We were surprised to discover the CMAC was on the campus of a community college! Sadly our fan club presale seats were pretty bad - we were in the upper level (about 60 rows from stage) and way at the edge. We wouldn't be seeing much "live Keith" and the CMAC has no side video screens - just one puny little screen up on the rear ceiling to supplement Keith's screens on stage. Of course we still enjoyed the music but I felt like I was almost out on the lawn!
I understand no pit tickets had been sold for the CMAC concert but in his first song Keith made it clear that he welcomed fans down front - the hell with security! I don't know what the experience was in other areas of this venue, but Jen and I thought the sound there was much poorer than elsewhere. We couldn't hear Dustin's lyrics at all and had trouble catching many of Keith's comments.
My one chance for a closer view was to head to the satellite stage at the appropriate time, and Jen followed me. Well, this audience anticipated Keith's trip out and even before Kiss a Girl was over a large crowd had gathered at the base of the second stage. I've been in many of these second stage crowds over the years and know that being squished and pushed by excited fans is par for the course. But poor Jen was appalled and, although she is half my size, she kept trying to fend off those behind and on either side of her mom, worried that I might get hurt. She was so protective - I think Keith could hire her to assist on his walks through the crowds! : ) Frankly, this NY crowd was the worst that I have been in, with some of the fans getting rather brutal, forcefully elbowing and shoving through those in closer positions like a football players trying to take the ball that final yard!! For the first time I was actually worried we were going to have injuries or have someone fall and get trampled by these idiots who would do anything to anyone to get to Keith. One woman actually climbed on top of the tightly packed crowd and tried to body surf over their heads to Keith! My 'bulldog' Jen did not allow her to climb on top of me and she finally got down.
This physical assault at the small stage was, unfortunately, not rewarded by being able to hear Keith's performance there. I could see him but much of the time could not hear him even though I was just 4-5 feet away. There were no speakers near the small stage itself so Keith's microphone did us little good. In my videoclips you can hear Chris banging on his drums but they are almost "silent" videos as far as Keith is concerned. What a shame there wasn't better sound.
Won't Get Fooled Again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yeFjr9ejSE
Days Go By https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScqsrhuDtjQ
Keith Rocking to Jerry's song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_skioEVOmw
Once in a Lifetime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzBtOZKUbvk
Besides what I tried to capture at the small stage I really had few video opportunities from our distant seats. I do have one brief bad angle shot of Keith's interaction with the little girl whose sign asked Keith to put her in a song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MwPHUeq9JI - which he did, but he cracked himself up when then he could not remember the words to Put You in a Song and had to adlib about forgetting the words to his own damn song : ). I also only caught a tiny bit of tonight's little "bonus" during the encore: a few lines of Shine sang at the piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_RQUEUymxk
We were able to make a quick escape from the CMAC parking lot, which was good since our hotel was back in Syracuse. Our GPS took us on quite an exciting route down pitch dark country roads before finally putting us on the interstate about 15 miles east of where we had exited to get to Canandaigua.
My daughter is convinced that the GPS is evil or has a wicked sense of humor!
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