Alright - So here we go. What can I say. It was a dream come true, with a little confusion. My tickets didnt come in the mail, but they said they WERE mailed, so I didnt fret, I just told them to put them at will call. Wife and I went riding around Jacksonville, and as we did, a JSO officer pulled up behind me and flipped the siren...so I pulled over and slowed down, but he wasn't pulling me over, (we were three blocks from the arena) he was escorting a chain of limos into downtown jacksonville. I slowed down and looked over, and teh window was down on the first one and I said to my wife "HOLY SHIT THAT'S PAUL RODGERS". She said "no it's not, and looked over, and he smiled and waved at her". My wife almost passed out. And I almost wrecked the car...the next limo...window down....yup. Brian May. Smiling and Waving. The third limo I assume was roger taylor but no window down....and there were two or three behind it....so yeah...that was worth the trip by itself. We've convinced ourselves NOBODY will believe that it happened to us..but I swear on my future children, it DID. I got to the Vet and picked up my tickets, and they were wrong...way wrong...and I argued about it....noting that I payed over 300 dollars for far better seats...and they showed me a receipt where I bought the cheap seats....and showed me where they only took 66.00 X 2 out of my account. I showed them the receipt from the ticketmaster site, which I was told to bring with me....that showed floor seats...and they said "sorry..." so I called the bank hotline and asked how much was taken..sure enough...web site fucked it up...so, accepted this with a little bitching and said "fuck it, I'm at a queen show, nothing's ruining this nite" So at 7:30, I prepared to rock. The tickets said 7:30. No Queen.
8:00 - No Queen - 8:15 - No Queen - 8:30 - No Queen....now I was perturbed. a LOT of people in our section were irritated to hell and back, and I'm finding this out because a LOT of people bought floor seats, and got shifted unknowingly. Then a lady from the arena comes up to our section and says "you all want free upgrades?" - HELL YEAH! we took that shit and ran. Turns out a section of seats stage right, was suppsoed to be blocked off for something, but wasn't, so they opened them up, and we got shifted over there.....CLOSER TO THE STAGE THAN OUR FLOOR SEATS......just as couple rows back off the floor. NICE!! AND...to boot....we were only charged on our credit cards for nosebleed seats. Hell Yeah. Error in our favor! SWEET! So at about 8:40 (I guess, give or take)....it happened. Lights out...."It's a beautiful day" playing....awesome...paul rodgers appeared dead center in the crowd on the offshoot stage singing acapella "reaching out"...(which I'm just now hearing for the first time in it's original form thanks to the kindness of another QZ member) then the man himself....Brian May...on stage, rips into Tie Your MOther Down. I was BLOWN THE FUCK AWAY. That was it. That was what I waited 15 years to see. Worth every single solitary second. Dragon Attack followed, classic funk Queen..awesome.,...and then Fat Bottomed Girls. Take Love, a new song, rocked immensely, the first song ever written by "queen and paul rodgers" and it's what you'd expect if you blended, free, queen, and bad company. It was good. Crazy Little thing called love Followed....and Queen Experience of a Lifetime number one was reached. I was in a crowd of people that got to yell "Ready Freddie" . Then Brian took center stage and sang acoustic versions of '39 and Love of My Life (Awesome...I teared up during the second one). Hammer To Fall ane Feel Like Makin Love followed and led into Roger's Drum solo....that man...is a fucking GOD...I swear to you. Then, of course "I'm In Love With My Car". Brian's solo..same damn solo for the past 30 years, I swear, I knew it note for note, and I loved every damn
Oh yeah, I almost forgot....
I'm delivering video. Here's the issue. For some reason every video clip I took recorded full audio and only half the video...which is irritating.....but I'm working on it. As opposed to cutting it down and losing half of the good audio, I'm just giving it to you as it is. So when it goes black, realize it;s not my fault, but it IS there. The first two clips you see are the shitty seats they moved us to....then from there on out it's the good seats...and yeah, that's my scratchy voice (beer laden and half gone) singing on some of those songs. Screw it...I was drunk and happy...so there Anyway
Here you go...in all it's glory...a queen concert...full audio, half video and as soon as i can figure out why it cut out, I'll fix the video link
>>Wife and I went riding around Jacksonville, and as we did, a JSO officer pulled up behind me and flipped the siren...so I pulled over and slowed down, but he wasn't pulling me over, (we were three blocks from the arena) he was escorting a chain of limos into downtown jacksonville. I slowed down and looked over, and teh window was down on the first one and I said to my wife "HOLY SHIT THAT'S PAUL RODGERS". She said "no it's not, and looked over, and he smiled and waved at her". My wife almost passed out. And I almost wrecked the car...the next limo...window down....yup. Brian May. Smiling and Waving. The third limo I assume was roger taylor but no window down....and there were two or three behind it....so yeah...that was worth the trip by itself. We've convinced ourselves NOBODY will believe that it happened to us..but I swear on my future children, it DID.<<
This is classic. I'm laughing out loud thinking that the only thing that would have been better was if they had been riding in vintage Cadillac convertibles, tops down and perched on the top of the back seat, waving like prom queens (elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist) all the way to the gig.
Thanks for sharing this one.
Yeah, not likely....but what was wierd..was it was three hours before showtime, and they weren't yet at the arena...you see all these tour itinerary pages and riders....and they talk about "this or that on tap and cold 12 hours before showtime blah blah blah" and here it was 4:30 in the afternoon, and these guys are just strolling into town in their Lincoln's like they were sightseeing. Shows you how down to earth these guys really are...
I was too busy watching my wife cry to hear it. Must've been opposite side of me...I kinda wasn't watching the people around, if ya know what i mean...there WAS someone worth watching center stage, and all LOL