How was the show??? I keep hoping they'll come back here - but they haven't.

My brother-in-law sat next to Thom on a bus once, though.

That is really freaking cool.

Very, very cool. Wasn't the light show amazing?

Oh my Jesus, that's a lot of portable toilets.

I could write a long screed about the utter incompetence of the security and crowd control and the fucktards/fratboys in front of the stage at Vancouver but I'll spare you. And I ended up in the bleachers with my son, his ex-gf, two other of his friends, and five of mine, and all was well.

And the Seattle show was fucking sublime. And I was on the rail, right in front. Bliss.

Btw, re: Seattle-- if you scroll through the picture gallery at this review, picture #11 shows my friends Sarah, Brittany, and Cheryl (and my arm, in the lacy white sweater). It kind of sums it all up.

I should've gone for Seattle tickets. Ah well.

Vancouver was a paid gig for me, so I was wandering in the bleachers and crowd for a bit, and then for about the last half of the set, I was on the roof above the bleachers - it's easily my favorite spot to watch shows at T-Bird. The caretaker at Thunderbird knows and likes me, so if I'm working a show it's instant roof access. Last year, I got to watch a chunk of the Virgin Festival, and every time I worked an Arts County Fair I made a point of getting up there for a set.

As for security/crowd control: as someone who's worked on/put on shows in that stadium for some years now (since I was 17!), I can safely say that part of the problem is the magnitude of the event. The company used is the only one in town big enough to handle it, and they have to dig pretty deep into their reserves to do so, so every powertripping faux-police roidhead is out on the show, as well as (on the opposite end) a bunch of mostly spaced-out lumps who're there to do the least work possible. I've sat through meetings and done in depth safety planning with the heads of the company and they know their stuff, but they get stuck with the worst of their staff when they're about to be the most visible. The smaller companies aren't much better; I could name names and provide reputations but that won't get anyone anywhere.

Also, yeah, the crowd was a jerkbucket; I was watching the mosh pit through a 200mm zoom lens and wondering what the hell was going on there.