1000 words (these don't count)


They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Unfortunately, a picture taken from a crappy disposable camera isn’t.

So instead, here are a thousand words about this pic.

What you see here is my best furtive shot of Pete Yorn while performing at Blossom Music Center on August 20, 2007. I say “furtive” because I smuggled the camera into the venue in the waistband of my pants. I knew we had pavilion seats so there was a chance we’d be close enough to the stage where I could take a decent shot.

I had looked forward to this show all summer. Pete Yorn, one of my favorite musicians, opening for the inimitable Dave Matthews Band, whom I had never seen in concert. August 20, right smack dab in the heat of summer – what could be better?

Anyone from the Midwest recall the weather that week?

Yeah. It rained. And rained. And then poured. And it was cold enough to break out the jeans and long sleeves. Not to mention, the concert was on a Monday, so I took the day off, as well as Tuesday, thinking that I’d be able to enjoy some time in my backyard, lay out in the sun, get some yard work done. Mmm hmm. That didn’t happen.

I wasn’t too concerned about the rain impacting the concert, because I knew we’d stay relatively dry under the pavilion roof. Though, I was having flashbacks to my teen years, when I was in the last row of the pavilion for Lollapalooza (the year Pearl Jam, Nirvana, etc. were there) and it rained that day, and all the people from the grass behind us surged through the gate and suddenly we had 100 extra people in our row. But I digress.

We got there just in time to see Pete take the stage, and by some chance occurrence, the usher seated us one whole section in front of where we were supposed to be. We didn’t realize this until after he was done and we got up to get drinks in between Pete and Dave’s set, but it worked out great for me because I was really there to see him. He went on right at 7, and so not that many people had taken their seats. I felt kind of weird applauding loudly after each of his songs since no one else around us knew who the hell he was, but I saw some other fans sprinkled around the pavilion, too.

Since he was the opening act, he did an abbreviated version of his usual set, and included some cover songs. He opened with a Dead cover, “Friend of the Devil” that I’m sure a lot of the crowd recognized, and he ended with “Suspicious Minds” in homage to the late great Elvis Presley. And in between he did his classics, including my two favorites, “Strange Condition” and “Crystal Village.”

I should mention at this point that I had a vibe even before I got to the show that I was somehow going to meet Pete. I have seen some of Blossom’s opening acts set up a merch booth and sign autographs during the main show so I was kind of hoping for that.

Anyhoo. You will notice in the photo above that I have pointed out a fellow henceforth known as “Douchebag.” He came in the middle of Pete’s set and was about 6 or 7 rows in front of us. However, his friends had seats right next to us. For the entire set he kept turning around and yelling stuff to his friends. It was tres irritating especially when I was trying to hear “Strange Condition” and had to also have the Douchebag in my line of sight. I was actually glad when we found out our seats were farther back and thus away from the Douchebag and his Merry Marauders.

Pete finished his set and of course I was disappointed that it was over, but also excited to see Dave. I have heard that he just puts on a phenomenal live show. Admittedly, my knowledge of the DMB library ends at “Before These Crowded Streets” (the one that has “Crush” on it.) The first song he played, I believe, actually came from that CD, but after that I was kind of lost. Even my hubby, who is less of a DMB fan than me, knew more songs than I did.

OK, so this whole “meeting Pete” thing. Our seats were to the right of the stage and it just so happened that we could see into the artists’ parking lot when they came off stage. Immediately when Dave took the stage I noticed a member of Pete’s band come out and stand maybe two sections in front of where we were, and watch a couple of songs. I had the eagle eye out for Pete.

Sure enough, maybe 3-4 songs into it, here comes Pete out of the parking lot, through the VIP section, and into the crowd. He’s being led by a cute girl and it looks like he is going to sit down.

Here is the point in the story when I choke.

Even though I had a BB8 Amber-like vision that I was going to meet Pete, when it came down to Go Time, I was paralyzed. Also probably because I realized that I really had nothing to say and I also had my husband with me. I’ve been in situations before where I’ve met someone that I semi-idolized (former Indians player Jim Thome comes to mind) and I haven’t been able to properly craft a complete sentence.

We decided to leave early to avoid the traffic, and thanks to mother nature, the grass parking lot was now a mud pit. My little Corolla almost didn’t make it out. We heard later that many cars were stuck until the wee hours of the morning waiting for a tow.

Not quite the experience I had dreamed of, but an adventure nonetheless.