On the plus side:
- I got to spend time with my good friend Hector
- We went to a fantastic restaurant/bar with tacos so good they made me nostalgic
- Neil played a couple of my favorites that I’ve never heard him do live
Not bad.
On the minus side:
- Because we were told before the show that — surprise! — there would be an aftershow in the tiny, 50-seater venue across the courtyard, and it would be first-come, first-serve, we didn’t stick around for the encore. Neil’s encores tend to be awesome. But we went and made sure we’d have spots inside the tiny wee intimate amazing aftershow.
- We coughed up another $15, which were exchanged for drink tickets, and went and found a spot right in front of the stage. Then we thought it best to cash our drink tickets in immediately, so as not to get up during the show.
- They stopped letting people in. And then the door guy announced that Neil was exhausted and would not be playing after all.
- Since I’d traded my tickets for a glass of wine and a bottle of beer (which was, naturally, handed to me sans bottlecap), I was told I wouldn’t get my $15 back.
- BUT! I would be put on the list for Tuesday night’s aftershow! Provided I shelled out money for another ticket, of course, since I only had a ticket to Monday’s show.
- Margaret Cho was, rather inexplicably, hanging out in the bar alone, glaring at everyone.
- We left the venue and returned to my car…which now proudly bore on its windshield a $55 parking ticket.
Really bad. Really, really disappointing. If you’ve ever taken a look at “The List” up there in my nav bar, you’ll have seen that one of the items on there is “Sing onstage with Neil Finn”–so you can imagine how much closer I thought I was to that experience. (He’s quite audience-friendly and given to granting requests.) To be fair, his exhaustion was evident from the moment he took the stage — and anyway, it’s hard to fault someone with a 20+ year track record of giving the stage his all. He’ll be back in LA at some point, and I’ll try again. But man, Largo should have had the decency to refund my money, especially considering that most of the other people in there (and there were only maybe 20 of us) did have tickets for Tuesday’s show, and weren’t losing anything in the deal.
Man. Man! What a rotten deal. As the great Nina Simone sang: It Be’s That Way Sometimes.
Aww geez, girl. No wonder you’re in a bad mood today. Just keep thinking of the tacos.
Thanks, friend. It was more than that event, but it definitely got me on the slippery downward slope!
Mmmm, tacos. They were GOOD.
Sorry you had such a bad experience with the whole after show thing. I think Margaret was probably just as disappointed as you. There was definitely a strange vibe that night. The show was great, but before the show I was taking a quick snap of the “stage door” next to where we parked. I could hear the soundcheck, which made me smile. As I aimed my iPhone at the door, a Largo person appeared and pretty much accused me of trying to record the sound check. Great.
Hey, John — weird vibe, indeed. Ugh. Usually the Largo folk are incredibly friendly. Must have just been a really off night. Thanks for stopping by!