06-16-2011, 10:43 AM
Last minute, a friend said he had some tix to this show and asked if I was interested. I've never seen JT, so I was sorta interested, but not at the top dollar that a 40th anniversary tour at a Wine resort in the Saratoga hills wants. But I got it for 1/2 price which seemed more reasonable.
If you haven't been to Mountain Winery (formerly Paul Mason), it's a beautiful facility, but a bit odd for a rock concert. I went to see the English Beat and Squeeze there last year. The parking lot was filled with Porsches, BMWs, Lexii, etc. A lot more people drinking wine than beer, and barely any herbal smoke anywhere.
This show was pretty similar. The weather was perfect: nice and warm. The full moon rising just above the horizon. Really gorgeous. The seats were stage left, about 10 rows back. Pretty amazing for what I paid. For the Squeeze show, I was in the bleachers at the top, and the performers looked like ants. Here, Ian Anderson would frolic over to our side of the stage and make eye contact with us while rocking the flute. For a bunch of old geezers, they put on a tight show. But Ian's pipes are gone. He could hit all the notes, he just didn't do it with any power. So his part was a bit subdued. This was the 40th anniversary of Aqualung. I knew about half the songs in the first set, but I was having more fun watching this guy about 5 seats to my right. He was across the aisle at the end in my same row. I'm sure he was an ex-Viking. He was in cowboy boots, a white fur (rabbit skin?) loincloth and grey fur vest. He was in ecstasy. He knew the lyrics to every song. He also was singing along to the flute parts, the guitar leads, the drum solos and probably other music that the rest of us couldn't hear. At intermission, he got up and didn't return for the next set.
The second set was again a mix of songs I recognized and others I didn't. Cross-Eyed Mary, Aqualung were the highlights. Very proggy, intricate. A small Stonehenge with dwarves in Renn Faire garb dancing around it would have been appropriate. It seems that Mtn Winery is very punctual. It says right on the ticket that no shows go past 10pm. JT was quick to get off stage after the last song. They came back almost immediately for an encore of Locomotive Breath which was awesome. Then a bow and they were gone.
On my way out, they funneled everyone to the same main path where I saw that the Viking had parked himself. Now vest-less, he was screaming/chanting and people were coming up and taking their pictures next to him. As they'd walk away, he'd scream "sam408.com"!! Now, you don't have to go there. It's mostly World of Warcraft stuff, but there is a slideshow on the page that includes: a letter from Mensa, short videos of him dancing onstage/backstage at a Pantera concert, more WoW battle scenes, and several pix of which I will include one here for you:
![[Image: mebest.jpg]](http://www.samdeathwalker.com/forum/banners/mebest.jpg)
--tg
If you haven't been to Mountain Winery (formerly Paul Mason), it's a beautiful facility, but a bit odd for a rock concert. I went to see the English Beat and Squeeze there last year. The parking lot was filled with Porsches, BMWs, Lexii, etc. A lot more people drinking wine than beer, and barely any herbal smoke anywhere.
This show was pretty similar. The weather was perfect: nice and warm. The full moon rising just above the horizon. Really gorgeous. The seats were stage left, about 10 rows back. Pretty amazing for what I paid. For the Squeeze show, I was in the bleachers at the top, and the performers looked like ants. Here, Ian Anderson would frolic over to our side of the stage and make eye contact with us while rocking the flute. For a bunch of old geezers, they put on a tight show. But Ian's pipes are gone. He could hit all the notes, he just didn't do it with any power. So his part was a bit subdued. This was the 40th anniversary of Aqualung. I knew about half the songs in the first set, but I was having more fun watching this guy about 5 seats to my right. He was across the aisle at the end in my same row. I'm sure he was an ex-Viking. He was in cowboy boots, a white fur (rabbit skin?) loincloth and grey fur vest. He was in ecstasy. He knew the lyrics to every song. He also was singing along to the flute parts, the guitar leads, the drum solos and probably other music that the rest of us couldn't hear. At intermission, he got up and didn't return for the next set.
The second set was again a mix of songs I recognized and others I didn't. Cross-Eyed Mary, Aqualung were the highlights. Very proggy, intricate. A small Stonehenge with dwarves in Renn Faire garb dancing around it would have been appropriate. It seems that Mtn Winery is very punctual. It says right on the ticket that no shows go past 10pm. JT was quick to get off stage after the last song. They came back almost immediately for an encore of Locomotive Breath which was awesome. Then a bow and they were gone.
On my way out, they funneled everyone to the same main path where I saw that the Viking had parked himself. Now vest-less, he was screaming/chanting and people were coming up and taking their pictures next to him. As they'd walk away, he'd scream "sam408.com"!! Now, you don't have to go there. It's mostly World of Warcraft stuff, but there is a slideshow on the page that includes: a letter from Mensa, short videos of him dancing onstage/backstage at a Pantera concert, more WoW battle scenes, and several pix of which I will include one here for you:
--tg
