Stand back and watch me shine - The Who in LA

I felt it coming on last night. Pete started walking off the stage.

My mind panicked. "when am I going to see them again?" He walked back out on stage and my heart leapt - hooray, he's coming back!".

I felt like I had my own personal show from Pete last night. I was in the front row three people to the right of him. He was very engaged with the crowd. And with me, even. Many times I looked back behind me at Ozzie with that "did you see what he just said to me!" look on my face. It's a little like the even-tanned thing. I had started the show all the way down in front of Pino and Simon, with Bob and Sean. But I was disconnected from Ozzie and Pete. My actual seat was there in front of Pete and that was where I wanted to be. So I took the long journey down the back of the front row and got there about the end of The Seeker. Home at last:-)

I'm on the plane now back to Denver. Re-entry is fucking difficult.

McKendree, I missed you last night. After the show we invoked your spirit as we talked about the front row dynamics with the pockets of civilians. Really funny. You should have seen us when we heard the
first 2 notes of the Naked Eye chord. Both ends and the middle of the front row were jumping up and down like maniacs hooping, hollering and waving. Nobody else knew what we were on about but the other pockets of hard cores in the pit.

There were so many ways it felt like a reunion of Las Vegas/Hollywood Bowl/Irvine 2002. Really fucking intense at times and so many of the very same people. Strangely joyful and bittersweet all at the same time.

We had the same security staff from the previous night which made
every thing go much smoother, on Pete's side, anyway. Not so much in front of Roger.

There were many highlights. Maybe the biggest was Pete at the end saying "you know, if I had a Ferrari, and I'm not saying if I do (slyly smiling), this man has paid for it.". And he walked over and shook our Eddie Ryan's hand. Then said "every show!!" A few minutes later one of the assistants walked out on stage and handed Eddie a pass. That was beautiful. You should have seen the look on Eddie's face when Pete shook his hand in front of all 7000 people. I'll never
forget it.

Pete launching his red strat was another. There is something about
'possibly angry Pete' that is riveting to watch. As long as he's not
angry with me, she said codependently.

I'm not ready to come back to earth. I'm really not. I wish this flight was 6 hours instead of 2.

Lots of friends in the crowd. Really almost unbelievable. Last night, the wonderful KC was our host at the preshow. KC and gf Debbie were great to be with and terribly generous. I met KC in 2002 Vegas. We had such a great time together in the midst of all the JAE chaos and I was really thrilled to be sharing much of this with him.

Of course, there was the inevitable David Barling sighting :-)

I need to talk with Mark W. about self-publishing a book because that's the only way I'll get all the details of this weekend out of my head. I expected it to be fun, but nowhere near as fun as it was.

Other highlights of the show, for me, were Sister Disco. Pete laughed
at my exuberance in the beginning of it, which made me quite satisfied with myself. While I know that it really is all about Seth, for just a few seconds that show was all about me :-)

Also, I took a few liberties after the show, Seth. As the very lovable Bobby D/'every word guy' was out with us afterwords, I realized we had
known Eddie Ryan's nickname all this time but didn't realize it. It's 'every show guy' !!!!! And this morning, we bestowed Ozzie with the nickname 'it's all your
fault guy'!!! The world is now as it should be.

One of the great things about being up close is you can see all the interaction between Pete and Rabbit, Pete and Zak, etc. There were a few impromptu changes last night that were interesting to watch. Especially with Rabbit during MG (I believe) when Pete brought in a
new 'brave man-stupid fucking war' rap. He had to coordinate a bit with Rabbit to get it set up.

Pete was also a bit more articulate about the rest of the band
tonight. He kinda stumbled over it the night before. It felt right to get it straight. I think Rabbit's second marriage is doing him a lot of good. Both nights he looks liked a blissed out zen master. Rock on, Jody.

One of my favorites show moments is watching Pete goof on Roger at the end of the show. Last night he
was hilarious when Roger said 'it's a tough job but somebody's got to do it'. Pete kinda rolled his eyes and did a little girly 'hey I'm jogging around the stage' move that fucking cracked me up and really made me wish I was a bootlegger. We need footage of that! Roger had been running around in a small circle over and over during
'Won't Get Fooled Again', which had made me laugh all on its own in the first place.

We're flying over the Grand Canyon at the moment. It's a beautiful
site. After a great Who weekend like this, I marvel over some of the delights of life on earth. I'd say The Who and the Grand Canyon are right up there near the very top. Maybe the only thing higher is seeing my kids grow up. The Who is a direct ticket to spiritual ecstasy for me. Sparks, anyone? (KC said, re those of us in the sparkly shirts, 'it's Sparks, not sparkles!!!)

I started falling to pieces a bit during Naked Eye. Pete's verse has such deep resonance in my soul. To be maybe two feet from him as he sings it, well, I guess that's why I do any of this. One reason, anyway. I was having flashbacks to the late 70's and early 80's, when I was deep into my 'holding-onto-Townshend-music-for-dear-life' period. I know, to some that makes me almost a newbie but those were some formative years and that's when I latched on for life. As our Relayer Cynthia says 'that's why I chose Pete for life'. That was repeating in my brain all weekend.

Once Pete said 'I'm flattered by Trish's attention' regarding me. Last night I thought, hey, maybe he really is. I don't know, but I am quite flattered by his and absolutely honored to be within spitting distance of it :-)

To everyone, this weekend was nirvana for me. I love connecting with you all (my version of fucking).

trrish
Lafayette, Colorado

ps. The song going through my mind on the plane home is Rachel's 'Shine'. Something about last night made me think maybe I still can. Maybe that's what we all really want. To let the divine shine through us. I saw a lot of that this weekend. I'm looking at you Mark W,,
Ozzie, Bob, Eddie, Sean, John Ryan, KC, Corkface, Rhi, Jess, Max,
Tess, Shari, Matt from LV, Whobabe Erika, Linda, Mike R, Tim B.. And
especially Kane from Australia.

and you, and you,and you, and you. You, too, Meg!

Sent by my IPhone, who's also in charge of the spelling.