SusieFierce here: It has been two weeks of epic highs and lows. I’ve been recuperating from my back situation and have kind of just been vegging this week. So it’s time for me to recreate my Warfield experience. This is going to go rather stream of conscious, so bear with me.
After NoAngelPF and I drove from Thunder Valley, we picked up AlohaPF at the airport. After checking out our ~historic, quite colorful digs (yes, we had a window into a wall in our bathroom – WTF?), we met up with AnthrogeekPF and Adamauian and headed to the theater.
A quick trip to Marshall’s was necessary because I didn’t have a jacket – due to my handicap, my ability to pack was severely compromised. Aloha found me a cool black sweat-jacket with rocker-themed accoutrements and (which would prove invaluable throughout the week) zipper pockets. I could fit my vid camera, iPhone, glow sticks and even still camera in my pockets without having to bend down to rummage through my
For a detail about our time in line, please click here:
San Francisco was a great experience. The line-waiting period was fun, seedy, crazy and interesting. When I told people I was spending the weekend in San Francisco, I’m sure they weren’t visualizing me sitting on fleece blankets for hours on a downtown city street. I don’t think I was. But here I was with great friends, @hcluless and @scorpioBSB joined us and we chatted with several other PFers and friends as we took turns getting up to walk. We had our one meal early on keeping in mind that bathroom breaks were all but impossible in GA. After talking to NoAngelPF about the differences in seated vs. GA experience, I decided to brave GA.
I bought a ticket that turned out to be back balcony; I thought, if I really can’t tolerate it, I’ll go sit there. But I also found that standing, walking and dancing (not a full-on flail, but keeping my hips moving and weight shifting, alleviated the pain). I think I got a vid of Allison, but I realized once Adam came on, I did NOT have the self-control to NOT sqee, flail, sing or yell Whooooo Hooooo!! at the top of my lungs every 1.275 seconds. So #fail on that part.
I did attempt to video at both Costa Mesa concerts and got busted both times. Huh, really security guards, out of 8500 people? And my camera fits in the palm of my hand too. :(
Anyway, so I was the designated flailer then … With purse planted firmly between my two feet I considered that an anchor and when things got pushy (as they do at GA), I tried to hold my ground. I would shuffle left or right when someone got too close, like the sweaty tattooed bear on my left. He kept pushing and pushing during Orianthi. We were three people back, center stage, so how much of a freaking better view did he want to get? Sheesh. Before long, he was pawing on people and others called him out and he seemed to back off. He put some other little girl on his right side, which separated us, thank god. NoAngel was on my right and Adamauian and Anthro were on her right.
We had some young girls who were quite short behind us and sometimes I feel a tad guilty for being tall, but at this point, it was every stan for themselves. I try my best to run interference if people are getting mowed over, but I was not going to let myself get pushed around either. Also, given my limited mobility, it was all I could do to just stay where I was.
Alli was fun and awesome and loved being that close. She is adorable and sounded great. She came right up to our side and made great eye contact and I tried to send light, love and enthusiasm right back to her by waving and smiling and cheering wildly. She was fantastic.
Ori I enjoy; loved being able to see all the picks she has lined up on her mic stand, that she just tosses out at random times in her songs. Love the energy of her lead guitarist (should know his name by now); my friend @loveadamsmusic adores him. He is very fun and somehow I ALWAYS end up on his side and Monte’s. I took a minute to take in the theater. The Warfield is beautiful, classic baroque? The type of theater that was still around and used as movie theaters when I was very young. I love the architecture, the ambience and history. I think I tweeted a couple of pics.
What was very cool about Warfield is that the GA floor is tiered every 10 feet or so, so people can still see even though they’re 15 or more rows back. I kept glancing back to check out the crowd. LOTS of men; and not stereotypically gay by any stretch. I’d say I saw more 40-something classic rocker types.
Okay, now let me go deep into my trance and recreate the moment Adam stepped on stage. The intermission between he and Ori was long, as usual. This was such a different experience from TV, which was a huge stage, outdoors, but the back projection screen was blocked a little. I do remember squeeing that the sound and experience was so much better than the videos and “Soaked” was to DIE for.
Okay, back to SF: I can almost feel the vibrations from the opening bars of “Voodoo” moving through me right now. It was so fucking exciting!!! He was so close!!! Like literally four feet away and when he came down to our side of the stage (we were directly in front of the little platform in front of Monte), it was breathtaking.
I tried to drink in every detail – the texture of his jacket; his eye makeup, THE LACE-UP PANTS!!!!! OMG!! The lace-up GB was at eye-level about four feet away. Squeep! He was ethereally beautiful. He sounded amazing and every pair of eyes was transfixed. Voodoo morphed into DTRH, which morphed into ROF with lightning (or lightening – LOL) speed. I think there was something weird about the ROF projection; it seemed to be cutting off a little low.
I was totally oblivious to the crowd by then. I had my glowstick at the ready for WWFM and tried to force myself to take in the projections, dancers, etc. But it is soooo damn difficult to take your eyes off Adam. It’s almost impossible. I kept thinking, “Please let Suz be here getting this on video!!!” Because she’s a better woman than I.
I did attempt some vid early on, but abandoned, like I said. The hands in the frame were also a huge distraction. The camera doesn’t know what to focus on and it gets very screwy quick. Thank God Anthrogeek hung tough and got some classic stuff. See here.
Soaked, is my favorite and was a transporting experience. The crowd seemed to behave itself more than usual; there were times when you could hear a pin drop and he took a very long, pregnant pause (oh wait, that was us …) to heighten the drama and OMFG, it works so brilliantly.
What are the moments that I literally felt my breath leave my body? The first note sung in “Voodoo,” I think. And “Sleepwalker,” of course, how could I skip over that??? To see him singing that so close, where you can see every facial expression and detail. How is it he can still look so beautiful hitting those notes. It seems like most people would look as if they were passing a kidney stone. Or standing for hours and hours at a general admission concert with a bulging disc in their lumbar spin. *insert eyeroll here*
Really, all his entrances are breathtaking.
At the end of the instrumental interlude before SFW, he is suddenly JUST. THERE. In all his sleeveless, sparkly, strutting glory. (Btw, the lasers during this portion were the BEST EVAH for me. So gorgeous, with the fog mingling into the colors – these were made for theaters; I was absolutely tripping on how beautiful they were). Okay, aaaand back to Adam.
He has three different entrances and they really are three different characters that is totally portrayed through his body language. His carriage when he enters at the beginning of SFW is totally different than Voodoo or SW, or maybe it’s not but since he’s wearing coats in the other two instances, you don’t notice so much.
I really think the moment he steps on stage after the SFW interlude is one of my favorites. Like I said, he’s suddenly just there. His posture, deportment and supreme confidence as he surveys the crowd are just so hot!!! And it’s sweet. He’s sparkly, sweaty, smiley, fierce and playful. Every seam and square inch of his costume seems as if it were made to be on his body.
His vocal in SFW, with the light show and the band are almost overwhelming. So. Freaking. Good.
Okay, this is ridic long, I better wrap it up. The coolest thing about being
Also, when you’re that close, you KNOW when he has made direct eye contact with you. And it’s like a special reward. Or the kind of compulsion that makes up play slot machines over and over; that one moment is such a rush that you’ve got to try to hit it again. I knew when he was locking onto the eyes of the person just to my left or right. Or just in front of me or behind. And there were only two (maybe three) fleeting times where he locked eyes with me. Dead.
Bottom line: If you can do GA. Do. It. At least once. It is such a blast and for those 90 minutes, I pretty much forgot the pain in my back and the heartbreak of missing the first show. It was magical.
Ho shit! I just realized I forgot the E*P*I*C* that was WLL. At some point, NoAngelPF turned to me and said, “OMG, he’s going to be the death of me, I swear.” I think it might have been at about :50 in the above video where he sits on the platform directly in front of us. I totally agree.
He was insanely good throughout the show, but somehow topped it with WLL. When he was walking from the back of the stage to the front and singing the next register up on the scale (about 2:25) with each step, I was thinking, “WTAF is happening here???” Seriously.
Now I know how Kara felt: it’s craziness what he was singing. HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE???
Go watch Anthro’s version again. There are no words.
