In Living Color

TULARE ~ Overall it was an awesome show. Great sound and the boys were playful.

* Show started at about 7:30 ~ Lisa Loeb was really short and cute. I really liked how she talked with the audience lots and explained the meanings behind her songs.

* I walk up to the cute blonde crew dude and ask about getting the setlist for Lisa, and later on the Wallflowers. He says Lisa didn't have a setlist, and he offered me her half full Evian bottle instead. I took it... (maybe I'll catch her voice.)

* From my 3rd row seats, with nothing but a ton of squealing little 15 yr olds in front of me I had a perfect view of the boys taking stage. I was directly in front of Rami, who had his little digital camera out getting some fan footage. He was wearing his tan feather hat. Jakob was (surprise) wearing his black button up shirt with black pants. I can't remember the others.

* Opened with "Tonight's The Night" followed by:

"Ashes to Ashes"

"Angel On My Bike"

"One Headlight" (showers of underwear appear on stage and Jakob ties a black bra to his mic stand.)

"Bleeders" (afterwards, Jakob points into the crowd and says, "Hey whoever has that little laser light, could you put it on me please? Right here." Pointing to chest. "It's ok nothing will happen..." The laser appears at his chest. "Thanks. Now will whoever is next to that asshole take it away from him." Turns around and they pick up again..)

"Three Marlenas"

"6th Avenue Heartache" (Jakob intros Mike and Rami)

"God Don't Make Lonely Girls" (Jakob: This ones for the boys...)

"Laughing Out Loud" (awesome drums, Mario!)

"Josephine"

"Tracks Of My Tears" (Jakob intros Mike, Rami, Greg, and Mario, and each had their own solo)

"The Difference" (Jakob: Goodnight everybody, We're the Wallflowers." * Backstage for about a minute. Encore... (Everybody rushes the stage, now I'm directly below and in front of the keyboard with nothing but a wooden fence between me and the stage!)

"Don't Let Me Down" (Mike sings this one!! Jakob: "I'm feeling a little hoarse so I'm gonna let Mike help me out on this one." It was beautiful...)

"Heroes" (I got Rami's attention and gestured to him that I was gonna flash him my chest. He smiles, nods his head yeah... and I did!! He laughs and dances his lil heart out! Earlier I stood on a chair when he was taking footage and did it with the camera on me, but I was further away so only the camera caught it I think... and the roadies...)

"Won't Get Fooled Again" (Rami absolutely shined!!)

A long drive back to San Francisco and a couple of restless hours of sleep later, I find myself in Golden Gate Park waiting to see the boys again. (The only difference, that I see, is I am in San Fran instead of Tulare...) Here goes:

* Smashmouth put on a good show, very high energy, and whoever was before them was good I guess. Who cares? I was there for the boys. I stood as close as possible the whole time, again, right in front of Rami's keyboard.

* SURPRISE! Woody Harrelson takes the stage and the crowd goes WILD! He says he's really excited to be here and he loves these guys and intros the boys.

* The begin with "Ashes to Ashes" followed by...

"Angel on my Bike"

"One Headlight"

"Bleeders" (Rami shows us his magic fingers...)

"Three Marlenas" (Jakob: "Man, this is a good looking crowd here today," The crowd begs him to take his sunglasses off so we can see his eyes. His reply, a smirk... "I have an eye infection."

"6th Avenue Heartache" (Jakob intros Mike and Rami)

"God Don't Make Lonely Girls"

"Laughing Out Loud"(I call Rami's name inbetween songs and he looks, "Rami.. where's your cigar?!!" He pouts and throws his arms up and says, "I forgot to bring one!" I would have KILLED for a cigar to throw to him. NO question.)

"Heroes"

"The Difference" (Jakob fondly remembers filming the video at the Fillmore in San Francisco before the song. After the song they say goodnight and leave the stage for about two minutes... and come back with Woody Harrelson!!)

* Encore:

"Ticket to Ride" - a REAL TREAT!! Woody and Jakob share the vocals here. Most of it is even Woody alone!! Jakob was playful and sweet up there, they had fun. He would whisper to Woody the lyrics and tell him when to sing. Rami was enjoying the show as much as the crowd was, laughing and dancing. He had someone filming them with his camera so he could play. Woody was wild onstage.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" (again, Rami outdoes himself. Before leaving the stage Jakob finally takes off his sunglasses and says goodnight.

* Overall a great performance, Woody was a plus. (He even came out after the show and shook hands and signed autographs.) I do wish Mike would have sung his song that I am dying to get the lyrics for. Also, it was a HUGE crowd so it was not easy to dance and interact with the band. The sound was superb... really sharp set. No "Tracks of My Tears" was nice, I love their version but it DOES drag on with the introductions. Then again the solos were sacrificed, so it's a toss up. I can't wait for Bridge School... I have far away seats tho =(

I am at college away from Seattle and so I had to fly home for the concert (and miss some classes, oh darn!). On the airplane (Alaska Airlines) I was reading the little airplane magazine thing, and there was a story about a resort in Arizona, near Phoenix, called the Royal Palms. It said many celebrities had been spotted there, including Jake! (Of course, the article spelled his name wrong.) That was interesting.

I got to the Puyallup fair about an hour before the show would start (because of my flight), and over the broadcast system they were playing "Bringing Down the Horse"! Hey I bet people at the fair could hear the concert! I remember when I was at the 7/22/98 show, I could hear Pearl Jam outside of the Stadium. Both were outdoor shows. It had been raining a little before this show, but luckily not during the show!

I was in the front row! (It was reserved seating.) Unfortunately, there was a barricade that was about five or six feet away from the stage, and the guards were really anal about us going up to the barricade because of the guy filming the show for the monitors. Also, my seat (21) was on the far left (as in, Mike's side). But it was okay because then I could look that way and see all the guys in one view! Greg kept looking at me, cause he would look at Jake, then look a little farther and look at me. Also, another benefit to being in the front row-- no one blocking my view! The anal guards came in handy for that because they made people walk around the back of the section unless their seat was in the front row. Also, he wouldn't let people into the front to take pictures. Lisa Loeb opened and I recognized a few songs. She was pretty entertaining (better than Sean Lennon at the last concert), although she seemed to have her jokes either on a teleprompt or on paper on the ground, cause everytime she'd say something, she'd look down. Even in the middle of phrases! It was a little odd. Oh speaking of odd, there was absolutely no security check to get in! The emcee for the night made a point that "no video recorders, digital cameras, or laser pointers are allowed." Hahaha, nothing about audio. Oh darn! (If you can't tell by reading the rest of this, I recorded the show, as did I the 7/22/98 show).

There were skydivers as entertainment between sets.

Finally the Wallflowers took the stage! Jake was wearing a black button-down shirt (wrinkled in the back) over a grey shirt (probably the same one as last time), and black pants and shiny black dress shoes. This was the same outfit he wore for the Portland show (9/6), and also I heard he wore that outfit to the Tulare, CA show two days later (9/19). He was drinking from his red plastic cup. Mike was wearing all brown (like at my 7/22/98 concert). He was drinking what appeared to be red wine because it was in a goblet and red colored. Mario was wearing a sort of purple colored shirt. There was a water bottle next to the drum stand. Greg was wearing all black. Rami was wearing a black suit, tan hat, and starting from "One Headlight" through the rest of the show he had a cigar in his mouth. He was wearing sunglasses the whole time-- but the Wallflowers took the stage at about 8:15pm, when it was dark!

The Wallflowers opened with "Tonight's the Night." I had heard them do this song on bootlegs, but not live before. They did a good job. It was stuck in my head after the show! Next they did "Ashes to Ashes," which they used to open the 7/22/98 show. "Angel on my Bike" was after that one, and after "Angel," Jake finally spoke.

"One Headlight" was the next song. This was the first song that probably most of the audience recognized of the Wallflowers' songs. There were a lot of families there since the show was at the fair.

"Thank you, this is called 'Bleeders.'" Yep, "Bleeders" was the next song. "Three Marlenas" was next. Another crowd pleaser of course. "Sixth Avenue Heartache" was next.

"Josephine" was the one Jake was talking about, and was next. It was so pretty! This is random, but I noticed Jake's breathing during this song. He was taking deep breaths, using his chest. My choir teacher wouldn't have liked that. She always said to breathe from the diaphram (stomach muscles), not the chest. But hey, I'd pick Jake's singing any day over her's! Also during this song, I saw Jake and Rami's wedding rings on the "big screen." (There were two screens showing the concert-- even Memorial Stadium didn't have that, and there were more people for the Pearl Jam show! Well, at least more for the Pearl Jam part.) They did most of "Tracks of My Tears," then Jake stopped them. Yes, it was staged.And yes, it was hilarious! Jake was funny the whole night (or as someone else worded it, he was also playful). And he was having some problems talking. This is the song where Mario had a solo!

After "Tracks of my Tears" was "The Difference." Then there was about a minute and a half before they came out for the encore. Then they went into "Heroes." They did a good job. I love the way they do that song live. Then they did "Won't Get Fooled Again,"sounding great on it just like last time, and they were done. The concert went by really fast! It was a little less than an hour and a half.

When Mario threw his drumsticks, the person three away from me got one! I don't think any guitar picks were thrown during the show. Nothing was thrown onto the stage during the show because of the anal security. Rami pretended that he was going to throw his cigar box but of course he didn't. I joined the small crowd of people trying to get picks or setlists after the show at the stage. Of course most of the workers claimed they couldn't do anything for us because of some lame excuse or another. Finally one wadded up a setlist and threw it towards me and these two girls who were friends. We had a little fight for it, but one of them got it. So the other friend was asking if there was another setlist (even though her friend had one). One guy finally held one out, and I had my arms farther out (or maybe he could tell they already had one for them, because he seemed to be handing it to me) and so I got it. Those girls were like, no! It was funny. I left after that, so they wouldn't try to steal it! It was a great show and I can't wait until their new album comes out and they tour again!

~~krissite~~