TBS-BellyUp; Solana Beach,CA-11/28/2011
I got to the venue around fourish in the afternoon after an uneventful two hour drive from the Inland Empire. I had no problem finding a free primo parking spot in the venue’s parking lot and, since there was no line outside the venue, I sat in my car for about an hour working the Sunday N.Y. Times crossword puzzle (no not in ink) waiting for a decent time to eat dinner.
No Timmy sightings to report, but I did see one of his backup singers park her black Mercedes and enter the building around four-thirty. I don;t know her name but she's the one with the Lindsey Buckingham hair-cut. LOL! About ten minutes later Matt Grundy, TBS’s opening act, parked his road-weary Ford Econoline van two spots from mine. Things started to gear-up at that point and Rock ‘n Roll was definitely in the air.
Aside: Matt did an excellent job. Turns out he played bass for ten years with Donovan Frankenreiter who eventually encouraged Matt to go solo and become his opening act, in of all places-Japan. Very sensitive-very insightful-a little country-a little soul-a little rock 'n roll but mostly very courageous. Just a man and his six-string trying to be heard.Especially like his laid-back version of CCR's classic hit "Fortunate Son."
I ended up eating dinner at the Wild Note Café after all-best Cesar salad ever- but I did it on the cheap! Ten bucks-not bad considering the cheapest entrée was $13 and everything, and I mean everything from soup to nuts, was extra. But, I didn’t get away as cheap as the chatty couple I met from San Diego, Dawn and Mike, who waited with me in the restaurant’s early access area and ending up sitting with me for the rest of the night.
Dawn and Mike proudly told me, as we were waiting to gain access to the venue, that they simply walked right through the restaurant without buying so much as an appetizer, and the wait-staff never even batted an eye as they breezed past! Pretty slick-wish I’d have thought of that. Kudos Mike and Dawn.
Mike, of Mike and Dawn, it turned out, plays drums in a band with Michael Thompson’s brother and Michael T. got them backstage access to the Eagle’s November 5th MGM Grand show. They had tons of pixs, including one of Timmy’s on-stage guitar collection that had a “No Smoking” sign affixed to the top of the case that they were stored in. They didn’t get to meet the Eagles that night, but they did get some guitar picks-including one of TBS’s- not to mention their much prized souvenir back-stage passes which I'm sure they'll cherish forever. Awesome.
I was the first one in the venue but elected to sit with my new found friends in the bench seating area right beside the stage instead of planting myself on the dance floor directly in front of Timmy which my well-rested tootsies thanked me for at the end of the evening.
In my own defense, I had walked three miles that morning so I had fulfilled my daily cardio requirement already so the less standing the better.
But I digress-I guess-I must confess---but---nonetheless, fear not Border-Babes I did end up going to the stage with both cameras in hand for Timmy‘s set. I stood right in front of Hank which wasn’t hard to do because there was no stage rush because there was no crowd; a fact which did not go unnoticed by Timmy who made several humorous comments about the rather empty house throughout the night. At one point he asked us to bring some friends to San Juan Capistrano on Wednesday night because, "we may need them."
In any event, Timmy was in a very “up” mood throughout his entire ninety-minute set and looked and sounded a-so-lute-ly pos-I-tiv-e-ly great. I don’t do set lists but did make a half-hearted effortto get the one by Hank’s mike after the show but Dawn ended up getting it instead-better luck next time.
Got some videos and pix with my new camera but the pixs are blurry (no flashes allowed and security was all over people who tried) and the sound on the videos suck; except for the portions of the vids where Timmy was talking to us-those parts I‘m sure you‘ll enjoy as it shows, not only how truly happy Timmy was but, more importantly, displays how truly spontaneous and in the moment he can be when he “communicates” with his audience. I'm in the process of uploading them now but it's taking forever. Will post the link when I'm done.
And, make no mistake, the "small but mighty" audience, as Timmy described us, did a lot of in-the-moment “communicating” with Timmy too and he gifted one young lady, in front of me, with the Happy Birthday
song after her friend “communicated” that it was the young lady’s birthday. A prime example of why Timmy is so often labeled, by the press, as “the fan-friendly” Eagle.
Anyway, I know one thing for sure, I'll have to figure out how to adjust the audio on my camera before Wednesday‘s show at the Coach House. New camera-new rules-lots of new settings to learn. Once I finish the current roll of film in my 35mm Canon I'll upload those-hopefully better quality pixs too.
Got lots of eye contactand hope to get some more tomorrow night.
Note: Timmy seemed to be in a rush to get off stage last night. Some guy tried to hand Timmy what appeared to be a guitar strap right before he left the stage for the last time, but Timmy, by then, was “already gone.”I have no idea what happened after that. Maybe one of the other people on stage took it. I hope so. Timmy probably wanted to hit the road like me and get home at a decent hour. Who knows I may have passed him in on the I-5N. Hopefully, when he plays the Canyon Club, which is closer to his home, he’ll be more willing to do a quasi “Edge-Walk.” In any event I’ll be waiting with my out-stretched hand if does.
Lastly, same set list as 2009 just re-ordered. He also did an a capella version, with the band, of one of his Expando songs but don’t ask me which one as I‘m not good with the details. I’m sure he’ll do the same thing at the Coach House on Wednesday, so stay tuned.
And, one last tidbit, he laughingly stumbled over the lyrics to one of his songs (minor bump in the road hardly noticeable) and mistakenly did the Ella Jean, my wife was doing some art project, behind-the-music-elucidation as the intro to “I Don’t Mind.” Oooops!What? “Your self inflicted drama.” Him or her? Anyway, he kindda realized his Ooops and cut the monologue mid-sentence and when it came time to sing Ella Jean he did it sans explanation. Talk about a save.
Oh yea!
Chow for Now!
Carol-Lynn
SoCalGal
There is a nice vid on Hank's Facebook page of last night's show while you guys wait for mine.
https://www.facebook.com/timothybschmit#!/profile.php?id=1655451534
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Originally Posted by timfan
