Posting this from home (Philly) on my mom's laptop. I'll read all your stuff when I get back to Pittsburgh (Sunday at some point). I just wanted to get stuff about yesterday out of my brain before I forget.
So, yesterday was a big day. Between coming home on Wednesday and leaving for Hershey yesterday, I only got about 4 hours sleep, which was decidedly no good. Anyway, I picked Kelly up at 8:30 in the morning because we had to run a few errands beforehand. It ended up being quite disappointing, but it's not my place to talk about it. By the time we actually got on the road, it was 11:00.
I made really good time, getting to Hershey in an hour (it's about 90 miles from my house). The funny thing is, I'm almost positive I didn't go over 80 MPH (state troopers were all over the turnpike the day before, so I was a little more cautious).
For those of you that don't know the area, it is more than a coincidence that the town of Hershey shares its name with the chocolate. From what I understand, Milton Hershey actually built the town for his employees. Regardless, the place is centered around Hershey chocolate. There are street lamps shaped like Hershey Kisses. The center of it all is Hersheypark, an amusement park. It's pretty decent. Aside from going with
Kirsten and
Barb at Christmas-time a few years back, I haven't actually been there in a long time. It used to be VERY kid oriented, but now there are quite a few more roller coasters and other "big kid" rides. Aside from the amusements, Hersheypark has 2 stadiums, a zoo or safari or something (I've never been; the Philly zoo has to be a million times better anyway), and Chocolate World, which is a giant store/"factory tour" (which is actually more like the giant golf ball ride at Epcot, except there is free candy at the end).
You see, if you have concert tickets to one of the two stadiums, you get close to half off your park admission. Even if you didn't, there was no way we were going all the way out there and not going to the park.
Kelly and I thought we would have the park virtually to ourselves, it being a Thursday and all. Not the case. There were so many different schools there. About half were on "Physics Day," where high school students go on rides and measure forces, etc. My school did that, but we (and everyone else I knew) went to Six Flags instead. The other half were just on a field trip or something. I never got a field trip like that. The kids were all brats, and they made the lines really long, so it took away from a lot of the fun. On top of that, it was SO HOT. It had to be close to 90, and I simply haven't reacclimated myself to southeastern PA summers quite yet. Since it's not summer yet and all. All those together with my lack of sleep really detracted from the experience. I did have fun, though. Just not as much as I could have.
We hung out there until about 4:30, then left to go to dinner. As we went out to the car and waited for it to cool down (leather seats), we could hear David Bowie's soundcheck in the parking lot. I've never actually heard one before (I'm deprived), so I was really excited. We heard two songs. The first I didn't know (or couldn't pick out, they must have been testing the drums mainly because I could barely hear the guitar or vocals), the second was "Panic in Detroit."
We then left to go eat dinner with Kirsten and
Jason. We were supposed to eat somewhere called the Hershey Pantry, a place they really like and I read good things about in a "Visit Hershey" brochure I grabbed at Chocolate World. Apparently they're only open for lunch during the off-season, so they were closed. Instead, we went to a place called the "What if Cafe." It was a really fancy place. I, wearing my Trogdor t-shirt and some shorts, didn't really fit in. It was also a lot more expensive than I had expected (the Hershey Pantry is a nice, almost-diner looking place). The food was good though, and we had a lot of fun and time to talk. Kelly and I hadn't seen Jason and Kirsten in forever, and now we get to see time like twice in two weeks (with the wedding and all).
Finally, the main focus of the day, David Bowie. We got back to the park around 7 (and got to park for free because we were there earlier in the day). Luckily, the humidity died down a little and there was a nice breeze. Instead of a sweltering 90, it was more like a balmy 80. We go inside, and the ticket-taker mutilates our tickets. You couldn't even see what section we were in. Fortunately, the ushers believed me when I told them we were in section C, otherwise there would have been problems. Kelly bought me a t-shirt, and the local paper gave out free copies of yesterday's issue, with an extra 4 page thing on Bowie (with some cool pictures). Then we got to our seats. Oh my god. We were so close. The stage was literally less than 15 feet away. It was the coolest thing ever.
The opener was a Welsh band, the Stereophonics. Not bad, but they play LOUD, and being right by the speakers, it wasn't great. They played for about a half hour, an 8 song set. Kelly thought it was amusing the the lead singer/guitarist changed guitars 7 times in those 8 songs. They completely dismantled the stage and rebuilt it for Bowie in 30 minutes, which was impressive, and then he came on at 8:45.
SET LIST
01. Rebel Rebel
02. New Killer Star
03. Cactus (cover of a Pixies song)
04. Sister Midnight (a Iggy Pop song (*sort of))
05. Hang On To Yourself
06. All The Young Dudes (Mott the Hoople cover (*sort of))
07. Fame
08. China Girl (karaoke version)
09. China Girl (real version)
10. The Loneliest Guy
11. The Man Who Sold The World
12. Panic In Detroit
13. Hallo Spaceboy
14. Sunday
15. Heathen (The Rays)
16. Under Pressure
17. Station To Station
18. Ashes To Ashes
19. The Supermen - (one verse)
20. Quicksand
21. White Light, White Heat (Velvet Underground cover)
22. Let's Dance
23. Modern Love
24. I'm Afraid Of Americans
25. "Heroes"
Encore:
26. Suffragette City
27. Ziggy Stardust
* - Both were actually written by Bowie, just released by the others.
The show was SO AWESOME. He came out wearing this awesome long coat, and a yellow scarf/ascot/tie. He only made it through the first two songs before he said "I guess I picked the wrong show to wear the coat, huh?" and took it off. He left the lining on for the next song, but had to take that off too. Some highlights:
---Right after "Rebel Rebel," he said "Hi, I'm Willy Wonka and I'll be your musical guest this evening. Given the setting (a chocolate factory) and the coat he was wearing, it was really funny.
---The crowd was really into the show and sang along with every song. When he got to "China Girl," he said "You guys think you're really good, so why don't you sing this next one." He put the mike on the stand, pointed it to the audience, and sat on the ground as the band played the song. Aside from the "Oh oh oh oh"s at the beginning, the crowd was silent. It was really funny. After about the first verse, David told the band to stop and said "You guys are tragic. I guess I'll have to do it" and had the band start over.
---A sort of running joke was the fact that 4 of the songs were covers, 1 ("Man Who Sold the World") is more famous under Nirvana, and "Under Pressure" is primarily a Queen song. He kept joking "Now I guess we'll get to some of MY stuff."
---He also catered a lot to fan requests. At one point, someone called out for "Width of a Circle," and he said "'Width of a Circle'? Do you know how to play that one? 'Cause I don't. Oh well, I guess we're fucked then." Later, someone screamed for "The Supermen," and he played the first verse before letting the mike drop to the floor and saying "And that's how it went." Towards the end, someone in the audience must have held up a sign saying it was her birthday. After checking with his stage manager on how they were doing for time, he played "Let's Dance" (a really awesome rendition, I might add) for her. "That one's for you. Happy birthday, lady."
It was so cool. I can't really tell you how awesome it was. It was everything I expected and more, and I thought I was expecting a lot. And he really favored our side of the stage, spending probably half the time over by us, the other half split between the center and the other side.
Driving home (after getting through traffic and stuff, it was midnight before I made it back to the turnpike), the lack of sleep really started to hit me. I pulled over at one rest stop to splash water on my face and get Kelly coffee (I don't drink the stuff, but if she could stay awake, that usually helps me to stay awake too). While there, we saw a bunch of people from the show, one of whom was talking to Kelly in the bathroom and wished me a happy birthday out of nowhere (she recognized Kelly from the show somehow, and Kelly told her how I had gotten the tickets as a gift). It was weird. But she had gone to a couple other shows on the tour and said that this one was better than all the rest by far. I wasn't at the other ones, but I'd be inclined to agree.
I started to drive again, and made it to the next rest stop before I had to pull over. I had to take a nap, and that's something I haven't done in a long time. I was a little disappointed in myself, but it's better than dying I suppose.
Mary remembers a time where I pushed myself too much and thought the roads were neon purple by the time I got there (that was after 50-odd hours without sleep, though, a bit more excessive than this). We eventually got to Kelly's house at close to 3, where I got another 4 hours sleep before having to wake up and get home. My sister graduated from college today. No rest for the weary. Ah well.