Oklahoma City, OK 08-05-07
Don at the OKC Zoo Amphitheater.
Different night, different audience, different show. To begin with, it was HOT. Of course, Don was hot, but this is an outside amphitheater and it must've been 98 degrees that night. All the performers were red-faced from the heat, and much of the audience was consuming massive quantities of beer to cool off. We bought VIP seats which gave us entry to a private shaded deck beside the stage where they were selling hamburgers and drinks, and we actually watched part of Lucinda William's opening set from backstage. We saw Scott Crago and Will Hollis coming in and out of the performers' trailers and got a wave and a smile.
Thankfully it was dark, although not a lot cooler, by the time Don took the stage at 9 p.m.--no black this time, he was wearing his familiar brown plaid shirt. I still love the black Converse sneakers though! He said "Hello Oklahoma," and then sang "where the wind comes sweeping down the plains." Both nights he had similar comments about dedicating Dirty Laundry to either Rupert Murdoch--"I guess we will be seeing nekkid pictures in the Wall Street Journal now" or Nancy Grace--"It is ironic that that woman has 'Grace' in her name." He also joked that his new favorite song was "Spider Pig," which meant nothing to me until someone explained it is in the new Simpsons movie.
We had seats on the third row, left hand side, right in front of Will Hollis, who recognized us and grinned and winked at us several times. He is a real cutie. I loved being so close to the stage and took a bunch of pictures, but I felt so bad when Don said, after about the 4th song, "Y'know, I don't mind two or three photos per song, but could all of you please put your cameras away now? It is very distracting."I immediately complied. Anyway, Don told a long story before "Last Worthless Evening" which went something like this: "This song was inspired by a party I went to in L.A. I was in love with an actress who shall remain nameless because she is now married with several children. I was trying to talk to her at this party and she wouldn't give me the time of day. She was sitting with Jack Nicholson and he wasn't getting anywhere with her either. I finally asked her if she had a cigarette--and I didn't even smoke!" (Laughter.) "So she gave me one--like this..." he stuck his arm out as far away as possible. (More laughter.) "And I went home and wrote this song."
He sang the beautiful new version of EOI again that night too--he has GOT to record that! It is simply beautiful! And he sang another song that was new to me, "I'm the Fool," saying it was by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. (Unfortunately the drunks behind us didn't know it either and decided to talk all the way through it, something that became very irritating because it happened all too often throughout the entire night.) He sang Everybody Wants to Rule the World again--one of my new favorites--and his encore was HC and Desperado again.
We cheered until he returned and walked to the mic with his finger to his lips. When everyone quieted down a bit, he said, "We are going to do two more songs for you--first a ballad, and then we are going to rock out again." The ballad was David Gray's gorgeous "Disappearing World," and he said that song was "very personal" to him. I LOVED it. After it was over he looked up the the bright spotlight beaming down on him and said "I need sunscreen." His cheeks were bright red and sweat was rolling down his face (ours too) throughout the night. Then he absolutely rocked out to I Will Not Go Quietly.
We were drenched with sweat and absolutely hoarse from screaming for two solid nights. What a fantastic time!
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Heck.......I probably wouldn't even have dared to take one before THAT! lol!
