My adventure begins with a cross-border plane flight of over 3000 kilometers to see the one and only Rocket Man for 2 concerts in one week.
As another reader has already submitted a detailed account of the Saturday show at The Pond, I'll try and fill in the gaps on the Friday show.
The Friday show was amazing! This was my 3rd Elton concert and the atmosphere was out of this world. The crowd was, to describe it best, randy. While the crowds at my previous 2 concerts (Minneapolis/Fargo) were into the show, they paled in comparison to Anaheim. These people wanted to rock!
First, the set. In order Elton played:
Circle of Life Grey Seal Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Honky Cat Tiny Dancer Levon IGTWTCITB IDWGONYLT DLTSGDOM Daniel Rocket Man Roy Rogers Croc Rock Your Song (solo) Recover Your Soul (solo) Mona Lisa's & Mad Hatters Part I (solo) Philadelphia Freedom Simple Life The One Sad Songs Something About The Way I'm gonna be a teenage idol Bitch Is Back Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting Encore #1: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Great Balls of Fire Encore #2: Bennie & The Jets
Elton wore a black suit with a multi-colored suit and purple tinted sunglasses (similar to those from Face To Face). He changed into shorts for the 2nd Encore.
Some random items about the concert. Elton intro-ed Roy Rogers as someone from his childhood who he admired. I really enjoyed hearing this song and have found myself humming it ever since! Your Song was dedicated to Taupin and the fans. Elton dedicated Something About The Way to people who were on dates and may get lucky later on (to quote he said "you never know..." hee! hee!). Circle of Life had some nice lighting effects (a lot of oranges/yellows) and the screen showed Disney shots from The Lion King. Rocket Man featured many space shots on the screen and some interesting space sound effects were incorporated into the song. This was a nice surprise as I was getting tired of hearing Rocket Man live. The solo songs were reallly beautiful. This is where Elton shines and I would love to hear him play a total solo set (a la France concert last year).
In a desperate attempt to get to the front I took the advice of another Rower and made my move after the first encore. Essentially, before the concert I established which section would get me the closest access to the left side of the stage. As I had a floor seat (way back) and the concert was/could be over, security was only concerned with my having a floor seat. So, I was able to manoever myself fairly close to the front without much difficulty. I did note however that on Saturday, security was much tighter but I was able to move up to the front of the second section of the floor (thus being as close to Elton as never before!). Unfortunately I was unable to locate the fan upgraders either night.
For those of you who have Citibank/Band connections, I noticed that people were wearing pink triangles (Fri) and yellow triangles (Sat) to gain backstage access to the concerts. I almost cried when I saw people leaving with triangles before the show had even ended...what a waste!!
As I have not seen this noted before, the following is a complete list of merchandise available at the Anaheim concerts. Please bear with me as the the list is long - I hope this helps some of you.
As a whole, my little adventure to LA was amazing and one that I will never forget. The people of Orange County/LA were very nice.
Finally I want to thank my fellow Rowers whose concert updates allowed me to secure 2 floor seats to the concerts at the Pond.
Walter.
Return to the concert details.