Celtic Woman at Red Rocks

So this past Wednesday I flew to Denver to see Celtic Woman perform their Isle of Hope show at Red Rocks Amphitheater. I absolutely loved their Salt Lake show back in May, and wanted to see it again, but a little closer. In Salt Lake, my friend Phyl and I were quite a way back and couldn’t see the performers very well, so I wanted to see it again, but with a better view.

I actually managed to get a ticket for the front row for the Red Rocks show, and pretty close to the middle too. My seat was so close… there was absolutely nobody between me and the girls as they sang; they were literally as close as 15 feet at times, and never more than 25 feet away. What a way to see a concert!!!

My view of the stage. Just the rope and railing between me and them.

I had relatively little difficulty getting out to Denver. I arrived at the Salt Lake airport with plenty of time to make my flight. The flight ended up being delayed by about 20 minutes, but I had planned some extra time into my schedule so I could still make the show on time even if I were delayed somewhere along the way. But we made up some extra time in the air and I was able to get my rental car pretty quickly. I went straight to my hotel to check in, but I didn’t even bother to go up to my room before I headed back out to the car to head up to Morrison where Red Rocks Amphitheater is actually located. The show was scheduled to start at 8:00, with the gates opening at 6:30. I heard that parking at Red Rocks was a real problem, so I arrived at 6:00 to make sure I had a place to park.

Red Rocks is a gorgeous venue. I hadn’t ever been, so it was a pleasant experience taking in the view for the first time. And it is huge! I had no idea. I had seen pictures, but pictures just don’t do its size justice. It has to be at least 100 yards deep, and at its narrowest point 40 yards wide. The rows of seats are spaced about 3.5 feet apart, so even while you are seated there is plenty of room for people to walk in front of or behind you. No crowded knees there.

I had a lot of time to kill, but when I sat down the gentleman in the seat next to me had already arrived. We talked for a bit. He was from southern Colorado and had driven up to see the show. Two years ago he did the same thing but they had canceled the show due to rain, so he missed out on that one, and was looking forward to seeing the girls live for the first time. Since I had already seen it I knew both he and his wife would thoroughly enjoy it.

The show started about 15 minutes late. The girls looked and sounded great. They are amazingly talented. Being on the front row, there were many times that I was able to hear their voices over the PA system, and I can vouch for the fact that the show is live… at least the vast majority of it. There were a few numbers (mostly the large group ensembles) where I still wondered if there were some vocal parts that were prerecorded. But even if they did do that, it certainly wouldn’t be because of a lack of talent… it would have to be for a technical reason, like not being able to have that many microphones turned on at the same time without feedback or something similar. If they did use prerecorded audio for any of the vocals (and I think there were a couple of songs where they might have) it was because they didn’t have a choice.

If you haven’t ever been on the front row of a big concert, there just isn’t any way to adequately describe what the experience is like. Because there is nobody between you and the performers, you forget that the show is for a bazillion other people too… you just don’t see them as the show is going on. From the front row, not only can you very clearly see the performers, but they see you, and they react to you. When you smile or wave, they do the same back to you. I caught each one of the girls looking in at me more than once. That is something you just don’t get when you sit farther back. During one particularly powerful, well-performed, and favorite songs, I teared up a little and the girl singing saw that. The experience is great, and I highly recommend it for any shows that I don’t go to. (I don’t want you taking my seat.)

The other interesting thing about being in the front was something I didn’t think about. Most of the time the first few rows are where the most serious groupies and wealthiest patrons will sit. I wasn’t really prepared to hear people all around me talking about their experiences going to many of the shows along the tour (one guy to my right had been to at least a dozen in this tour alone), and their experiences meeting and socializing with the girls. Another guy to my left had been to so many meet-and-greets with the girls that he had long ago lost count of just how many. He had actually flown to Ireland for the taping of one of their DVDs too. Aside from the very boastful nature of his discussion, it was interesting to hear some of the things that he had learned about the girls as he had interacted with them over the last few years. The sort of things that don’t get posted on any web sites, either official or fan.

I was also among the youngest in the front few rows. Each of the front rows at Red Rocks holds about 80-90 people, and in the first three rows there were probably less than a dozen people my age or younger. In some ways it almost felt like I was in the geriatric section, as the average age was at well above 50.

Of the songs that the girls performed, their classics are definitely among my favorites. While some of their new songs are great (“Fields of Gold” and “Isle of Hope” come to mind), I feel pretty “meh” about some of the others. “True Colors” was okay, while “You’ll Be In My Heart” felt very out of place and… well, just awkward. Their all-new “O, America” song is intended to tug at the heartstrings of any patriotic American, but the song itself has some pretty bland lyrics. The whole song is chocked full of cliché phrases repeated over and over, with just the order of the wording switched around a bit: “America, I’ll be true to thee… True to thee, I will be.” Bleh. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but the writing of the song felt amateurish. Fortunately even on the awkward songs the girls sang them beautifully, so it wasn’t like I was bored.

Of the 27 songs on the set list, my favorites of the evening were “The Sky and the Dawn and the Sun” (their opener), “Fields of Gold,” “Orinoco Flow,” “The Blessing,” “Mo Ghile Mear,” “At the Ceili,” (that one is a lot of fun) “Sing Out,” and “You Raise Me Up.” They did “Spanish Lady” for one of their encores in Salt Lake, and that is a really fun one too, but they didn’t do it in Denver (more on that in a second).

Lisa Kelly is my favorite of the group. She has an amazingly wide range with a beautiful tone to her voice. I definitely really like all of the girls, but Lisa consistently delivers my favorite performances, and this show was no exception. She had solos for her standard songs (“The Blessing,” “The Voice,” to name a couple), plus “Fields of Gold” was added for this tour. Hopefully they’ll add “Send Me a Song” to the set list of a future show. That would make me very happy. I also discovered while researching the tour that her youngest sister Helen is also a part of the ensemble as a choir member, and is just as beautiful and talented (it’s really too much talent for one family). She definitely caught my eye as part of the supporting cast this time.

Seeing the same show twice was an interesting experience. The first time through everything was new, even though I knew most of the songs. But it all kind of ran together in my mind as a result. The second time I knew what to expect, and it made it a lot easier to remember the show overall. If you had asked me after the first time which songs they had done and in what order, I could have only given you a blank stare. But if you were to ask me after the second show, I’d have a pretty good shot at being able to name most of the songs, in the right order, and who sang them. I was also better able to watch for and take in the smaller nuances I missed the first time around. At the same time, it all felt very familiar… the new songs weren’t so strange this time, and felt much more familiar and comfortable. I couldn’t go so far as to say that I think everyone should see every show they can multiple times, but it is a very different experience the second time, even while being familiar at the same time.

I wish I could say the Red Rocks show was without any glitches, but I can’t, because there were a few. I think that the sound engineers, for both the Front-of-House (what the audience hears) and monitors (what the performers hear) must not have been the regulars. (I suspect the regulars are back in Ireland getting ready for the DVD that is being shot later this month.) There were several times during the show that the mics for instruments or performers weren’t turned on when they should have been. On numerous occasions I could hear the instruments directly with no sound coming out of the PA at all, which meant that anyone farther back heard basically nothing for those bits of the show. It seems like the monitor engineer wasn’t quite doing his job quite right either, as there were many times throughout the show that the girls would pull out their earpieces, an almost sure sign that they aren’t hearing what they need to hear.

There were a few issues with the lighting too… One of the projectors projecting video on the rocks behind the set was badly misaimed and inverting the image. It was a little distracting. There were also several missed lighting cues in the show, where the spotlights would come on at the wrong time, or be pointed at the wrong performer. Many of the moving lights were also misaimed, and missed their targets, especially in the first half of the show until they were re-aimed during the intermission. I was really sensing an inexperienced crew. This was the 96th show on this tour, and any technician active for the whole tour wouldn’t be making those kinds of mistakes.

Even with those mistakes, though, all of the performers took it in stride and it didn’t phase them in the least. True professionals.

The weather was mostly cooperative for most of the evening. About two hours into the show we started to get a little rain. Most everybody was prepared for it, though. I brought along a poncho, which I put on after the rain started to really come down. Chloe (one of the vocalists, and the selected spokesperson for the group), joked that they had brought their Irish weather with them. That got a good laugh. Chloe also said (just as she did in Salt Lake) that this show by far had the best audience yet. I’d beg to differ on that, though…

Most everybody was coping with the rain pretty well, but I think it did dampen people’s spirits some (pun intended). The energy of the audience was definitely a lot lower than it was in Salt Lake, especially after, but even before, the rain started. Where at the Salt Lake show there were probably 6-8 standing ovations for various songs throughout the evening, at Red Rocks there were just two… one just before the intermission, and one at the end. And at the conclusion of the normal set list, and the girls thanking everyone for coming, everybody just got up and left. Apparently the audience didn’t want the encores, and we didn’t get them. So we had an extra few songs at Salt Lake that we didn’t get in Denver. That was disappointing, as the songs they had selected for their encores are some of their more fun ones.

I had heard that traffic getting out of Red Rocks is a nightmare, so I was really expecting it to take forever to get back to my hotel. That turned out to not be the case at all. It took about 10 minutes to get from the venue back to the highway, so I was back to my hotel about 35 minutes after the show got out. (Much better than the 90 minutes it took to get home from Stadium of Fire fireworks last night.)

Getting my rental car returned and back to the airport had a few hassles… When I asked my GPS software to find me a gas station near the rental car return it took me to the airport parking lot instead. Which meant that I had to bite the bullet and pay their outrageous $7/gallon rate to make it to the airport on time.

The Denver airport is a bit of a labyrinth. You walk in at ground level, go upstairs to check in, back to ground level to go through security, then downstairs to catch a train to your concourse. And it isn’t very well labeled, so if you’re new to the airport you feel kind of dumb trying to figure out where you’re supposed to go. And then my flight coming back to Utah was actually delayed by about a half hour, which meant that my poor sister Suzanne had to wait for me that much longer after her flight to Salt Lake to meet up to head back to Orem (she had already been there two hours). I’m not a big fan of the hassles of flying.

But as far as the show itself goes, I don’t want any of this to sound like it was bad , because it certainly was not by any stretch of the imagination. It was still amazing. It just wasn’t as amazing as the show I saw in Salt Lake. I’m still very glad that I went… you can’t trade the experience of seeing a concert (especially one by people so talented, and so well produced) in the front row for anything. It’s certain to be one of those things I remember for the rest of my life. The only thing better would be to do it again, and actually be able to meet the girls in person.

What Goes Around...

Tulsa, OK -- Doug and brother Brent arrive early at the Tulsa airport to ensure they are able to make the first leg of their trip back home to Utah.  Last year the security lines for similar flights the same time of day were uncharacteristically long, resulting in Doug nearly missing his flight.  Today, however, things would be different.  There was nobody waiting at the airline ticketing counter.  Nobody waiting to get through airport security.  They arrived at their gate nearly an hour and a half before departure time.

As coincidence would have it, there was another flight with the same destination leaving from the gate just minutes after their arrival there.  Within mere seconds of the time they sat down an airline representative approached them and asked if they were waiting for the later flight.  They were offered the opportunity to board the earlier flight.  American Airlines had not been able to fill the flight, and seats were being offered to anyone willing to fill them.

So both Doug and Brent were seated on the earlier flight, in an exit row, with an empty seat between them.  But this was no ordinary exit row.  There was enough space between their row and the one ahead that Doug was able to completely stretch out his legs without touching the seat in front of him.   "This was the first time I have ever been able to do that," Doug said.  Brent, with longer legs, was not able to stretch his legs out completely, but also found the extra space welcome.  "Meh," was his exact word.  American Airlines could not be reached for comment.

While the pair still have an additional flight later today, the extra time to relax and first dibs on AC power outlets to power their laptops in the Dallas-Fort Worth airport were appreciated.  "Today's experience was very nice, especially considering my previous flying experience," Doug said with regard to a flight two weeks previous, where he gave up his seat next to an attractive, desirable flying companion, in exchange for the nonsensical ramblings of a gregarious voluble elderly woman with active, sharp elbows.  "I guess what goes around comes around after all."

I should be given a medal

So today is the day I fly to my parents' house for Christmas break.  I hate flying.  Not because I have any fear of flying, but because I can't stand being cooped up in the atomically small space of an airline seat, tied in with a seatbelt by Hercules himself, prevented from even breathing or blinking, let alone getting up to walk around.  I'm one of those people that has to always be doing something, and to be told I can't move is fairly irritating.  Add to that the inevitable delays due to weather or whatever, the increased risk of picking up some unknown incurable disease from the guy coughing in your face, and it just isn't a fun experience.

So on my first leg of the flight I am walking down the aisle to find my seat when a guy in front of me makes a motion to the lady sitting in the seat next to mine that my seat is actually his.  (He didn't speak English, and apparently speaking only Spanish makes it difficult to discern the difference between 22F and 23D?)  Anyway, the lady asks him if he will trade seats with her brother, and he apparently understands this (apparently this request is easier to understand than the letters and numbers on the seats), so he starts to make a move toward the seat she had pointed to just a second beforehand.  So my seat has just been given away to someone else.  I speak up, and mention that the seat is actually mine, and the lady seems confused as to what is going on (wouldn't you be?) and in reaction to her confusion she starts to get up to allow me to sit down, even though she had already made it known that she would like to have her brother sit next to her (I don't think she thought I was within earshot of the earlier request).  So I asked her if she still wanted to trade seats, she said yes, and she pointed out which seat was her brother's assigned seat.  Which is unfortunate in a way, because this woman was by far the most beautiful on the plane (and she was single), and she seems very nice.  I rarely have the opportunity to sit next to a single girl, let alone one as beautiful as she... perfect shoulder-length brunette hair, deep brown eyes.  Anyway, as I am settling into my seat the woman in the seat next to my new one starts talking to her husband, seated on her other side, in a voice that would normally be reserved for conversations taking place across the stadium of a football game between two rival teams.  I have no doubt whatsoever that everyone within 6 or 7 rows could very clearly make out everything she was saying, even while listening to their iPods.  Oh boy.  This is going to be a fun flight.

Not only was she loud, she also liked to think out loud.  And read every headline in her paper.  And summarize every article.  Nobody is even listening to her, but she goes on and on.  If I had been actually paying any attention I could tell you about every article in the section of the paper she was reading, with intimate detail. 

Her poor husband is first trying to get some work done on his laptop, then get some sleep, but she just keeps yapping away.   Man, is she loud!  And saying absolutely nothing worth saying.  And she's got one of those voices that makes my hair stand on end... think Fran Drescher, or Janice on Friends.  At one point she was trying to joke with the flight attendant that her husband beats her, but it isn't funny, both because of what she is saying, and the way she is saying it.  And she is very elbowsy.  I stopped counting how many times I got poked in my side after the numbness set in. 

About a half hour into my flight I put in my in-ear monitor headphones, which seal out almost all external noise very well.  Thank goodness I charged my Zune before I left so I had something to drown out the nasal chatter from the woman next to me.  Normal headphones certainly wouldn't have done the trick.

As soon as the flight landed she promptly announced to everyone nearby that she had to get out of the plane immediately, because she only had 45 minutes until her next flight.  Considering that this flight was 2 hours late, I have a feeling that just about everybody on the plane had a connection within a matter of minutes, but, of course, this doesn't occur to her (the attractive woman behind me replied to her comment by indicating she had 5 minutes to make her flight, but this didn't seem to matter).  She then proceeds to boss her husband around like he is a little boy that doesn't know how the egress of airplanes works.  Very embarrassing for him, I assure you.  By this time I think everybody was feeling bad for this guy.

How do people end up like that?  Having absolutely no regard for anyone around them at all?  Treating everyone like they are morons?

So I think I should be given a medal.  I gave up my seat next to a stunningly beautiful and polite single woman to sit next to the loudest, most obnoxious woman on the plane, being poked in the ribs throughout the trip.   Is that deserving of something?

Future Outlook & Tulsa Trip

I use Microsoft Outlook for my email. And today I discovered that it can see into the future. Perhaps that means that it is living up to its name?

Anyway, in addition to email, I also have Outlook setup to monitor my web site's forums for changes so I know when one of my customers asks me a question. Today I posted a response to one of my customer's questions, and as soon as I clicked the link to post, the new post showed up in Outlook, before I even got confirmation on the web site that the message was received and posted. Outlook had seen into the future; it apparently knew what I was going to say.

On a side note, if you couldn't tell by my last post, I'm back in Utah. Who knows for how long, but I'm sure there will be some sort of trip coming up sometime soon.

So here's a little info about the trip:

• I went out to Tulsa to install our Point-of-Sale system in a Little Caesars opening there. They weren't ready for me. My dad helped me with the installation, and we had a bunch of extra stuff to do in order to get everything ready for the store's opening yesterday. What should have been a 5-6 hour installation in one visit turned into about 12 hours in three visits. The last of which had to be done by my dad, because it was actually after I left.
• A word of advice: when booking a flight on Southwest, pay close attention to the travel time. My itinerary showed one flight from Tulsa to Salt Lake. What it didn't show was that there were three stops in between, making what should be about a 2.5 to 3 hour flight actually take about 8 hours. And I was on the same plane the whole time, so I couldn't get off to eat anything. Fortunately, a very cute girl named Sandra sat next to me on the first leg of the trip, and we had a nice conversation. In the course of the near 200 flights I've taken, this was only the second time that had ever happened to me.
• My parents and I went to the Oklahoma Aquarium on Friday. It was pretty cool. They have a pretty cool shark tank where you walk underneath the water in a clear plexiglass tunnel. It wasn't the first time I'd been in one of those, but it was still pretty cool, having sharks swimming all around me.
• It was really cool just hanging out with my parents for 10 days. We didn't get out and do a whole lot, but just being there was relaxing. I'm looking forward to the day when we can live in the same place and see each other more often than we do now.