The nature of life in reality . . .
Hawaii to Nashvegas . . .
7/26/00
Ok. It's Wednesday July 26th at 1:17 pm and I'm still reeling.
Our carload of peeps (Sonya, Glen, and myself) left at 1:00 yesterday
afternoon. The trip from Memphis took longer than usual because of some
nasty construction on 1-40, 1-440, and 1-24. But, we managed to make it to
our preshow destination, TGI Fridays - Home of the Ultimate Margarita - at
about 5:00. Nelson and Monica were already there since they had come up
from Little Rock the night before. A little while later Brian came in from
the fringes of Nashville with two of his friends and Lori and her
hotel-mates Angie and Tracey made it a little while after that. They had
picked up DURANFN after seeing her license plate and she and her guest
completed the table.
We had our drinks and vittles and scooted on off to the venue a little
before 7:00. When we got there, I was somewhat horrified to see the Hungry
Like The Wolf pie eating contest. Seems that they had problems finding
participants for that. There was also an 80's costume contest . . . the guy
who won dressed just like Pat Benetar from Love is a Battlefield. That guy
has balls the size of Kansas. We were mildly amused by all of this so we
got in line to be patted down for entrance. Luckily, they weren't taking
cameras.
Our seats were really good, 4th row center. Others in our little group
weren't so lucky. Nelson and Monica stood out and tried to sell their extra
tickets and we waited fot the opening act, Trinket. They put on a good set
and had a fabulous attitude about the whole thing. They seemed to be
genuinely happy to be opening for Duran and had us scream for them several
times. Between sets Monica and Nelson went up to talk to security. They had
been there for a Poison show recently and had made friends with one of the
venue security guards. He decided to let us stand in front of him at the
rail on Warren's side. Kelly and Nicole went up with them and Lori and
Sonya followed behind. Glen and I decided to stay in our seats since I was
dead center so that I could take pictures. I planned to join them during
the encores.
The show was much tighter than it was last summer and the projection screen
was absolutely beautiful. The set list was pretty much the same as it had
been, but they did add in Someone Else Not Me. They seemed to keep command
of the crowd too. I only noticed two people around me sitting down during
the whole set - and one of them was pregnant. The venue seats 20,000 and
even though it was looking quite empty during the opening act, it was
almost full by the time Duran started.
As expected, I lost it during Ordinary World. Some things never change.
I went down front before the first encore and found that Nicole, being her
cute blonde self, had secured us backstage passes from Dave - the greatest
security manager in the world. I also found out that Monica, who is just
beautiful, had caught Simon's attention during the show. Ooh, la la!! Dave
only managed to get us four passes, so we were nervous for a bit. But the
guitarist from Trinket saved the day. He managed to get Nelson, Monica, and
Glen back with Kelly, Nicole, Sonya, and me. We were all shaking as we
waited for the band to come out. Nelson had brought his book of pictures he
had taken in Biloxi last year and we divied up things to have signed.
Unfortunately, some of the other people back there felt the need to
monopolize the guys. We finally wiggled our way in, though. I got my copy
of Roadrage signed by Nick ('cause he did the cover art), Warren, Joe, and
Wes. They all seemed pretty surprised that I had that one. Simon was
"exhausted" and had his usual gaggle of women hanging on him, but he
managed to create a legible signiture on one of my postcards.
Joe was his usual fabulous self and we hopped back and forth to him
numerous times. Simon bummed a smoke from Monica and had a little staring
contest with her. He actually carried on a conversation too. I asked him
why they took Late Bar out of the setlist and he said basically that the
crowd didn't know how to react to it. That the Duranies loved it, but he
didn't know really. It just didn't work. He did say that it would go back
in though.
Warren was fabulous as ever. Sonya offered to give him her red and black
furry snakeskin hat, but it didn't look right on him.
He was an angel though, cause he went back and got us a bottle of
Pellegrino. We were tres dehydrated.
Everyone loved Nelson's pictures. Nick flipped through them for quite a
while. Nelson got a photo pass from Dave for the Dallas show . . . so I
hope he gets great pictures. I took as many as I could during the show.
Sonya did too, but when we got backstage we realized that her camera had
stopped winding properly. I have no idea how many came out. I dropped them
off at a one hour photo place on my way into work so I'll know this
afternoon.
I can't wait to see Nelson's stuff . . . and the stuff from tomorrow night.
Wow.
Oh, and the funniest thing heard all night . . . someone had brought a
crown. Dave had it on for a while, but Nick ended up with it. When he came
back in from getting some more wine Simon yells out, "You look like the
Queen Mother!"
And let me just say that that man, Simon of course, smells heavenly . . . .
go read the archive
go visit the Queen of the Galaxy
