Sunday, May 8, 2011

An evening with Sara, her mom, and Elton John.

I have had an AMAZING weekend and I can't wait to tell you all about Saturday night, but first I have to tell you about Friday night. Specifically... the Elton John concert.

Now, I'll tell you I'm not the hugest Elton fan. I'm not. I think I only own one cd and yay. To my credit, I was born in 1982 and so yeah. I think that makes it OK. But I did grow up listen to classic rock stations and I do have some favorite songs, two of which are Tiny Dancer and Rocket Man. I can't help myself.

A few months ago we heard that Elton John was coming to Duluth, MN... which population is barely 90,000, if that. I got my butt on the computer at EXACTLY 10:00 am to get tickets for my mom and I and almost choked at the $90+fees per person price... and eventually justified it as OK because he's a legend. And legends don't always come to (practically) your back door and so you should go if you can. It's like an educational experience and yay for lifetime learning.

(Disclaimer: I have three snippets of video that I really, REALLY want to show you, but each one says it's like an hour to upload?? Yeah, WTF? Sorry) But I DO have pictures for you!

When we got our tickets, it said "Behind Stage: OBSTRUCTED or LIMITED view" and I'm like... aw shit. That blows. Well, as you can see our seats were amazing. This is using minimal zoom.
And this is the first zoom setting. Seriously. We saw the backs of the musician's heads but who cares because we could see Elton perfectly.
What I was impressed with was how great he was. Time has been good to him because his voice is still amazing and the entire time I was freaking out because I was seeing a for real legend in concert.
And he is a fantastic showman. I mean, he is the real deal when it comes to a concert. He talks to the crowd, he gets up after every song and waves to everyone, he signed autographs for everyone in the front row (seriously- name a modern band that does that. Nobody does.), and he played everything he knew people wanted to hear. AND he played some songs off his new album which is did with Leon Russell called "The Union" and it was great. The new stuff is really bluesy rock and I really liked it.
The other interesting thing? One of his backup singers, Rose Stone, is one of the founding members of Sly & the Family Stone. It was such a good show. It really was and I am so glad I went. I even got what is going to be one of my fav concert shirts ever. It's basically a cream color tee with a vintage Elton picture on the front. Like, ubber vintage. It's awesome. I'll take a picture after I wash it.

Oh- and my obligatory concert pic:
The other fun thing about concerts are the drunks. Luckily, we sat next to pretty decent people. My mom was deaf from the lady screaming totally into her ear, but on my side I had a husband/wife duo and they were great. I chatted with them quite a bit. And she had an iPhone looking up the lyrics. Which I thought was weird.

But these two drunkies (front row) were obnoxious. I don't mind if people drink at concerts, but don't you want to remember it? Seriously? You are paying a LOT of money to see this show.. you'd think you'd want to remember it. I was waiting for one of them to fall over the edge but sadly.. that didn't happen. They DID serenade each other during "Candle in the Wind" though. The best part is knowing that these people likely got into a car and got on the road.
OH. And then there was yellow shirt guy in the first few rows in front of the stage. From a distance, I'd say late 50's maybe? Seemingly alone at the concert, unless the people around him pretended not to know him. But he was THE most enthusiastic concert goer of the evening. He was doing air guitar, jumping enthusiastically, clapping like a mad man, standing on his seat, you name it and this guy was doing it. I really wish there was some kind of recognition he could get for being THAT into a show. Sadly, a blog mention is basically it.
So overall... it was great. I felt like I was at a really big sing-a-long and it was so much fun. I sang to "Tiny Dancer" so well the lady next to me said she was impressed I nailed all the lyrics. Psht lady-- "Tiny Dancer" is my JAM. And he ended the show with an encore performance of "Your Song"... aw... it was so good.

And then it took us 45 minutes to get out of the 2nd level of a multi level parking ramp. Hey Duluth! Your new arena/parking? FAIL. *MAYBE* you should have more than one exit open. Just sayin.

9 comments:

Dana said...

So glad you got to see him! It's different seeing a legend, isn't it? Elton John was one of my favorite concerts.

Tin said...

Hi Sara,

Like you, I'm not really a fan. After watching one episode of American Idol, though, I was surprised that he sang some of the songs I like - Your Song, and .... Benny and the Jets! Haha! I took a liking to the song after watching 27 Dresses.

Please do visit my blog sometimes, I just started it recently.
http://ramblingsofawritermom.blogspot.com/

Regards,

Kristin

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

Elton John will be back here at the end of the year and if hubby works the concert I will see about going with him that way I get a meal and concert for free which is the only way he would ever take me to a concert.

Karls said...

$90? Bargain! I saw Elton back in the late 90s (granted, it was with Billy Joel) and it was almost $200 back then. I think we Aussies must get ripped off bigtime - Muse was well over $90 when I saw them in December. I love Elton! Such a great performer! Jealous! Very jealous!

Ang said...

Pretty jealous! Like you, I was born in the early 80's, so EJ was always someone I enjoyed listening to but I don't own even a handful of his CD's. I do think he is a great musician though, and I'd LOVE to see him live... this'll be something you'll never forget! Glad you paid the big bucks to get the tickets!

Oilfield Trash said...

Glad you had a good time!!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big EJ fan, but do enjoy some of his songs. You had awesome seats! Those are great pics!

And I can't wait for your Saturday recap :) :) :)

Julie H said...

I was waiting for one of them to fall over the edge but sadly.. that didn't happen.


::SNORT:: too funny!

I went and saw Paul McCartney with my mom a few (12) years ago and I felt the same way. He's a LEGEND! and awesome at that :)

salgalruns said...

OMG! I sat in almost the same spot when I saw Elton in LA a while back. We were originally bummed with the seats, but seriously - it was Elton. It was the BOMB! He kept waving at us, we got to see the "behind the scenes" action, and the musicians went out of their way to connect with us. It was awesome!