| ++ Patty Report ++ |
| Comme vous le savez déjà Patty est américaine et très grande fan de James. Elle a assisté au concert de San Diego et voici son report .Petite info (pour ceux qui ne le savent pas) concernant Patty, j'ai moi- même la chance d'avoir rencontré Patty à plusieurs reprises lors des divers events. Patty a eu la gentillesse d'accepter a ce que ses comptes rendu soi publiés sur le site et pour cela je la remercie .Je signale juste que :Patty est seule propriétaire du texte qui ne peux en aucun cas être copier / coller pour votre site et forum sans son accord. Merci |
| Thank you very much Patty |
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| Report du 02 Octobre 2010.Concert de GOTR à Santa Monica |
| Please respect other people's intellectual
property! No reposting any part of this report without
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Thank you.) The Patti Report Ghost of the Robot 2.Oh October 2, 2010 So, full circle-like, I have returned to the beginning…again. Ghost of the Robot (GotR for those few not in the know) is back and WAY better than ever, and I’m back in Report mode! I have no clue how I’m going to be able to convey what Saturday night was like--the words have not been invented yet--but I will try to bring at least a bit of what it was like to have been there. It was a once in a lifetime event--despite it being the second time the band has ’debuted’--and I for one am floating on air to have been one of the few very lucky pups who was there. SJ and I got there pretty early--remembering the old days of competing to be first (or at least early enough) in line so as to get a good viewing spot inside--and spent a long time laughing at ourselves for being so early, while alternately wondering where everyone was. It was so strange to be returned to what was once 14 Below--where GotR originally debuted in 2002--after so much time and metaphorical distance, and remember all the great times we’d had there. The club is now called “Central Social Aid and Pleasure Club”--a ridiculously long and somewhat suggestive name for such a small and innocuous space! It had changed little; other than being mostly black now, it looked much the same, inside and out, with only the UnderOver (OverUnder?) pub section being closed now. It was still tiny and intimate inside; still had the postage-stamp sized stage. Ah, the memories! CharlieDeMars, lead guitarist, was the first to arrive--I didn’t recognize him at all due to major (and musician-appropriate) beardage! (Damn, they’ve grown up a lot from the still-in-High-School kids I met years ago!) OK, more of a goatee, but it totally suited him and it looked good on him. I wasn’t really paying attention as another car pulled in--I was still trying to figure out who the lady with the bearded guy was (having assumed it was a James or GotR fan I should know)--until I heard “PATTI! I’ve missed you!” yelled out. I whipped around, startled, and found it was Kevin McPherson, bassist, arriving and grinning hugely at me! With one of them (I never noticed who’s car he came out of) was Aaron Anderson, drummer. They all came up to me and gave me huge hugs and we chatted a bit, catching up. (Charlie later told me they had all been wondering the night before if I would be there, and seemed genuinely happy to see me. And there I had been, wondering if they would even remember me!). On a side note, Kevin plays bass in the band that backs a Disney up-and-coming female singer, whose name I can’t remember and have never heard of, but who opens for the Jonas Brothers. (Kevin said he would have been worried if I *had* known her! LOL!) Aaron is in another band, Fictionist, out of Utah where he attends BYU, and was surprised I knew of them. He had only heard about this show on Friday, flew out and spent Saturday morning learning all of James’ newer songs. Considering how well he played that night, I was truly gobsmacked that he’d only had such brief rehearsal time, proving what a great musician he is! Within just a few minutes, James arrived, waving at everyone in line (all 15 or so by that time--where *was* everyone?!) as he pulled into the parking lot. I was still there talking to the rest of the band, and when he saw me, he leaned way over and waved enthusiastically at me. He parked, jumped out of the car and made a beeline over to me to give me a huge, warm hug and kiss on the cheek. :) His son, Sullivan, and two other young men got out as well and started loading out gear and talking to the other band members. James spent a few minutes talking to me and some others who‘d come over, then got busy as well. It was fun watching James and Sullivan interact and, like old times, watching the band members interact in general. In spite of the Official GotR Facebook page warning, asking people to not video, I asked Charlie and James if they would let SJ and me video it for them, promising not to post or use it. They were hesitant (the venue had some kind of cost-to-video thing going on) and after some thought and my asking if the management meant the venue’s people or some outside person, they both said “go for it!” Happy me! HOwever, this will come back later as having been a waste of breath (though I did enjoy the conversation, of course. Heh). James wore a black “Riverside Fire Department” t-shirt and blue jeans, and his hair was straight (like, straightened chemically straight) and center-parted, with a few stray wisps falling onto his forehead. Yum. The doors opened finally around 8 PM. I was first inside the actual venue, and found James still futzing with the set up. He looked up as I entered and I smiled and said “Hi James!” again. He grinned and said something along the lines of “Hey Patti! I’m so glad you’re here!” and then leaned out to hug me again, before disappearing behind the stage door. :) I grabbed a prime spot, then secured a place for SJ to sit where she could get a good view of the stage (which turned out to suck once everyone was inside, as they kept moving into her sightline. Sigh). The other band members were also running back and forth and they were selling a bit of ‘left-over’ GotR (and related solo) items of old, plus brand new “Ghost of the Robot 2.0” shirts. (Charlie was mildly annoyed because they were supposed to say “2.Oh” and the shirt place had gotten it wrong.) Center stage, featured prominently, was the late Steven Sellers’ guitar. For those not familiar with GotR history, Steven was guitarist and keyboardist for GotR before his untimely death. (Rock in Peace, Steve--you are/were missed). At 8:30, James suddenly (and with no warning) came onstage and introduced the opening act, the debut of “Electric Gold“…which turned out to be Sullivan and the two young men, PJ and Cody (all about 14 years old) that had arrived with him. They all play guitar and performed 3 instrumental songs, and kicked ass!!! They are some *very* talented boys--none have been playing for over 2 years--and I think they could be huge someday all on their own merit, they were that good. Now all they need is a drummer… :) Shortly after that , GotR took the stage. (There was a birthday party happening afterward that they had to be done by 10 PM for, so they wanted to squeeze in as much as possible, I think!) They did a combination of GotR songs mixed with James’ solo songs--though most of the songs they did were originally written by James, excluding “David Letterman” and “Goodnight Sweet Girl“, plus the cover of a Paul Simon song. The >set list, with some of the commentary as it happened: >This Town James said “You guys, this is being recorded. We’re going to make a live album out of this, if we don’t mess it up. Generations from now, everyone’s going to be talking to each other about this club, on this night, and who was here and who was not, when Ghost of the Robot came back together.” :D He then introduced the band, saying “and I‘m your MC tonight, James Marsters.“ LOL! >Looking at You >Smile Here James broke his D string and after a bit of discussion, they decided he should play Steve Seller’s guitar, which you could see James was very reluctant to do, out of respect, explaining to the audience about Steve. But then they realized he could use one of Electric Gold’s guitars instead, to his immense relief. He made PJ come out and asked him formally in front of everyone if he could use his guitar. PJ kindly said 'yes'. Heh. >Layabout James whispered in a low, sexy-as-hell voice that the next song was very serious, about a very serious feeling, and he was gonna share it with us… >For What I Need >Finer Than Gold (Charlie added harmonica to this, and it was just a perfect accompaniment to the song) >Punkys Dilemma (a cover of a Paul Simon song, which James introduced with ‘we’re gonna break the law now, because we don’t have permission’) The song has whistling at the end and James did his usual stellar whistling. He said they’d argued over him doing it -- Charlie yelled “We won!” -- and James said he'd tried to say something along the lines of “I’m not man enough to whistle, I ain’t gonna whistle, I’m not gonna do it, man”. Charlie then held up this little instrument (kind of like a recorder but with a tiny keyboard instead of holes) and asked if we recognized it and if we knew what was coming next. Someone yelled out “Hot Cross Buns”. James laughed and then said “Free Turkey” just as Charlie proceeded to play “Hot Cross Buns“. LOL! >Angel >Truth is a Heavy Stone >First Love >Goodbye Here James suddenly said, “BTW, Steve Himber isn’t here, so you can photograph at will. All we ask is you please download it to…” and Mr Computer-Challenged then proceeded to completely screw up the FB address for GotR, and Charlie humorously added to the confusion, but we all got the idea and were delighted to be able to photograph openly for once. At this point, Sullivan came onstage, and James said “Cuz this is the first time MY SON Sullivan Marsters has played in a club in L.A. and I would love to document it.” > Sullivan guitar solo which kicked ass! As he watched his son play, James was beaming with pride so hard, I swear it had to be visible from space! He then asked us if we thought Sullivan should do another song with them and at our cheering, Sullivan stayed and played with the big boys! ;) >All That She Wanted It was very different than usual, and James claimed he made a “widdle mistake“, but then Charlie said it was his mistake, not wanting to stop once he gets playing. >Vandals >Moonshot >Too Fast >Dance Slow >Dangerous >David Letterman >Over Now They started to do the ‘leave and return for encore’ thing, but James, being famous for not liking the pretension of that tradition, just stopped and asked if we wanted a couple more. Then the sound guy told them they only had time for one more. (Cowboy Song was on the list but it got skipped. :( I would have loved to see what they did with it, since James sings it a cappella. Sigh, maybe next time...) >Goodnight Sweet Girl Charlie held up Steven Seller’s guitar to the final applause, then the band took a bow together. James' parting words were “That was the beginning.” and gave a giant thumbs up. They then brought out the boys from Electric Gold and took a final bow together. While he was on stage, they kept asking Sullivan “one more? You think you can do one more?” and asking us if we wanted him to do one more…and after he did the five songs with them, when he was getting ready to leave the stage, Charlie tousled his (*very* curly) hair and James leaned over, hugged him and kissed him on the neck. So sweet! Sullivan was very poised, especially for someone so young, playing with a casual competence and skill that belies his youth--very impressive. In my opinion, the best song of the night, musically and just kick-ass good, was their rendition of James’ Blues song “Truth is a Heavy Stone“. Damn those guys can play! :D I also thought “Dance Slow” -- one of my personal favorites -- really benefited from the added backing, though I have always loved it as is when James does it solo. It was fun hearing the well-known and loved older songs--which James has been doing solo these past six years--performed once again with the band behind them, and to hear the two GotR songs I‘ve not heard at all in so long. There was a lot of goofing around and bantering going on between songs that made it such a great time to be part of the audience--I didn‘t post it all, and you can likely find it all on You Tube anyway. It was obvious throughout the show that James was having a blast and it was a delight to see him so happy and relaxed, just enjoying the heck out of the night, being back with the band, and the time spent with his son doing what they both love best. Afterward, everyone came out into the parking lot and did the meet and greet, photos and autographs thing, including the kids. James was ebullient! And I think it gave the younger generation a thrill to be asked for autographs (mine were printed! LOL!) James told me that he was so happy with the way the night turned out; that the crowd was small (maybe 50-75 people all told, because he was worried about the boys getting too nervous. He said they kind of set it up to be that way--the non-advertising and such, I presume--because he hoped those who showed up would be people like me, SJ and Mad Brilliant and the others of the old gang becasue he knew we would be just perfect for their first time out. He mentioned that they were planning future shows at several places like The Mint and The Viper Room. WHOOO!!!! We spent about 45 minutes talking and listening to all the goings on. We finally left after many hugs all around and James was still there, taking pictures and signing autographs, and just having a blast talking to everyone. It’s been six years since the band split up. I think it was a good thing they did--though I was devastated at the time, thinking I’d never see James sing again, silly me!-- as it had grown toxic all around for them, and especially for James. But more so because they were AWESOME! The time has allowed the younger members to grow up and the intervening years have mellowed all of them. The issues that split them up have obviously been worked out and the result was a cohesive group that performed well together and obviously enjoyed being there--it was about making love through music, as James put it, and it really was. It wasn’t flawless--been too long for that--but it was perfect, nonetheless! I love seeing James perform solo, I enjoy his passion for his music so much, but I hadn’t realized how much I missed the fullness of sound that engulfs and moves you when the whole band is playing--even during the slower songs. James was in good form and sounded great, and the band ROCKED! Seeing them together again brought back lots of great memories and I know James is right--I will remember and still be talking about this night for a long time to come. Peace P :) PS: (I posted this on James’ Facebook page, but for those not on there, I‘m repeating this) We also went to the “Caprica” screening the following night. That was fun, though no James (I think he was returning a certain young man and his friends to their Northern Cali home); we did get to meet a few of the cast and creators. SJ and I were joined by Mad Brilliant and Oanimation, and we cheered loudly for James when he showed up onscreen, of course! The show is excellent and I enjoyed the sneak peek ahead. However, I couldn’t help but notice that the PTB posted online just one scene to entice/introduce/advertise the upcoming 1.5 season opener -- a scene featuring James (as Barnabus). It turns out, it’s his only scene in the episode. Hmmm. Guess they’ve realized the star quality, fan-devotion and audience-drawing power of one James Marsters...and it's about time! So say we all! :) |
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