Neil...

[senoritafish]

Neil Finn was expensive but worth it. I left work early to try and tidy up a bit before John’s Mom came over. But too much to do and so some stuff got left undone. When we parked, a fiftyish guy parking near us said he had never seen so many people in line for a Coach House show and he was a veteran of at least 100. He told John he was in for a “life-changing experience.” While standing in line, further conversation revealed that he was a rabid concert goer, owned about 6,000 albums and spent 3 months a year traveling – mainly to attend concerts. Curious, John asked how he made a living – he was a fifth grade teacher! I had no idea teachers made enough to have that kind of lifestyle. John told me later, “there’s a reason that guy’s not married and it’s not by his choice”.

We got seats fairly near the back of the tables near the street side of the building. The food wasn’t nearly as bad as we’d been led to believe. The opening performer (Carrie Getz?) came out and told us “I feel a kinship with you all (a chord or two ), because (strum, strum) I LOVE NEILL FINN! And he let me open for him anyway! She was followed by Goldenboy, apparently in Neil’s band, but doing his own solo act, with accompanying disembodied DJ voice. He was pretty funny, I could see him being a popular act in quite few bars in Laguna Beach (“And now, following Rudy De Lamour, GOLDENBOY!) {*Before you flame me – I mean no disrespect by this- I’ve been to a few and they are loads of fun!)

After 10 pm ( we were getting a little worried – John started mentioning we were on babysitter time) Neil finally came out. I won’t talk about the music as you all know it much better than I do, but he joked about the mail lists, saying “ And for those of you who are going straight home to post about this on the internet, you can tell them that the hair was the same as it was in San Francisco!” Pants? Nobody’s mentioned them yet? Well, I stared at them too, but nothing much to look at – baggy and brown, possibly cords or canvas.

At one point, the entire band left the stage and shortly after, Neil came back, followed by what appeared to be a little old man wearing a hat. He walked hunched over, with a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other. Neil took a seat at the keyboards, and the other guy stepped up to the mike. When he started singing, we immediately recognized the voice; it was Eddy Vedder! They a couple of duets together; one was "You Will Throw Your Arms Around Me" which I always hear at concerts but have never been able to find a recording of. After Vedder came out, there was also a funny story about Eddie Vedder spending the night at his house and Neil being worried that the loud party down the road ("really awful house music!”) was keeping him awake. He finally went to their house and pulled the stereo plug out of the wall, shouting "This is fucking ridiculous!" They were all laying aroung "without a belligerent bone in their bodies" ("high on Ectasy" put in Vedder) and told him "Well really, Mr. Finn, you don't have to curse!" It was pretty funny.

Shortly after that, John mentioned babysitter time again, and we had to leave before the final encore, so I missed the last 4-5 songs. Damn.