Concrete Blonde Experience 2001: By Snow

Concrete Blonde Experience 2001

Nov. 8th, 2001 * Stockton, CA * San Joaquin Delta College
Let's see what it says here on the flyer...
greatest Hits a multi-media installation by Johnette Napolitano LH Horton Jr. Gallery Nov. 8th - Dec. 20th, 2001 Opening reception 5 - 8 PM with Concrete Blonde live in acoustic concert Nov. 8th @ 9 PM Tillie Lewis Theatre
Wednesday, Nov. 7th:
Michael and I flew to Oakland in the evening. Have I mentioned that flying is a nightmare these days? Well it is. I am weary of it. We found our hotel and then we found a place to have dinner.
Thursday, Nov. 8th, 2001
I went to pick up a rental car in the morning. I got breakfast for us and then spent the bulk of the afternoon reading. Michael got some work done via the web. About 3 PM we got into the car and started driving to Stockton which was about 70 miles away. Directions I got online were pretty good, but early evening traffic was lousy. It was a little after 5 PM when we finally got to San Joaquin Delta College. The campus was a labyrinth, but we eventually found the gallery and then the door into it.

The gallery show:
	This gallery show started with one piece that Johnette Napolitano did for the cover of Steve Wynn's album 'Here Come the Miracles'. Later she decided to expand it into a whole gallery show.
	Turntables painted gold, their cords painted red and a red heart smeared on the front.
	Next to each of them is a small slip of white paper (that is nearly impossible to see in the photos here) with a song lyric quoted. Each quote has the word heart in it. 'Everybody knows it's coming apart. Take one last look at this sacred heart before it blows...' -- leonard cohen

The slightly off-center piece of the show was this stack of speakers with a trickle of red paint down the front of them. A functioning turntable at their base playing an album that was a scientific recording about the heart and its function. And to the right side is a scattering of more song quotes.		I walked around and looked at each piece and read the quote next to it, and by the time I had come around full circle it had sunk in. I realized that this show has to be seen as a whole. More then the sum of its parts, and all that. It made a distinct impact.

Simply Amazing!		I had to get a picture of Michael here grabbing a piece of the cake with a big heart frosted on it.	Here's me checking out those speakers and the extra quotes scattered on the floor.
The arrival of Johnette Napolitano and Jim Manky at the gallery came after we had been there about an hour, and were just about to give up on the idea of the artist making an appearance at the show. Standing around like giddy fans, too shy to approach her is what we did for the next hour. We are not pushy fans. We can worship from afar, but we wanted to say hi, and tell her how far we had come for the show, and maybe get a picture. But within minutes she was surrounded.
	Meeting Jennifer and William who were in charge of the gallery show was really nice. That's William on the right in the photo above with Johnette and Jim Manky.
A brief introduction to Johnette before she is wisked away is all we got. Or at least we were afraid that was going to be it. But Jennifer said to stick around after the concert later, because there would be an informal reception where we would have another chance. Finding the theatre where the show was to be held was a little difficult in the maze of this campus, but not impossible. There was a little over an hours wait before they let us into the theatre. So we sat on cold concrete and chatted a little with some of the other folks waiting. Front row seats were our reward for sitting on the cold concrete for an hour to be near the head of the line.

An amazing show, better then I even expected! I took a few pictures, but not so many that it got in the way of enjoying the show.

Michael calls Lauri on his cell phone and doesn't say anything, just leaves the line open all during 'Everybody Knows'. Later when we got to talk to her, she said it took a few seconds to figure out what was going on but then she really enjoyed it. Music and the vocals were tight. Johnette was funny, the new songs blew me away. The best was 'Take Me Home' which replayed in my head for a week afterwards.
The quiet reception after the concert...
...was known to at least half of the people from the concerts audience. Which had been maybe 200 - 250 people. Not sold out to our surprise. Johnette and Jim sit right next to us when they arrive for the reception.

So I was the first one to get an autograph.	But as soon as I did a line formed between Michael and Johnette. We stayed to listen and watch as they signed autographes and chatted with fans.	When the crowd died down and the line was gone Michael finally got a chance to talk to Johnette.
At about midnight we find our way back out of the maze to our rental car and start the drive back to Oakland. All in all, this was an amazing experience. Definitely worth traveling from Seattle, WA to Stockton, CA for.
Friday, Nov. 9th, 2001
Four hours of sleep, return the car, the nightmare line of at least 500 people at the airport, just to get through security. Barely make the plane. Two hours in the air and we're home. Sort of. Our ride was a little late picking us up, but thats okay, the hell of travel was past for this trip. Thank you to all the friendly people we met at the show. ~Snow Dragonwyck

Added later: I saw Concrete Blonde in Portland and Seattle the end of January 2002.Their new album was released Jan 15th, 2002 and I have a new favorite song.

If you are interested in all of this, you may want to check out CB's official website, where they are posting tour dates and photos, and Johnette is keeping an online tour diary.