SUBLIME RAIN (Bring it ON!)

First thing i have to say, my neice got up the morning of the concert and said to my sister "mom, something weird's gonna happen today." My sister goes, "uhh good or bad?" She says "I dunno." :) :) :)

Andrea and I decided to meet around 4:30 at the Coke stage just to touch base and check out he crowd. By 5pm i was stuck in the very South end of Calgary in heavy traffic, so i didn't get there till about 5:45 or so (thank God for cell phones) My sister and her boyfriend came, along with my 10 year old neice who couldn't stop talking for a week before the concert about how she was finally gonna get to see Amanda. She ended up bringing another buddy with her as well. When we met beside the stage, the hypnotist was just finishing up and the fake Backstreet Boys and Christina Aguilera peoples were scheduled to perform for an hour. The grassy area in front of the stage was full of people sitting down and we didn't know how many were staying or going but we decided to meet again at 7pm when the bubblegum people were finished performing. Me and Rox (she loves Amanda, thats y she always comes with me haha) stopped by to say hi to my boyfriend who was working at his aunt's booth inside the round-up centre while my sis and Peter and neice and buddy went to play games. Being Peter's first stampede, he ate 2 corndogs. ewwwwwww i can't stand the smell of fried...Stampede food. yuck. so anyways we just bum around till around 6:30, go get something to eat and get back to the coke stage around 6:40...where nobody has left and there are now people standing at the front against the barracades. OH CRAP. But then we saw Andrea up at the front amongst them waving us to come up, so we finished eating at the side of the stage where all the equipment was. I SWEAR Rob had like 10 crates just with his name on them. haha
I saw like 3 tamborines, 500 million more guitars and bass's than they'd ever need, but nonetheless it was nice to look at. Basically all the same crew guys. Same guitar tech too, he's a cool guy. I forget his name now...Rox's old drum teacher is good friends with him.
So we finish eating and staring and go from the side of the crowd making our way to the centre where Andrea and her little brother Elliot are, tripping over people sitting down...oh dear. So we find little patches of grass where there isnt a person or a backpack and plant our feet there for 2 hours while everybody watches them set up Amanda's stuff. The sucky thing about this, is Amanda didn't get a soundcheck, unless she wanted thousands of people watching it. But Al went out there and helped the sound guys with his drums. Nobody seemed to know, or care that it was him, or when his brother Eric came out and talked to the crew guys about something but oh well. We should have yelled something out haha but i was watching Eric and he kept looking at me, and i'm not sure why. oh well lol
So they run a couple loops like the track for Double Agent....just to the part where you could hear Amanda's backing vocals "see when you see me" it was kinda cool to hear by itself. So they're vamping Amanda's usual 60's music, i'm standing there grooving cuz me and my sister went with Peter to his band's rehearsal, and they do all motown stuff...i'd been listening to it all afternoon, and now it's playing for like, however long before the show starts. It was cool, cept nobody else was groovin. Frankly i was really bored so i just started singing and dancing to it while we waited. Around 7, my sister calls Rox's cell, and as soon as it rings, we get weird looks from all directions cuz her ring is set on Jingle Bells. Anyways, they're standing at the side where we were and theres no way Michelle or Peter could fit, but they sent my neice and her friend up with us so they could have a good view. An hour goes by of basically the same thing, and we remember that we have to make our signs!! so we spend like 10 minutes discussing how many to make and what to put on them and decide on one saying "Andrea and Krissy" cuz she knows our names now, (check latest open letter) and the other one saying "The gypsy in me needs to roam backstage" So i end up making the signs on Rox's back cuz theres no room to do it anywhere else. We roll them back up and keep waiting. 8:30 rolls by and she's supposed to start playing. So every time a vamped song ended everybody cheered in anticipation but to our dismay, another song just kept coming on, for like half an hour while they finished setting up, doing mic checks, spotlights, the guitar tech playing something cool on Rob's bass (hahaha my name's Rob's bass and i came to get down.....oh dear) The lights dancing around...they had the same backdrop as the Voice Inside tour as well and they were finishing placing stuff around for that, including a picasso-esque painting of a really fat bass player. We're like umm is that supposed to be Rob haha which is hilarious cuz Rob is like a stick :)
FINALLY after i don't know how long, the band comes on stage and kicks into the Ride intro for a minute or so, then Amanda comes bounding out in her usual energetic way, with a giant smile on her face. We were almost running bets to see what kind of hair she was gonna have, but to everyone's relief, it was her normal, all down and curly look, which in my opinion still suits her best :)
During the break in Ride she got us all to put our hands in the air and clap saying "i wanna see everybody's hands up.......ahh look at that......that's so pretty!"
Then she went into Dizzy with the usual "i like salsa with my pancakes baby" *pause* u know the rest. During the first chorus i looked over at Andrea and we brought our signs up. Me, Rox, my neice and her friend ended up standing a few people away from Andrea and Elliot so it kind of sucked, but anyways, Amanda looked over at the Andrea and Krissy i was holding up, and gave an eyebrow raise and pointed. WOO HOO!!! I don't think she really read the gypsy one at this point, but i'm not sure cuz she looked back at the back-up singers and laughed, she did that a few times actually and i'm wondering if she did see it...ah well haha. Elliot threw his "I was an August beanie" up on the stage. It sux tho, she didn't ever see it until the guitar tech gave it to her backstage later on. So we put the signs back down and enjoyed the show for a while. I think it was during Dizzy as well that she commented on her outfit. "Now all i need is a PINK cowboy hat to complete my bright, colorful...candy-cane...ensemble!!"
During Fall From Grace, she said "lost inside this....Calgary town..."
Now i gotta mention Rob. He's usually slouched over his bass, almost lookin like he doesn't wanna be there. But he's all smiles and really energitic....Stacie was taking pictures of Amanda on the stage and a good time was had by all....until she went into Trust Me This Is Love. This whole time since she first came out it was slowly getting darker, completely overcast, and the clouds were pretty high up but fairly dark....and as she went into the first lines of the song, the wind had picked up and was blowing towards the stage kind of diagonal. I'm looking over at Rox going, my sister is FLIPPING out cuz Amanda's never performed this song yet, at either of the 2 concerts she did in Calgary before that we went to. Natch, she didn't finish the song. She gets up to the part "I can't help but wonder......HAHAHAHAHAHA"
She laughed because she looked over and here's these 2 crew guys struggling with a tarp blowing every which way, trying to cover up some equipment on the side of the stage, and at this point it has also started to spit rain. So she laughs then says "stop stop stop stop STOP!!" The band stops, and everybody including Amanda laughs for a minute as she goes up to the mic and says "now...we all know what's coming. And i dunno what we're....hey, where you going? (talking to a crew guy)....i don't really know what we're doing yet but....u know we GOTTA do this now....cuz u know its comin!!!!"
And by now everybody knows what she's talking about. The crowd's all screamin and whistlin' and clappin, and she stands back for a second and laughs, then walks up to the mic, pauses for a second, then belts out.................

"I can't stand the raaaaaaa-haaaaiiinnnn!!!"

Crowd goes NUTS.
"Against my windooooowwwww"
Now just picture this if you can. The band is silent, Stu quietly switching guitars, and everybody in the crowd has their eyes peeled on Amanda. Every single person in the crowd, in the band, and Amanda knows that this is gonna be REALLY COOL. We're all waiting for it in anticipation, not really knowing how it's all gonna play out, but we're all glad we're here right now. And that "whatever is gonna happen" it's something beyond anybody's control, like a sublime serendipity blessing from above. Amanda keeps singing, pausing, smiling, and she's boldly standing up there with her shoulders back, her arms stretched out with her face towards the sky, her hair is being blown by the wind, and she looks absolutely invincible. It's like she's representing everybody there....lightning flashes, and she finishes the first verse of I Can't Stand The Rain, stops, looks up to the sky with a mocking grin, puts her hands up and pulls her fingers back as if to pull the rain towards her yelling "BRING IT ON!!!"
Crowd is still going CRAAAZY. She gives the nod to Stu and he plays the intro riff to Let It Rain.
"I have given, i have given and got none..." It's a choir of people singing cuz the entire crowd is yelling along to the song. It wasn't her performing for us anymore, we were all singing it together. As the song progressed, it seemed to summon the rain because the skies just opened up and let loose. Her crew scrambled to cover up all the equipment. By the last chorus it was full out POURING and there wasn't a dry head in the audience. ha ha. Everybody had their arms up in the air, and she got us to wave them back and forth. The last chorus, she told us to sing it by ourselves. The whole Stampede grounds could hear us singing it, i swear. And Amanda just stood back and listened to us a couple times, the band still playing. Then she walked back up to the mic. "They're saying we have to go...(booo)......but I don't wanna go!!!"
Everybody's booing and screaming...nobody wants to leave. She then says "So we gotta listen to 'em cuz theres a lot of technical electrical equipment..." hahahaaha. "And we wanna be safe....so we'll see how this goes and i will hopefully see you soon Calgary!" The band is still playing as she says one last time "keep singing!!" The band instantly stops, and the only sound is the audience singing the chorus over and over while the equipment gets covered up. Amanda stays at the front of the stage, standing there to mouth the words with us and gets us to keep waving our arms back and forth. We must have sung it like 10 times while the rain poured when she finally bounced off the stage with everybody and you could hear a mix of screaming, and the chorus mixed in with it throughout the crowd, then it eventually stopped as everybody started to break away to go to the bathroom or, leave....LEAVE? hahahahah yeah right. As we all grab the front of the stage and plant our feet there till they MAKE us leave!! So i'm like, the only person with an umbrella in the crowd and people are trying to crowd under it, i'm trying to keep my neice and her friend dry and finally my sister shows up behind us, i forget what she said but she got in under the umbrella and i look behind her and poor Peter has the most disgusted look on his face you've ever seen. They were on the side the whole time and only saw like, Amanda's head maybe twice. So Peter, my sis and the 2 girls left to go inside and decide what they were doing. Andrea asked what me and Rox were doing and i was just like, hahaha u see me movin? nopeee. She was thinking about Elliot though, he ended up going home with her family so Andrea, me and Rox stayed at the front while it rained really hard for maybe 10 minutes then started to let up a bit. The crew started wiping the water off the stage and drying it off. My sister came back and said they were just gonna leave. BAAAD decision :)
But we stayed and waited it out, and the rain let up a lot. The saying here is "if you don't like the weather in Calgary, wait 10 minutes." So we did. haha so the whole time security's all "if it doesn't let up in half an hour we'll just pack up" And they're trying to be funny working the crowd and putting ponchos on, theres crew members on the stage standing around having a smoke while theres people walking around everywhere covering stuff up or moving stuff or wiping the stage off. Elliot's August beanie is still beside Rob's switchboard thingie. The guitar tech was smiling at the crowd and stuff getting us to scream a couple times...security was throwing towels into the crowd so we could dry off....and theres these people behind us singing some "dear henry" kids song and once i turned around and was like "can't you sing something by Amanda?" They just laughed and kept singin' the dumb song so we just shrugged and lived with it. lol
Then the guitar tech picked up the beanie, wrapped it in a towel, and stroked it like a baby, carrying it off the stage and everybody cheered and laughed, knowing he was delivering it to Amanda.
We found out later that when she got it, she absolutely FLIPPED..."oh my god!! I WAS AN AUGUST BEANIE!!" She was running around showing EVERYBODY and then she goes "i wanna take this back out with me!" So she stuck it, like tucked it into the front of her pants and was like..."aah no this is a family event" and took it out again....hahahahahaahhaahhahahah!! We almost died when Stacie told us that.
After about half an hour of this, everything on the stage is dried off and they start uncovering equipment again. So once they started doing that, we knew she was coming back. The crowd of 50 started to grow behind us again. The tech came back out, asked us if we wanted her to come back (DUH) Then got us all to scream really loud. Of course we're all pumped up again and the how many hundred people left are making noise like theres 2000 of us. She comes back out, ("Indian summer.....indian summer....") During Dark Horse, she went "The stars are brighter in the...Calgary sky..." To many a cheer from the audience again. and this time we have front row view, it was twice as exciting. Also a good thing, we could hold our signs in front of the barracades so they werent blockign anybody's view and she could see them better now. She did Dark Horse first, then Everybody's Got A Story. I think during this song, she looked at the gypsy sign more closely and saw that it said "the gypsy in me needs to roam backstage" The one time before that she read it before it rained, she pointed and said "i know baby" probably not reading it carefully enough and thought it said "the gypsy in me needs to roam your heart"
SO ANYWAYS, she looks at it again now and i'm holding it up so she can read it, she points at it and laughs out loud while she's singing, and Stacie and Rebecca are laughing too. And since i was holding it up this whole time now (Andrea got tired of holding them i think haha, i was switching back and forth between our names and the gypsy sign) The band got a look at it too. We actually got a smile and even a laugh out of Rob, Stu read it, the whole band liked it too. So that was cool. After EGAS, Stu went into his own flavoured version of the acoustic intro for Birmingham. She said "well, i'm gonna be honest with you...they didn't want us to come back out. They said, 'nahh don't go back out, it's alright'.....BUT I CAME HERE TO PLAY!"
*whoops and hollers*
"And they only wanted us to do a few songs but i'm gonna just improvise a bit here and drag this out as long as i can." Stu keeps playing, and I yell out "YYEAA STU!!!" And Amanda goes "This is Stu on guitar!!" Crowd cheers for him....and Amanda starts talking. "So she's been married for 6 or 7 years, got a couple kids....and he was really nice to her when they first started dating, but they got married, and everything changed. And there comes a time, when your heart finally says "ENOUGH!" And tonight, it's 3am, she's wandering around the house, and her heart's saying..."ENOUGH." She's already packed her things, got the kids in the car.....and she's grabbing the keys out of his pocket, trying to be quiet, and closes the front door behind her. She gets to the car, when....out comes Virgil. And he's screeeeamin'! 'BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BABY BAYYYYBBAYYYY!!!! where are you going? you can't take my children away from me, you can't leave me like this!'
So she walks up to him, and says, "CHILL AAOWWTT!.........whatcha yellin for, lay back, it's all been done before..." Then she goes back to "baby baby baby baby baby!!!" And then she sings a few more lines of complicated, overtop of Birmingham. "Why'd u have to go and make things so complicated, i see the way you're actin like you're somebody else, gets me frustrated..." She leans over and points at the audience during that part hehe...then she did a little "A woman's worth"
Then i think she went into the actual Birmingham lyrics. Sang through it, and at the end, went thru the same way she did on the VI tour doing Bye Bye Bye and Blu Cantrel and what not. Dragged it out for as long as she could, danced around, then it finally ended. It had to have been 10-15 minutes :) So she went into Sunday Morning After (awwww :( ) Instead of yelling "hey DJ" she said "I remember yelling "HEY CALGARY!" Jack the volume, i love this song!"
And she got us all to jump at all the "OHH my god" parts. I just started jumping up and down basically for the rest of the song but whatever LOL
So when the song ended and the band was still playing the final notes she said "Thank you so much Calgary. This has been a very very special night!! I mean it! See you all soon" And the band finished, we all screamed. They all walked up to the front of the stage, linked hands, bowed, and Amanda waved to us all one last time, I quickly brought up our "Krissy and Andrea" sign and held it up. She gave an extra nod and smile our way, and she was gone.
Pretty good show, considering she had a sore throat :)

So we went around the side of the stage and stuck around to see what would happen. Not 2 minutes later, there were screams from the people that were right up against the barracades, where Amanda was coming out at that very moment. All we could see were a bunch of security guards, and scary fans trying to reach for her. We were standing back a ways and when she walked past, there was a security guy going "stay back!!" And we're like, just standing there LOL it was funny. All we saw was the back of her head, i think Rox jokingly said "Let's follow her!" Of course that'd just get us kicked out and we wisely decided to stick around to talk to some band members. We ended up getting to talk to Rebecca for a couple minutes, and then Stacie for a bit longer. Stacie told us about how Amanda loved the Beanie, and our signs. The night before, Amanda did kind of a tally vote, everybody was together and she said "ok, if you had to live in either Winnipeg or Calgary, which would you choose? She pointed at each person "Calgary" "Calgary" "Calgary" "Calgary" she gets to the bongo guy and he goes "Winnipeg" Everybody looks at him like "ok he doesn't count." hahaha
So Stacie told us that this was her last concert for a while and that now she'll, or they'll "Never forget Calgary"
So she finally had to go, and we all walked to the train station. I shoved our wet signs into my backpack, Andrea took off on the Northbound train, and me, Rox, and my boyfriend who showed up after all went South. I got home, dried off my sign, and it's now hanging on the inside of my door, all wet and smeared from the night that it rained :)