Great show last night at the Saban in Beverly Hills, I met Joe at the meet and greet on Monday the night before the show, there was about 15 of us there. Joe said it was the first time he had a meet and greet the day before a show. This was the sixth time I’ve met Joe and when I walked up to him he shook my hand and said nice to see you again Chris, pretty nice of him to remember my name. Saw Roy and had a nice chat with him as well.
I saw lots of Bonafans at the show, Linda Moke and her husband, Johnny the Shu and his wife, Rob and his wife, Libby and Rocket, was great to see Rocket, he’s looking good considering, also bumped into Dennis who is Joe’s truck driver, Ashley who was helping out Bob at the merchandise booth and Derek Sherinian from BCC! Johnny was at the Tuesday meet and greet and he said there were over 100 people there, he said he heard that there were suppose to be 160 at the M&G but he thinks it was about 120-130. Wow, I’m glad I went to the Monday one.
My ticket was second row, about four seats to the right of center (towards Tal and Carmen) shot some video, started with Slow Train the opener but I had some late arrivals in the front row so lots of heads got in the shot. After a couple of songs I noticed that there were two seats front row dead center that were empty, I’m hoping that they were scalper seats that went unsold (at $1500 per seat maybe that will teach them!) but about a third of the way through the set some guy sat in one of them, I thought that it was blasphemy that a front row center seat would be empty and I didn’t want Joe to be disappointed that these seats would be empty for the whole show so I had to help out and at about the halfway mark I moved to the front row! Soon after sitting down Tal recognized me and gave me a wave. Joe was as professional as always.
The show was awesome you’ve seen the set list above, Derek Sherinian sat in for Rick on the keyboards for two songs John Henry and Song of Yesterday. BOJH rocked! (I’ll up it to you tube tonight!)
I had some camera glitches (I need a better one) but still got some good stuff. I’ve already posted Driving Towards the Daylight and will post the other good ones tonight and tomorrow.
After the encore Tal handed me a pair of drum sticks and Joe handed me his guitar pick. I usually see him throw it into the crowd so I was a bit surprised when he handed it to me; he went back and grabbed some more that he did end up throwing into the crowd. It was kind of nice to be recognized by both of them.
After the show in the lobby I met up with Linda, Libby and Rocket, as we were talking I noticed Carmine and Rick were mingling with some fans so I went up and introduced myself to both of them, it’s funny, I’ve met Joe at least six times and Tal at least three but it was a the first time I met Rick and Carmine. Nice guys all of them.
All in all a great night one I’ll not soon forget. I really feel pretty lucky this was my sixth time I’ve seen Joe play (three times with Tal, Rick and Carmine and three times with Rock Candy Funk Party) and each time I’ve had great seats, 3rd row or better!
Check out my you tube channel frontrowfredy for more vids coming soon!!
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