glad to have some company. They were staying across the street at the Hyatt - sounds like the party at Rusty's got kinda crazy. But I'd've been disappointed to hear otherwise! :)

There were about 15 of us by 2 or so. The afternoon was wee bit chilly for all us early types. Damn Texas for thinning my blood so!

My valet buddy was there again. He also let me blather about the show. As I walked away I noticed that he put my car right next to the booth. I'm not sure, but I think he parked my car in a primo (and protected) spot. Thank you valet dude!

Stephanie and I had dinner with Lars, Rosie, Adam and Lisa. Best meal of the trip. Maybe I was just hungry. :) Mr. and Mrs. Bunezuela were in from San Francisco. Good to see them, as always.

Afterwards, I was surprised to hear CT sound checking again. I heard bits of "House is Rockin'" and "Lookin' Out for Number One" before getting back in line. We could see Carla, Rick and Tom heading for the van afterwards. Tom didn't turn around, but Rick saw us and jogged up the hill, flapping his arms. Too funny.

Of course the line was kinda crazy again. More organized than the night before, but the dash downstairs was silly as usual. The real pisser were the dickweeds who managed to sneak in before us - despite the assurances we got from a manager that we'd be first in tonight. To the wench I called the "Lil' Princess": I hope you break a nail and rip in your leather pants. :P

Despite my grumbling, Stephanie and I ended up in front between Robin and Tom for the show. Woo hoo!

Tonight's show started with a Queen song (the name escapes me now) that underscored the opening of the balcony. Pretty wild. An interesting gimmick. I wondered how much that system set them back…

Harmony Riley was on first. WTF? As Kevin Meany would say, "That's not right!" Oh well…

I was happy to see HR again. Has Matt (aka Bighed) been taking fashion tips from Tom? Loved the jacket! :) Miles seemed particularly into it. Great stuff. There were several moments then he looked so much like his dad it freaked me. All bias aside, this is a great band and I'm looking forward to their new album. HR oughta come to Texas some time. :)

I didn't catch it all but Miles made a comment about never having enough cowbell. LOL! He also told us that this was their last gig with CT. Bummer…

Simi was next. Tonight I decided that the lead singer looks like the roller girl chick in that Dire Straits video - glittery eye shadow and all - and her voice sounds like Missing Persons' lead singer. LMAO! I was happy that she remained vertical tonight - I was also happy to see her more fully clothed. :) After second listen to their music, I still liked it. And I still had no idea what the heck she was singing most of the time.

At one point I looked over stage right and Miles was peeking around one of the black curtains. He shot me a big grin and disappeared. Hope he found what he was looking for. LOL…

I think CT came on a little earlier tonight, but I'm not sure. I don’t do watches.

BELLS	LOL! I thought this was a new song - but it was the intro to CST that was played as the curtain went up. Not sure if it was a tape or what. Really interesting though...
CLOCK STRIKES 10	Rockin'! Great start!
JUST GOT BACK	Daxx looked like he was having fun on this one.
GIVE IT AWAY	Yeah baby! What a great pop tune! This and "Scent" are still my faves of the new crop o' songs.
IYWML	RN - introed this as a song that went to #1 in Australia and didn't do too well here. Awwww… I'll always love hearing this one live because it's the tune that brought me to CT fandom. :)
HOT LOVE
BORDERLINE	Waaaaaaaa hooooooooo! Great electric version. I love it, I love it, I love it!
YOU'RE ALL TALK	RN said that Slash played this one on the Silver DVD, but he's not here now so f*ck him. LMAO!
WORDS	I like this one more and more each time I hear it. I could read along with the lyrics, which was nice. (No, I don't remember them.) Rick was downright goofy at times - making eyes at all of us in the front row.
LOOKIN' OUT FOR #1	I think the set list read "Lookin' Out for #2" Bahahahaha! Anyway - this was another waaaa hoooo moment. It freakin' ROCKED!
HIGH ROLLER	Ironically I could smell someone blazing up as this one started…
YOU'RE ALL I WANNA DO	Could someone just shoot me now so I can die a happy woman? THANK YOU FOR PLAYING THIS CT!!!!!!!!!!!!
HOUSE IS ROCKIN'	It sure as hell is.
BIG EYES
VOICES	Sigh Another all time fave. I will never ever get tired of hearing Rick's solo on this one.
NEED YOUR LOVE	Has someone been reading my dream book? Are you kidding me?! NYL and GRH on the same night?!!! Whoa nelly... Tom laughed out loud as Rick made several figure 8s around the stage during his solo.
EDRONE	Another set list psych out! I thought "Edrone" was another new one, until I realized it was just a notation for the STG intro.
STOP THIS GAME	Hell yeah!
IWYTWM	Got a big grin and a "Lisa!" from Rick on this one. Didn't think I could get a bigger, dopier grin on my face, but Mr. Nielsen proved me wrong... There were some major guitar issues. Seemed to be a prob with one of the speakers, then the guitar, then a broken string. DOH!
SURRENDER	Ken caught the album flat! Rick obviously loved that. I found out after the show that not only did Ken catch that bad boy, he also managed to keep most of the picks in tact! I'm impressed!
DREAM POLICE	Robin did the "kneel down" thing over where Junko was standing. :)
GONNA RAISE HELL	HELLO! As they say in "Radio Lover" - SWEET JESUS! What a way to go out. Daxx kick much ass! He and Tom were having such a blast. You could see Rick and Chad Smith offstage nodding their approval.
GOODNIGHT NOW	Chad Smith played this one again. We got several endings, as usual. There were lots of hugs all around again. Thankfully Chad kept his ass in his pants tonight. :)

He told us that they were doing songs off of their "first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth albums. Plus Budokan… And the Box Set… As well as some new stuff, if that's OK with you?" He thought for a second about that question and said, "Too bad, we already did."

Rick acknowledged a bunch of us fans and rattled off where we were from. I never get tired of that. :)

He saw someone holding up a sign asking if they could sing on "Surrender" to which Rick said, "If we let you sing it, 2000 people will beat the fuck out of you! ... Whoops I shouldn't swear - Anne Heche just entered my body. Rick would never say that."

Yet another of those round CT bags was chucked onstage. Rick studied it for a second and said it looked like a barstool…

Rick gave his "inventor of the 12 string bass" intro before "Voices." Robin and Tom looked at him funny then informed him that Tom was not gonna sing this one. Rick laughed and said something like "Oops, wrong intro!" Then he told us to remember it for the next one, because Tom would be on vox for that. Tom and Robin lost it again because Tom just wasn't scheduled to sing that night. Hilarious…

Another false intro came when Rick looked at Robin kind of funny then introduced him as "Robin on the 12 string bass." I guess the Firebird looked a little too much like one of Tom's basses. LOL! After he realized the goof, he proceeded to rattle off Robin gear, then Tom's, then his before stopping and apologizing for getting carried away.

At the end of the show Rick yelled, "As they say in Hollywood - it's party time!"

The last thing he did was put his arm around Daxx and yelled, "This is my son! This is my f***ing son!" before they walked offstage together. This was so sweet, I just wanted to give them both a big ol' hug. :) BTW - I guess Anne Heche took over his body again...

OMG. What a show! The set list was unbelievable. I think if they'd played any more of my favorites, they would've had to cart me away… Robin was quite animated again - pointing to the folks he recognized in the crowd. Oh yeah. He sings real good, too... :)

As opposed to the night before, it was freakin' hot in there. Blah! Perhaps this was why Tom seemed a little reserved. He came downstage a played right in front of us a few times, which is great, but he didn't seem to smile much unless he was laughing at something Rick was doing…

During the show, I managed to score my second RZ pick of the day. The cool thing is that it wasn't one I didn't have with the gold CT logo. Woo hoo! It took some doing - but my Homer sign helped me snag it. For those of you who wonder why I always have that sign - it's not just because I love the quote. It's a handy tool, as well!

Before the encores, someone made the mistake of taking Robin's set list. George and Robin's tech came flying out from backstage and lit into them. I've never seen George that mad - yikes! As soon as someone touched the set list (before the show was even over!) I knew there was gonna be trouble. Some security guards came out after that and had words with the guy.

Because of that, a huge security dude appeared and stood right in front of Stephanie. We assumed that he'd been sent out to guard the remaining lyric sheets. That's fine, but she couldn't see anything as a result. To his credit, when he saw us shuffling around, he moved over a bit to help her see.

As we milled around, Flis told me she thought she was standing right by Shawn Cassidy during the show. OMG! He was my first concert! How'd I miss him? I had the Hardy Boys lunch box and everything! LOL! (Why I'm admitting this, I'll never know…)

Great to see so many old and new friends. What a bummer that the night had to come to an end. Before I picked up my car, Rick came out from the club. Got to say goodbye to him before the van pulled away. He'd already checked out the CD I'd given him the night before and thanked me again.

My flight out was the next morning. It was really hard to not just stay on the San Diego Freeway and head to Street Scene - but I was strong. I actually managed to get to LAX to catch an earlier flight to Dallas. This was great except for 2 things:

#2: This was largely because the landing at DFW was the most whacked out thing I've ever been through...

WE HAD TO ATTEMPT IT TWICE! A nasty bit of turbulence almost blew the 757 over, so the pilot pulled her back up and had to circle back. Before he could try to land again though, we had to do a low "fly by" so the ground crew could take a look at the landing gear. The also needed time to get the fire crew on the tarmack. YIKES! Although we landed just fine, it didn't stop me from crying like a little girl once we were safe on the ground.

That aside, I wouldn't trade this whirlwind trip for anything. Thanks to my friends who made it so much fun. Thanks to Tim for putting up with me (again)!

And of course - thanks to CT for 2 unbe-freakin'-lievable shows! I have a ton of great memories to live on until I'm lucky enough to see you again.

DN	Red shirt and jeans (I think!)
RN	Long black coat and pants, turquoise shirt (nice color!)
RZ	Metallic red shirt and leather pants (yow!)
TP	Long, cream colored leather coat, black v neck t, pants and boots