onepixel
06-20-2008, 04:58 AM
My daughter and I have gotten into watching the tv show Eli Stone. A comedy of sorts about a lawyer that has premonitions and it takes place in San Francisco. Cute show. George Michaels does a number of cameos. She really likes the song Faith. After one episode where George Michaels plays himself in the show there is a commercial about him coming to play in San Jose. I ask my daughter if she wants to go and she says YES! So I barely get tickets because the show is nearly sold out. It's either a couple of hundred bucks or the cheap $55 seats. I get the cheap seats because I don't want to see George that bad. This is the most I've paid for any concert, it's been awhile.
It was hovering around 100° when we left the house. My brain was melting and I was hoping for some AC. We parked the car and start walking to the Shark Tank (HP Pavilion Arena). The last time I was there, was for a Shark's game awhile back. I'm a bit apprehensive, expecting a bunch of younger to middle aged women. I'm checking out the crowd and notice there's nothing but old farts... ok wait, people my age. Jeez. Lots of couples and a lot more guys than I expected... well groomed guys. Swell.
We find our seats in the extreme nose bleed section. You could not get any farther back than where we were, unless you were in the luxury box seats behind us. Great. I should've brought the binoculars. I'm trying to be positive with this father/daughter thing. I haven't been to a concert in a large indoor venue in maybe 20 years. It turns out, our vantage point was actually pretty good. There were three large screens and I have never seen anything like it. The main one was at least 130 x 35 feet in length. It stood about 80 feet high and it curved flat onto the stage and partially off the edge. This was not a projection screen. It was illuminated from within and they were walking on it. Very cool! The two smaller screens were about 50 x 20 and flanked the large center screen, with gaps in between were the band and back singers were. Along with more traditional lightning effects.
I have to admit I've liked a couple of WHAM / Michael's songs from way back when. But still... it's George Michaels. What blew me away was those screens. The vivid colors, contrast and resolution was mind blowing. The video and computer generated images were astounding, beautifully choreographed and well designed. The images were link on all three screens and would move from one to the other. And on the large screen images would cascade down or up vertically and onto the flat portion and roll off the edges. Very cool, I was transfixed! My daughter tells me it's nothing new.
The acoustics were good enough and George Michaels' voice sounded pretty strong. When the crowd favorites came on, 90+% of the crowd got up and danced, me included. What the hell... it was really fun. Aside from his regular songs he covered Police's Roxanne, in blues with videos in red showing ladies working in Amsterdam. The guy put on a great show, both my daughter and especially me, were very impressed. I can't believe I'm saying that.
After the show we are totally psyched and walk off in the wrong direction from the car. But eventually get corrected and we bump into Russell, the party bus driver for my daughter's Jr. Prom. She thinks Russell is like a celebrity and I take pictures of the two. My daughter thinks the whole night was a blast! So do I.
I hope Led Zepplin tours, she likes the song Rock'n Roll!
:)
It was hovering around 100° when we left the house. My brain was melting and I was hoping for some AC. We parked the car and start walking to the Shark Tank (HP Pavilion Arena). The last time I was there, was for a Shark's game awhile back. I'm a bit apprehensive, expecting a bunch of younger to middle aged women. I'm checking out the crowd and notice there's nothing but old farts... ok wait, people my age. Jeez. Lots of couples and a lot more guys than I expected... well groomed guys. Swell.
We find our seats in the extreme nose bleed section. You could not get any farther back than where we were, unless you were in the luxury box seats behind us. Great. I should've brought the binoculars. I'm trying to be positive with this father/daughter thing. I haven't been to a concert in a large indoor venue in maybe 20 years. It turns out, our vantage point was actually pretty good. There were three large screens and I have never seen anything like it. The main one was at least 130 x 35 feet in length. It stood about 80 feet high and it curved flat onto the stage and partially off the edge. This was not a projection screen. It was illuminated from within and they were walking on it. Very cool! The two smaller screens were about 50 x 20 and flanked the large center screen, with gaps in between were the band and back singers were. Along with more traditional lightning effects.
I have to admit I've liked a couple of WHAM / Michael's songs from way back when. But still... it's George Michaels. What blew me away was those screens. The vivid colors, contrast and resolution was mind blowing. The video and computer generated images were astounding, beautifully choreographed and well designed. The images were link on all three screens and would move from one to the other. And on the large screen images would cascade down or up vertically and onto the flat portion and roll off the edges. Very cool, I was transfixed! My daughter tells me it's nothing new.
The acoustics were good enough and George Michaels' voice sounded pretty strong. When the crowd favorites came on, 90+% of the crowd got up and danced, me included. What the hell... it was really fun. Aside from his regular songs he covered Police's Roxanne, in blues with videos in red showing ladies working in Amsterdam. The guy put on a great show, both my daughter and especially me, were very impressed. I can't believe I'm saying that.
After the show we are totally psyched and walk off in the wrong direction from the car. But eventually get corrected and we bump into Russell, the party bus driver for my daughter's Jr. Prom. She thinks Russell is like a celebrity and I take pictures of the two. My daughter thinks the whole night was a blast! So do I.
I hope Led Zepplin tours, she likes the song Rock'n Roll!
:)