O-WOW in IOWA!!

Got home from our east coast vacation trip last night – just in time to make it to the Des Moines concert today. Youngest daughter Annie and I made the 2 and a half hour drive a little early because all the pre-sale Des Moines tickets were will call for this venue (and not handled by Ticketmaster!). I’m always a little nervous about will call – what would I do if the tickets weren’t there?! But they were there and after giving my driver’s license a good look, they gave them to me.

One of the first things we noticed at the arena was that every door had a large, lengthy legal-like notice on it saying that videotaping would be occurring inside and if you did not agree to or want to be videotaped, please do not enter the concert!!! So 1) it seemed that some special taping was taking place tonight and/or 2) perhaps they have had some legal issues come up with shots of the crowd at previous shows and are now being more careful? We were excited to see what the signs might be all about.

Annie and I walked around the arena and checked out the buses. Three of the fancy buses had trailers on the back (for the cycles, I guess, although that’s a lot of trailer space) but we were pretty sure Keith’s bus was the one behind an extra “privacy fence”. No sign of any of the guys but it was probably soundcheck time for them. We did see a chef with the tallest chef’s cap I’ve seen sitting at one of the arena docks – I think he must have been Keith’s caterer because there is no fine dining (very little food of any type in fact) at this venue.

This was one time when the Monkeyville pre-sale was good to me – 8^th row of the risers immediately right of the stage. In fact our seats were exactly in line with the first row floor – just a little elevated, so I was pretty tickled. We were just a few feet away from the “DJ Debonair” and his “twin disks of love”, as Keith calls them. (Now what I hadn’t anticipated is that being in line with the front row also puts one in line with the 6 spotlights that sometimes shine on Keith from each side of the stage. When those went on it was like looking at 6 suns – I was completely blinded and couldn’t see Keith at all when they were glaring (and had residual flashcube like spots before my eyes when they went off). So I had to look at the video screen and not Keith whenever they used those banks of lights. Guess every seat has its pros and cons.)

The Wells Fargo Arena holds about 17,000. The floor and first and second levels of risers appeared to be sold out. Only the front third to half of the real, real nosebleed seats (third level) were filled, so they had actually hung a curtain that hid the third level seats farthest from the stage. It was a more mixed crowd (age and gender) than many of the other shows I’ve been to and it seemed that everyone was into the show. No “sitters” in Iowa!

There was extra videotaping throughout the show – from what I could see it was primarily close-ups of Keith and the guys shot by a cameraman that moved among them on stage, sometimes filming right up next to the guys. A couple times they also had a special cameraman (with an extra spotlight on his camera) shooting small groups of fans dancing or singing (but these shots were not shown on the big screen). There was no video background tonight for Used To The Pain – that was the case at least once before when extra videotaping was taking place (perhaps the images disrupt their filming?) They did show the LPATWCT heart towards the end of UTTP – I don’t remember that occurring before.

The set list had not changed - need I even rave about Keith’s singing, playing and the way he looked and moved?!! But there were some other special changes tonight.

They have finished the Days Go By special video!! They show it on the big screen while Keith is singing that song and it is very cool! They got amazing clips submitted by Monkeys from all over the country and, in fact, all over the world. Clips of fans making the “hand out the window as the cars drive by” motion – some standing, some driving, some alone, some in large groups doing that up and down motion. Singing, dancing, even swimming to DGB! Fans standing in front of all sorts of famous sites or town signs. Fans in front of the Parthenon or the Eiffel Tower. It all goes by so quickly I am sure I didn’t catch everything (but I did get most of it on film for a closer look!). I didn’t see the little clip that I sent in, but it looked like they used dozens and dozens. What a fun idea Keith!

When the band went down to the small stage Keith chatted with the audience before they started playing. He thanked Iowa for making them feel so welcome and said that the weather had been perfect when they went out riding on the freeway on the cycles. Keith said he thought they should do 5 shows in a row in Des Moines – would we come back the next few nights? (You bet Keith!). He chose to read signs from the small stage tonight and immediately honed in on a gigantic (probably 6 ft by 4 ft) sign held by 2 gals saying they wanted 2 hugs (1 for each I guess). He invited them up to the small stage – not ON the stage, but up to the edge where he jumped off and gave them each their hug!

Lucky ladies (and I was particularly jealous because I had made a “Flew Here From Maine” sign (since I was in Bangor yesterday) that I hoped might catch his eye).

When Keith introduced Jerry he mentioned that they have been playing together 14 years. And then, when he introduced Chris M. (with his usual little rhythmic rap-like intro) – for some reason Chris had on big white bunny ears!! No explanation, no acknowledgement of the ears, but he wore them for the entire set done on the small stage J ! Several times during the night Keith laughed out loud – big ol’ guffaws at this or that – but not at the bunny ears. Brian got a cowboy hat from someone and wore it for a song or two – looked pretty cute! The drum corps tonight was from Des Moines East High School and they did a great job (though some of them seemed to have eyes as big as saucers as they faced the crowd!)

Another surprise this evening (unless I have been completely oblivious before, which is always possible) - Keith was doing that great guitar solo at the end of I Can’t Stop Loving You, and all of a sudden I realize that he is rising up above the stage!!!

I had never noticed before that Keith’s piano comes up out of the main stage the way that Chris McHugh’s drums rise up out of the small stage! And tonight Keith was standing on that piano, doing his solo, as it rose up (putting him on about a 4 foot piano pedestal) – what a great variation from the guitar solos done as he kneels or crouches!

He did a new (to me) little bit of percussive drumming on the neck frets of his guitar at the beginning of WWWBM – just before he and Jerry did their little guitar “charge” at each other. And he once again (as was reported for Moline) did a verse or so of Violent Femmes’ Blister in the Sun when he was sitting at the piano later on. He was tickled when the crowd participated during that song and also, just before that, when he only had to play a couple chords (calling us to battle) to get us to yell out “Charge” at the right time.

Tonight Keith expanded the “cell phone wave” into a bit of a competition. He teased us a little by vacillating about which side or spot should begin the wave, first saying we would start over on his right (they all cheered), but then saying “Wait, maybe it would be better to start over here on the left” (and our side screamed its agreement). But then he thought maybe he should let those folks way in the back start (screams) or the folks on the floor start (more screams) (I think this was all being taped). He came back to us on the left side again (cheers and waving from us) but then decided we looked drunk and might not be able to follow directions – lol. He finally did begin on his right (as usual) and got a very excellent cell phone wave from the crowd after all that build up!!

A final flourish during Everybody – not only did he add his little self-reference (“Even I need somebody….” while making those distinctive taps on his chest, but then, in the next line followed it with “need somebody like you” gesturing to the audience surrounding him. My heart melted.