Keep on Swingin'

Yesterday evening my friend Ceku and I attended our fourth Chris Isaak and the Silvertones concert. Well, she's seen them more than four times...but it was the fourth summer in a row that we've gone to a Chris Isaak concert together.

The venue was excellent. We went to the Grove in Anaheim and it was set up dinner theater style. They did, in fact, serve dinner up until a half hour before the show started at 8 pm. The food was quite lovely. I am a poor person who doesn't go to fancy eateries, so it seemed expensive to me, but it really wasn't at all out of line or anything.  I ended up getting this beautiful little platter of soft cheeses, proscuitto, those little dried breads, and an apple. It came with a sampler of Firestone beers including a Pale Ale, Double Barreled, and Port. Plus, a nice heavy Firestone glass to keep.  Perfect.

The dinner theater seating was also fun because it was very easy and natural to visit with your tablemates.  We sat with two very nice men, who may or may not have been a couple. They were so friendly and nice.  Right before the show a couple of other groups arrived at the table. There was an older couple, who were very friendly and were just getting into Chris Isaak, as well at a trio of friends who seemed to attend a lot of concerts.

An example of my mad concert pichur taking skillzzz.

The show was amazing. I've never been disappointed. These guys tour fairly continually, are great showmen and outstanding musicians. I mean, to me Chris Isaak has one of the most beautiful voices going. His band, the Silvertones, consists of guitarist Hershel Yatovitz, bassist Roly Salley, and drummer Kenny Dale Johnson, along with keyboardist Scotty Plunkett, and Rafael Padilla (King of the Congas). The set was a mix of their catalog, with a focus on their most current album, which features their versions of classic Sun Records recordings. As we'd hoped, Chris Isaak did his thing where during one song he comes way, way out into the audience. Ceku, the ticketmaster, always tries to get us aisle seats with a guess to where he might come up. This time he was really close! That was pretty thrilling :)  They put on a nice long show...close to a full 2 hours. Ah, heaven.

After the show, we got some coffee samples and walked to the car. Ceku didn't want us in the car with rogue beverages. She does have a very fancy car! We decided to kill some time by walking toward where we could see the tour bus parked. We thought maybe we would be able to see some of the band members heading out. So, we stood at this little fence with a few other people and stared. Then we thought we saw Hershel.."Is that Hershel? I think it is! Oh my gawd!" He came along pulling his little rolling suitcase toward the bus. Some of the people along the fence started calling to him and we were so surprised when he came over! He hugged these two women standing next to us..."Nice to see you guys again. Oh yes, we'll be there tomorrow too, front row!" Who are these people??? Well, obviously people with plenty of time, money, and a love for good music. He didn't really stop to talk to us, but we still said hi as he trundled past us :) Next thing we know we see Kenny coming along with his little rolling suitcase! He was trailed by Chris himself, who apparently is not required to tote his own rolley bag :)  Kenny came right over to the fence and said, "Oh, I guess I'll start over here at the front..." So we watched as he made his way along the fence, stopping to talk to people. Again, special love for the lucky groupies next to us. He did stop to talk to Ceku and I, asking us where we'd come from and mentioning that he was going home Friday. I said it seemed like they didn't get home often and he said he hadn't been there since June 27. He was really lovely and cordial....and out of the corner of our eyes, we were watching to see it our true love, Chris, would talk to everyone or only the specials. Kenny moved on down the line and suddenly there was Chris Isaak right in front of us. I shook his hand and gazed at his pretty eyes and his boxer's nose. His attention moved right to my lovely friend Ceku. She a beautiful woman AND she had this picture of her dog Zadie on her phone! She began talking about her dog and asking about his old dog, who is apparently called Rodney. They hit it off over their mutual love of dogs! I stood there all duh...the Ceku asked me to take their picture and thrust her iPhone at me. Big mistake.

 Hand me those touch screen things and I get all Clem Kaddiddlehoppered out...what's this here thing do? Oh noes, my fingers done sent this onta that wrong screen!

 I tried and somehow I was on video and couldn't get back to photographs...finally Ceku grabbed the phone and took the photo herself. It was a bit blurry, but there is only so long you can hold up a superstar for a photo, hear me?  We thanked Chris again, told him we loved the show and off he went. It would have been a perfect moment if I wouldn't have been so clumsy :)

Back to the car all breathless. We were so excited. I could tell Ceku was a bit pissed about the lost photo opportunity...all I could do was apologize. Today I sent her a link to a way you can extract a still from a video. The video is actually funny. You can see them with their faces together and my dumb voice going "Did I get it?" I think you hear Chris saying something like, "She's texting this to your mom." So it wasn't a total loss.

All in all, it was a great evening with a very unexpected ending. I can't wait until our next Chris Isaak and the Silvertones event.