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RE: Bjorn in the USA (yay! yay! yay!) - Mohegan Sun review



Great Bjorn, I loved your review. I am waiting to hear the other parts of your story. 

Kees, your nextdoor neighbour

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van:	Bjorn Ciggaar [SMTP:ciggaar@warande.net]
Verzonden:	dinsdag 20 november 2001 12:06
Aan:	oddsandsods@thewho.net; thewho@igtc.com; petetownshend@egroups.com
Onderwerp:	Bjorn in the USA (yay! yay! yay!) - Mohegan Sun review

Hi all,

Of all the trips I ever made to see The Who or the JEB, THIS WAS THE 
BEST!!! (and I've seen some spectaculair shows, if some remember my 
previous reviews)

Jeff House arranged a date for me with a friend of his. She was going to be 
my date for the Mohegan Sun Casino show. But we got along so great even 
before we even met in person, she picked me up from Logan airport and had 
been together ever since. Literally, the longest time we spent apart 
must've been 15 minutes all during my stay in the USA. She took away the 
breath I was keeping for sunrise...

On with the show... Jeff House drove me & Courtney (that's her name) from 
Boston to the Mohegan Sun Casino. Arriving there at a motel we where all 
staying, we bumped into my friends Terry and Cynthia! By total coincidence 
almost *ALL* the who-fans where staying in the same motel that night! I'm 
bad at some names, but the McMullans where there and Alan McK too! Amazing 
coincidence. AND GUESS WHAT! They went to the show too! WAAAH!! :-)

We queued up in the casino. This was like a big amusement park with 
electronic wolves. The JEB was playing in this giant tipi in the center of 
the casino. I was lucky, I got a good seat on the floor, though it was on 
the far left though (John had his ass in front of my most of the time, but 
I was very close to the stage anyway). Supposedly the front section was 
reserved for the Mohegan natives (and high rollers I presume). I'm not a 
high roller, I'm a rock and roller! :-)

Steve spotted me and shouted "BA-DA-BJORN!" (running joke between the JEB 
and me). Nice to be acknowledged. :-) Mark (the roadie) taped a setlist to 
the floor, so I went up and read it... HOLY F*CKING SHIT! They where gonna 
open with MY GENERATION! And end up with LONG LIVE ROCK! And somewhere in 
between my favourite song LOVE IS A HEART ATTACK! WOAH!

Suddenly I realized how unromantic it is to take your date to a JEB show, 
with songs about how evil women are, prostitutes and what a pain love can 
be... Oh well... The irony. :-)

Songs that stood out that night for me where Sparks (some older who fans 
bursted out crying, and I turned silent as well...). Sparks was so amazing 
that night. John mentioned that he did a soundcheck earlier that day 
somewhere else (MSG ofcourse) and Godfrey said: "Yeah, FOXWOODS!" (the 
competing casino).
Love is a heart attack was amazing too. As always... During the "Death is 
nature's way, of telling you to stop"-part Godfrey strummed his guitar in a 
reggea-rythm. Very strange, but it sounded perfect. Again they went into 
"Eminence Front". I heard later that John actually wrote the guitar part 
for that song, showed it to Pete, Pete took it over and wrote the song. 
John remained uncredited. So that's why he put it in that song "Love is a 
heart attack" (how appropriate and scary if you think about it).

Godfrey made this comment to me about me coming all the way from 
Switzerland... No; Norway... Sweden? :-)
Some guy in a sloppy shirt walked up to the stage and stood in front of 
John all by himself. Steve pointed him out and said: "Hey, you didn't have 
to dress up for this show!". :-)

"The Real Me" really rocked. My girlfriend really liked that one. That 
*and* "Trick of the Light" (was I alright?). :-)
Boris the Spider was very good. I like the creepy part that they inserted. 
I think it came from a classical piece, but dunno what exactly (can someone 
help me out there?).
They ended up with Godfrey playing the national anthem. All the people 
rised, took off their hats, etc.. I got chills there as well... I felt more 
American then I actually am... By that time most people had walked up to 
the stage. Right after that Steve shouted out "LONG LIVE THE USA! LONG LIVE 
ROOOOOOCK!!!". And they bursted out in a glorious version of "Long Live Rock".

After the show the band came out and I got to talk to them and hang out 
with them for a bit (which is always much fun). And got my picture taken 
with me, my girlfriend and John...

BTW; John looked very well. Very clear... Very healthy. He was at the best 
I have ever seen him. *SOBER*. :-)

More to follow later (JEB @ BB King's - feat. Magik Billy!)... BTW; I'm 
selling out; anyone interested in WHO vinyl check out a .zip file with 
scans of what I'm selling at:
http://www.warande.net/~ciggaar/whoptrd.zip
(the money is going to a roundtrip Boston for Christmas)

Long live rock!

Bjxrn