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Vail concert
Here's the review. Many thanks to Tony:
>Here's my day at the show in a nutshell...not too shabby if I say so
myself!!!!
I went to the Daltrey gig last night in Vail at the Dobson Ice
Arena for the benefit of the Christopher Reeve Foundation and for the US
Disabled Ski Team. A rockin show! Jeff Whitehorn on lead guitar, Mark
Clark on bass, Simon Townshend on acoustic/rythym guitar, Simon's son ( Ben?
) on drums, Keith Levenson on keyboards with guests Peter Frampton, Gary
Booker, Nikki Lamborn. Here's the set list ( not 100% confirmed, I couldn't
read some of my scribbling ) -
Daltrey - I CAN'T EXPLAIN, SUBSTITUTE, PINBALL WIZARD // Lamborn -
KASHMIR, LORD BUY ME A MERCEDES BENZ, PIECE OF MY HEART // Booker -
CONQUISTADOR, SALTY DOG, ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC // Frampton - SHOW ME THE WAY,
CAN'T TAKE THAT AWAY FROM ME // Daltrey - BEHIND BLUE EYES, THE KIDS ARE
ALRIGHT, YOU BETTER YOU BET // Townshend - THAT'S THE WAY IT IS //
Lamborn - STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN // Frampton - ???, DO YOU FEEL LIKE I DO //
Booker - WHITER SHADE OF PALE // Daltrey - WHO ARE YOU, WON'T GET FOOLED
AGAIN // Ensemble cast - LET'S WORK TOGETHER, SQUEEZE BOX, SEE ME FEEL ME
// Ensemble cast encore - MY GENERATION
My review...
An amazing show lasting a little over 2 and a half hours. As you
can see from the set list, a little bit of everything and a lot of back and
forth with great pacing to the show the entire evening. I got to the arena
at about 1:30pm and found an open door. Frampton was working on his sound
check so I hung up my jacket on the hockey boards and pretended to be one of
the set up guys putting up chairs on the floor for the show. I did this for
a little while. The woman in charge actually handed me a 20 inch long piece
of wood to measure the rows and some string to make sure everything was
even!
Daltrey came in and said, " nice shirt " ( I was wearing my BRS tour
shirt from '98 ) and we chatted for a moment. He was working on the set
list with Levenson. I noticed Kathy from Chicago outside so I let her in
and we hung out watching the soundcheck for about 2 hours. The woman in
charge of the set up crew came up to me and asked me if I worked for her. I
told her no and she asked me if I was the guy who was putting down chairs
and I said yes. She seemed confused but never asked the big question which
was what the hell was I doing there in the first place. It was pretty neat
hanging around before the show like that. Simon seemed to enjoy the crappy
buffet that was
set up...Roger helping to crack Nikki's back and checking out the sound from
different points in the arena ( which was surpisingly good ) etc...
We got in and managed front row seats just off center on stage
right. The first three rows in the center section were reserved for Paul
Mitchell and company who sponsored the show. Lots of pretty boys in
turtleneck sweaters ( obviously, they don't go to a lot of rock concerts )
and women who surprisingly didn't explode at high altitude despite collagen
lips and silicon tits...
Roger started things off and barrelled through the first three
songs and then introduced Nikki who was dressed ala Janis Joplin. After a
little Gary Booker, Frampton came out. John Paul ( the ceo of Paul Mitchell
) is apparently a bit of a Frampton fan. There was about an 10 foot gap
between the front row and the stage which security was fairly actively
maintaining but JP got up and went right up to the stage to get a close up
of Frampton so naturally, his little band of pretty people naturally
followed. That was the cue for everyone else to approach the stage and take
pictures, dance
etc. Screw Vail security!!!
After that, Roger came out and did BBE ( with the crowd singing
along ) and played acoustic on TKAA followed by a crowd pleasing YBYB.
Simon did a fine job on TTWII playing solo and then Nikki came out for
Stairway. Kudos to Jeff's lead guitar work! After the second
Frampton/Booker sets, Roger came back out for WAY and WGFA and just about
brought the house down. UNBELIEVEABLE! My personal highlight was when they
were doing Who Are You and Roger recognized me from earlier in the day and
had a huge grin on his face as he walked over to where I was standing and
pointed at me as he shouted "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!". EXCELLENT!!!! After
that, everyone came back out for an ensemble jam on the old classic LET'S
WORK TOGETHER with Roger throwing in a harmonica solo which was followed by
a wonderful
surprise - SQUEEZE BOX ( after Roger jokingly mentioned doing Johnny Cash
songs ) with the crowd singing the 'in and out' chorus. That was followed
by an uplifting SEE ME FEEL ME which sent the crowd into a frenzy which was
rewarded with an ensemble encore of MY GENERATION. After running through
the song, the band picked it up again and insted of a second go around at
Entwistle's classic bass solo, Frampton did his 'talking guitar' solo.
Roger was laughing so hard at this piece of improvised absurdity that he
actually had to step off to the far side of the stage to compose himself.
A fun, rocking night all the way around. The band was tight
although I
thought that the Simon's son was a bit timid on the drums at times but
who wouldn't be? Jeff Whitehorn was outstanding on lead guitar all
evening. Nikki and Roger mentioned having some difficulty singing at such
high altitude ( 8150 feet ) but I honestly don't think anyone really
noticed. Too bad this show isn't going on the road. It was perfect for
such a small venue ( the stage was on one end of the hockey rink and there
were only about 40 or so rows of seats ). It was nice having a show in my
own backyard after racking up all those frequent flyer miles last summer!
I got my pictures back today but unfortunately most of them didn't
come out too well ( too much jostling down in front of the stage ) but a
dozen or so came out OK.
- Tony Iovine
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