Monday, August 23, 2010

Photos: Crowded House @ Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay

Perhaps you remember that back in April, I posted the schedule for Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay. I knew there were a few shows I hope to catch- Broken Bells, The Comedians of Chelsea Lately, Bill Maher and a couple others. My wish list might not have been completely fulfilled, but when I found out on Friday that I was going to get to see Crowded House, I was ecstatic. Still, I didn't want to get too excited because things happen and sometimes guestlists have issues, and being a Sunday show, I knew there was a chance I'd be shit out of luck and have nobody to call if that was the case.

Fortunately I reached out and in the end, I'm not sure who made the magic happen, but when I arrived to the venue, I not only got tickets to the show, but my photo pass as promised as well as VIP passes. I met Oliver, who works for Universal Music Group, for a band meet and greet. We met with Brett who works for the Concord label (who was AWESOME, by the way) who escorted us backstage to meet Crowded House before their show.

Everyone in the band was kind and gracious, and though it wasn't an interview, they fielded our questions like how they pick their setlist, how they feel about LA, what they thought about Bob Lefsetz gushing about their show. Matt, the drummer, seemed intrigued by my name, asking if there were any songs about "Rosemary". At first they thought we'd won a contest, but when we explained that I'm a blogger and had been invited, they didn't shy from asking about my site and what I do. (What is it exactly that I do?) We took a group photo, then I took a band photo, and they excused themselves...Lawrence Arabia was mid-set and Crowded House still had to create a setlist for the night. Neil said they'd play just around two hours, so we let them get to work and went to find our seats.


For more about the show, photos, and setlist, click 'keep on reading'.

It's no secret that Humphrey's quite possibly has the most uncomfortable seating known to mankind, so instead of going to our seats, we attempted to sit along the wall on the bay side of the venue. Seeing that the area was full, and that our tickets were all separate, we sought out another plan. I asked a security guard if we were allowed on a balcony near the soundboard in the back, and with our VIP passes, we were, so that's where we enjoyed the show. And seriously, we enjoyed the show. Turns out that Brett is not just a label rep but a total fan of the band, so we all sang our lungs out, trying to keep our chatty excitement to a minimum, and absorbed two hours of Crowded House. There were some beautiful crowd singalongs. There were funny banter moments. There were some tasty beverages served up by our lovely friends who waitress at the venue. And then more singalongs. The band served up a lovely mix of songs from all of their records and there was so much music packed in that it was hard to be upset if they didn't play this song or that. In the end, it was a beautiful night along the San Diego bay and the concert easily goes down as one of my highlights of the year.






















































































3 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice photos. I could not believe how many times security went up to you while you were shooting. They are a bit overbearing at Humphrey's.

Daye619 said...

Such a wonderful evening Ro. Thanks for letting me tag along to meet one of my heroes. :)

Rosemary Bystrak said...

It was great having you along, Daye. Even though you were "that guy" ;)

Shari-
thanks. I usually introduce myself to security so they don't hassle me but I didn't this time and the result was each of them telling me to stop. Probably didn't help that the photo pass was a deep purple and on my leg. No biggie. I'm just glad that ultimately the band and the fans won and everyone was able to dance and enjoy the show.

rosey