Hi All,
Just got back from the Olympics (actually I'm writing this on the plane, so I'm somewhere over Missouri now). Anyway, what an event! I'm sure most of you saw some of the taped footage last night on NBC but I don't think it conveyed just how fucking cold it was there. Imagine being at a concert in like 20 degree weather. It was nuts. Dave was all bundled up (I got some photos of the stage and of the big screens they had, hopefully they'll come out alright and I'll post them) and he really looked miserable for the first couple of songs before he got into it.
First a couple of words on the venue. It looked like it sat about 10-15k people. I don't know for sure, just a guess. In any event, it was rather small and pretty intimate. The show opened with Bob Saget, of all people, sort of warming up the audience (poorly) and playing some games like they had these big balls the crowd had to roll around and some dance they wanted everyone to do. That part was pretty cheesy. Then they dimmed the lights and lit the little torch they had on stage. That was pretty cool (they ran it in to the stadium from outside). Then they did the medals awards. That was really really fun. It was awesome to see how happy the athletes were. The guy that won the Silver for the speed skating from USA had tears in his eyes when they raised the flags and that got the whole audience going - it was really a unique thing to see. So after the awards ceremony they're setting things up (the stage was all on wheels like at the little musical festivals and everything - it all ran like clockwork) and the PA guy is like "Now, the moment you have all been waiting for...." And everyone starts cheering, going crazy.. Then he goes, "Please welcome on to the stage... BOB SAGET!" Everyone was like "blah" and sort of booed and it was pretty fun. He told some lame jokes about Full House and talked to some kids while I guess they got the TV stuff ready, and then the band came out.
They looked cold as hell. Dave had what looked to be leather gloves on with the finger tips cut off so he could play guitar. He has a big-ass heavy turtleneck on (or maybe it was just a scarf - kind of hard to see).Carter didn't seem to be minding the cold and Boyd had a hat on that I swear was covering up his eyes the whole time, but I guess you don't have to be able to see to play. Oh, and Butch was there :-). No ladies.
In any event, the band opened with Too Much. Nice version although they were still tinkering with the sound at this point and the volume was a little low. After the song "TURN IT UP" cheers started and they seemed to comply for the next song. I'm forgetting the order now, but the songs they played after this were: When the World Ends (the lighting dudes I do not think were Dave's or they didn't have complete control over the lights because they did the cutout at the end of the song but not completely - same deal with WTYS and "knock knock on the door") Space Between, Bartender, I Did It, What Would You Say, So Much To Say --> Ants and Watchtower. The SMTS --> ASTB --> Ants was phat. I really enjoyed that. Dave was smiling the whole time through SMTS --> ASTB, so maybe we'll see some more of that segue this tour.
I'd say overall the crowd was mixed. Our entire section was sitting down but this was mostly because we got our tickets through a friend that works for an Olympic Aid volunteer organization. The people that got these tickets in this section were those that gave money to the foundation. So you had mostly people in their 40s and 50s who's idea of enjoying a concert is sitting down. Didn't bother me at all, except it looked a little funny to look around and see the entire venue grooving except for our section ;-). The people down front seemed to really be enjoying it although they had the floor sectioned off into different sections that didn't fill up. So you had like section A that fits maybe 20 rows only filled to row 15. Then section B would be rows 20-40 and it was only full to row 33 or so. So when you looked at the floor there were big pockets of wasted, empty space. The other thing was that security was unbelievable for this show. And everything else in Salt Lake City, I might add. We had to wait 45 minutes in line to go through security (metal detector, pat down, all that) and everyone was entering the venue at the same time. Better safe than sorry but it was a big mess. Anyway I'm gonna go back to the in-flight movie.. Bandits with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton.. not bad so far. I'm sure I'm leaving shit out but if you have any questions, let me know. I hope to have those pictures up soon.
Take care guys.
Marcus
MARCUS' STORY - 2002 Winter Olympics; Salt Lake City, Utah; Date: 2/9/02
