Armen's DC thing review-

review of last night
Posted by: Armen (205.156.184.---)
Date: September 21, 2004 09:37AM

and who says perseverance doesn't pay. here you go. details of yesterday. as has been said many times i work 1/2 a block from the ritz. around 12:30 i got the notion to head over to the ritz to see if i could run into bobby or mickey. checked out the restaurant, bar and the ballroom & no luck. head back to the office. at 3:30 our office had it's monthly bs recognition meeting, decide to head back to the ritz instead. was pleasantly surprised to be there during soundcheck. soundchecked
black muddy
baba jingo
friend

after friend is when i met bobby. all morning my 7 year old was saying, "you got to take bob weir to the bathroom" (see other thread for reference). i kept checking the time on my cell to make sure i wouldn't be missed at the office. right before bobby came out it said 4:10, while he was out in the lobby and walking around, the time switched to 8pm . as soon as he left it went back to the normal time .

anyway i decided to head back to the office to make sure my absence wasn't missed. when i got back, i came upon my boss leaving and wishing me a good evening. that was my cue, i posted the man on fire thread about meeting bobby , took care of some business and headed back.

soundcheck was still happening, got to hear ripple. then soundcheck officially ended. that's when i met mickey and was able to sidle up next to jeff, just saw him walking around, joined him in step, wished him well and shook his hand. at that moment i knew it would be rocking as i saw bobby speaking to someone who asked him if they were going to sit in on 2 or 3 songs and his reply was "no, i thought we were supposed to play for 2 or 3 hours". ok, at that point i figured i had to find a way in, jeff was there, bobby just said 2 or 3 hours, but 100 bones was too much for me to come up with.

so i just hung out in the lobby, trying to figure out my next plan. met justin & his freind rich and they can attest to my scheming. i had folks from the ritz & the campaign thinking i was working there, asking me if i saw michelle as she had the itinerary (sp?). as we were approacing 5:15 i overheard his campaign manager & her assistant freaking out that they needed to make 250 copies of something & the ritz wanted to charge them 25 cents a copy. some lady was going to go out and "wander around till she found somewhere to make copies". that was my cue. went up to them, said i couldn't help overhearing and would love to help them out. took the assiatant to my office to make copies. here was another chance, asked him if there was anyway to get me in, said he couldn't do it for free but could maybe get me in at the "intern rate" of $50, which is how i got in. went back and after i got the intern ticket is when i met leebert and hung with him for most of the night, he's good folk in case you haven't met him yet.

inside, magic hat (i guess a vt micro brewer) was pumping out free beers for all. as can be expected a strange mix inside, heads and a bunch of dc business types. i was 10-15 feet from the stage all night, plenty of dancing room around me

overall the playing was very good, super high energy, bobby, mickey and jeff were at the top of their game all night long. i didn't stop moving once. very worth the $50 and so glad i invested the time, just hanging around the ballroom beforehand. they played for 2 1/2 hours with no breaks. oar backed them up at first, then fob came out and backed up, then oar came and both bands were taking duty for the rest of the show (see the variety of instruments below). near the end, mickey kept it going by coming out to bobby and saying "just one more song" a few times

anyway here's the setlist:

china >
rider
loose lucy
gdtrfb
baba jingo
black muddy river
fotd
aiko
jam>
playin>
ujb>
playin reprise>
jackstraw
sugaree
scarlet>
fire
ripple

notes: one long set, all electric; china through fotd w/ o.a.r.; aiko through jack straw w/ FOB; sugaree through ripple w/ all.( all including: 1 harp, a pedal steel, 2 keyboardists, at times an accordian, 3 drummers, a sax, 2 basses, 3-4 guitarists - combined all together it sounded great, not muddied up at all)

a great time was had by all and i am so happy i decided to head over there