BlogSport

It's a kind of magic

What an amazing day. As I type this all my windows are open, there's a good breeze blowing and it's SEVENTY-SIX degrees outside. Sunny, warm....spring! I just demolished a belgian waffle and corned beef hash at Metro 29 with the family and am now settling in for an afternoon of food coma and napping. And to top it all off...


THE QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS SHOW FUCKING ROCKED. Hence why the family (sister Kathy, bro-in-law Billy, nieces Shelby and Samantha) was in town. We went to the insert-telecom-giant-name-here Center last night for a 3-hour extravaganza. They mixed up the line-up: a little Queen, a little Bad Company--and while it was nowhere near what it would have been with Freddie Mercury it was still a great show. Brian May? Is a GOD. Seriously. The man is old and a little rickety (and at one point he misjudged the stage and FELL INTO the hole in the floor through which Paul Rodgers was rising to the stage avec grand piano) but his playing is still so nimble and I have never heard anyone bring his particular brand of sound out of a guitar. He did a solo thing at one point, singing Freddie's Love of My Life, playing a twelve-string guitar and it just...was transcendent. It reminded me quite a bit of Bill Frisell and was astonishingly beautiful.

They managed a really deft mix of remembering Freddie without being too maudlin. During "The Show Must Go On" (sung by Roger Taylor) they showed footage of the group at a tea ceremony in Japan in the 70s and I won't lie: there were tears. Bohemian Rhapsody brought the house down...they darkened the arena and started the song and you KNEW immediately that it was Freddie--they were showing footage of him from an old live show--and when the crowd realized it was him they stopped singing along...literally hushed themselves to hear him...and then got back into it a few measures in. I was just emailing Kristin that I don't usually get too worked up about entertainers (barring the occasional crush) but whenever I hear Queen, or think of Freddie, I genuinely miss him. All the music he could have made, and the power of his voice and performing presence. Still, 15 years later, such a loss.

As an aside: is anyone else freaked out at how steep the upper concourse is at MCI/Verizon? A man in our section fell sidelong down several rows last night. No kidding. That cant plus beer? Dangerous.

posted by ADD @ 09:18