Here I Am Waiting For You

This will be my Fifth Annual Chris Isaak and the Silvertones concert post! My partner in crime, Ceku, and I returned to a venue we visited a couple of years ago. The Pechanga Casino is a small, excellent venue.

We got there and had a bite to eat. The casino has a convenient, inexpensive food court, in addition to their fancier eateries. Ceku got a Bihn Ma sandwich and I had a delicious cheeseburger and fries. Then...time for the concert!

Our seats were fairly far back, but the size of the theater makes it pretty impossible to get a bad seat. Most importantly, we were again on the aisle.  The concert began. There was no opening act, just right on to the good stuff. As always, their energy and engagement with the audience was off the chart. We had already noted where the stage steps were and thought that we were probably on the wrong side to get a pass by if Chris came out into the audience as he always does. But guess what? He was in a real roaming mood and as he was singing I Want Your Love he came towards our section. Everyone was shaking his hand...he got to us and we had our hands out...he shook Ceku's hand (she had the aisle seat proper) but not mine...at that point we thought he was turning to go another way, but he came around the stair railing and slid right on to Ceku's lap! Oh. Em. Gee. He was on her lap and sitting right next to me, coincidentally. I couldn't help reaching over and touching the silky, light blue, embroidered suit he had on. His sleeve was so soft...and his face was so close! It was quite surreal. He said, "Am I heavy?" which Ceku doesn't remember. She might have blacked out a little while all this was going on...understandably! Of course neither of us had our cameras out at that magical moment and I guess it would have been hard to actually capture that moment anyway....what, with it being so close up and all. I don't know what to say. It was very exciting :)

The concert went on after that and was fantastic. They did a lot of their popular favorites, including a section of their Beyond the Sun recordings.  During one song, the amazing guitarist Hershel Yatovitz came out into the audience. He passed just below us and of course I tried to get a photo. It came out like a photo of a beam of light. So. But he's adorable. The band members wore their fancy, bolero looking black suits. The silky, light blue embroidered suit I mentioned was new and looked cooler and lighter than some of the dazzling suits Chris has worn in the past. Still pretty though! And as things wound down, he didn't disappoint us, but changed into his mirrored suit! It is like a disco ball and has to weigh a ton. I love when he wears it. The only thing missing from the experience was the presence of Kenney Dale Johnson, the Silvertones' drummer. He's currently being treated for cancer. The guy they had in was very, very good...but I couldn't help missing Mr. Johnson.

On the way in, Ceku and I had noted where the tour buses were parked. So, after the concert ended, we decided to go stand around near them and see if we could recreate the good luck we had last year in Anaheim. There were a few other people standing around too and they don't seem terribly worried about beating people back or anything. But somehow, after standing there for awhile sneaking glances at the open door of the building, we started to feel kind of stupid. We were like, "What are we going to do? Yell at them? Wave at them?" We decided we'd had enough excitment and headed on home. Another great Chris Isaak experience for me and Ceku.