RE: My Birthday, TCV Portland Show

["Pamela Ford" <jpford@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks for the review, Sam.  One of my biggest pet peeves is drunks at
concerts. Just doesn't make sense, and I'm always trying to avoid having
beer spilled on me.

Question for you.  In the live show, what was Jones' personality on stage?
He has always been in the background, even in post-Zep days.  Does he still
blend into the background in TCV or is he more front and center as a top
name?

Pam

-----Original Message-----
From: admins-zeppelin@xxxxxxxx [mailto:admins-zeppelin@xxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Samuel Jones
Sent: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 4:53 PM
To: zeplist
Subject: My Birthday, TCV Portland Show

I know, the TCV show in Portland was on Nov. 22, about a week and a
half ago. The tickets were a birthday present, and today is my
birthday so I figured I'd give my impressions today. Also, I don't
think I can add much as far as setlist or performance go, it's all the
same as previous reviews. And besides I'm not Nech so no one is
interested in my concert goings lol. Joke Nech nobody get their
panties in a bunch.

Also, just as a side note, I'm used to my posts being pretty quiet in
terms of responses but lately it's been down to zero. I checked my
spam filter and had an email from myself in it, so I'm thinking I may
be in a similar situation in many peoples email. Of course they'd
never know it so whatever.

Anyway, so we lined up early knowing that it was general admission and
it was cold. Very very cold. I only wore a tshirt and a button up silk
club shirt knowing it would be really warm inside. I nearly froze to
death but about 3/4 through the concert i was sweating buckets and
getting a little too overheated.

This was my girlfriends first concert. No she's not that young, 24,
just very sheltered. Her style of music is stuff like Selena Gomez and
Justin Beiber and Miley Cyrus. Throughout the concert she seemed
frozen in fear by the sound and the crowd of long haired sweaty freaks
jumping and headbanging and screaming all around her. I on the other
hand felt it was a proper rock concert experience.

The sound was great as you'd expect in a small club. The only
distortion was toward the end and I'm pretty sure it was because my
ears were going. I was three people back from the stage dead center so
Josh was maybe ten, fifteen feet away.

Really really good show. I was a huge Nirvana fan so seeing Dave on
the kit was definately an added bonus to seeing Jonesy. Setlest same
as the rest of the tour, no suprises. Excellent performance and a
really enthusiastic crowd.

Now just a few random things that bothered me about the concert.

First and foremost, Alain is a member of the band. I realize he wasn't
on the album, but on stage he plays guitar, bass, keys, sings, does
quite a bit to imo equally add to the live sound. They really should
have put a forth vulture head on the tour shirt at least.

Second, in a standing room only show, why oh god why does there always
have to be two or three guys that think it's great to link arms and
throw themselves side to side as hard as they can causing a nasty
domino effect in the extremely crowded venue. The security tried to
stop it multiple times and every time they looked away these guys
would go back to knocking people over. Then there's the drunk women
who do nothing but scream and jump up and down and the drunk guys that
come pushing their way to the front in the middle of the show.
Really.. I have no problem with people drinking.. but I'm there to
listen to musicians perform music. If your aim is just to get
plastered, there's lots of bars around.

Third, and this is for the Roseland Theater in Portland, after a show
you have at least four exits off the main theater yet you block them
all forcing everyone from the balcony and floor to stand in place for
nearly an hour after the show in unbearable heat while 1400 people try
to jam into one staircase and one door out. Just stupid, and
dangerous.

Forth, did anyone else get the same opening band that I did? Mini
Mansions I believe they were called. They were absolutely awful and
didn't fit TCV at all. And why did they get nearly a full set. Close
to ten songs if i remember right, even amongst boos, calls of you
suck, and get off the stage.

There are clips on youtube from the show, but not very good. I took
pics with my phone camera after being told point and shoots were ok. I
thought cameras weren't allowed or I'd have brought my 8mp digi cam
with me. Oh well. I was too busy having my hearing stolen from me by
rock legends, and as far as birthday presents go, that was hard to
top.

Nobody's around today, so it looks like the Rev. gets a quiet at home
birthday with his green Afghani friend.

Rev. Sam