QUAD in NY, a personal experience.

Hi everybody,

On Saturday and Sunday I went to my first Who concerts in my life  
and that was fantastic, I really enjoyed the shows and I'll share  
some of my experiences with you.

SATURDAY
I arrived at JFK at around 5:15pm -no kidding- and I rushed to the  
hotel which fortunately is located only 2 blocks from the garden. I  
only had tickets for Sunday but I had in mind the post "..around  
8:05...$25...good seats.." so after I dropped my backpack on the bed  
(7:40pm) I rushed again to the garden. They were right, some  
scalpers were desperate so I got section 121 row A; pretty good for  
$25. Entering the garden I passed by a group of friends helping a  
blind Who fan, that was touching. Some seconds later I found a more  
or less 55 years old lady, and pretending surprise (kidding, of  
course) I asked her "Are you coming to see The Who ma'am?", she  
answered very friendly "Yes"; she looked like a healthy, fulfilled  
and happy grandmother; that was touching too. It was around 8:00pm  
when I sat and I was really excited and nervous thinking about The  
Who and the current day that I did not pay attention to the openers.

The concert was a blast, incredible; my favorite band ever was  
right there. During my dear songs I was moved to tears and picked  
details I hadn't noticed before. After "Love, Reign O'er Me" the  
crowd stand-ovationed for some minutes before the band came back to  
the stage for the encores. "Behind Blue eyes" sounded beautiful and  
peaceful and almost all of us were singing along; the song sounded  
to me like a Who anthem, a lovely sad song contrasting with the  
energy released in the concert.

I was so happy I could enjoy the show with no problems, you know,  
Who fans... Actually, a stoned-drunk guy in my back spilled some  
beer on my shoes while he was dancing but he was harmless and just  
once in a while he shouted like if they were nailing him to a cross.  
When Pete made the joke of "refunding our money" due to the  
technical problems they had, the guy began shouting "Play Quad  
again!!!!". Besides the continuous smell of pot and another fellow  
who fell down and hit his face on the floor (he was OK) nothing else  
worth mentioning happened.

After the show I went to the Molly Wee but I was so exhausted that  
I barely exchanged some words with Gary and took a look to a few  
other members. I needed to sleep, it was a long day.

SUNDAY
At 10am I found myself taking a stroll around Times Square and  
decided to visit the Empire State Building, interesting. I continued  
walking around taking pictures and then I headed to the  
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Great museum, I spent there much more  
time than I planned that I did not have time to visit another one.  
It was 4:00pm when I found myself eating some fruit in Central Park  
watching people passing by. It was a beautiful day. A pretty girl  
was posing for some pictures taken by her boyfriend, I believed;  
"What a gorgeous smile she has" I thought.

Around 5:00pm I was shopping looking for some T-shirts for my  
daughters and then I went to the Molly Wee. Very nice people there,  
very interesting souls. I envy you New Yorkers, you not only have a  
great city but you are also blessed with such lovely and educated  
female Who fans: Amira, Stacey, Amy... definitely 3 hours is nothing  
and I regret I could only talk for only some minutes with Bernd and  
other fans. I also met Jason and it really felt good to see those  
young Who fans. We left the bar around 8:40, who was the opener? Who  
knows!

Although I did have two tickets for the show (my friend could not  
make it) the hunt for scalpers began again; I wanted a better seat.  
Now, this was horrible guys, I found a scalper so sad and depressed  
that after some words he was giving me one ticket (section 331) for  
FREE, he thought I had no ticket. I couldn't accept that, I said "No  
thanks man, I already have a better one". On 7th Av., around 8:50,  
I began a discussion with this other guy about the laws of Economy  
and finally he accepted $20 plus my two section-304 tickets for one  
section-12-row-D ticket. While making the final details of the  
transaction, a smiling policewomen approached us and the guy told  
her "I'm not scalping him, officer", I added "That's right, I have  
MY tickets" and showed them to her but I was thinking: "Actually I'm  
scalping him". Anyways, I ran to the garden and found my seat  
minutes before the show began.

Great show again. I have no words to describe the emotions of  
listening to The Who again. I also think the show was better than  
Saturday's. Before beginning the encores, Pete took off his jacket  
to play the acoustic, his body language was "Here I go", he was  
really enjoying himself. BBE was beautiful again and WGFA sounded  
very nice too.

Well, after the concert 'I had to go running then' so I couldn't go  
to the Wee. I headed to the airport to begin my trip back to Texas.  
What a weekend guys! Hopefully I see you in Dallas!

Jose