Los Angeles pre show and Santa Monica day 3…

Another lazy day by the pool today, its been great to be based in one place for 3 nights. Tonight is the last night in Santa Monica and the show in Los Angeles at the Coliseum.

Eric’s wife Lisette was driving down this morning for the show and would meet us early afternoon at the hotel. Mr Hooters was ducking and diving in the pool when Eric came back from the room and surprised Matt with a little gift he bought for him last night.

Lisette arrived around 1:30 and i headed up to pack my case, have a shower and get ready to head out to the show.I was getting picked up by the airport shuttle tomorrow morning at the ungodly hour of 5am for my 8am flight.I wanted to get packed this afternoon as i knew it would be late when we got back from the show and didn't want the hassle of having to do it then.

Eric’s cousin Matt had offered to drive us all to the venue in his car, he did however want to have a drink before the show so i had offered to drive us all back as I’m not a huge drinker, especially before a show. Eric, Lisette, Mr Hooters and i walked down to the bar O'Brien's where we had been a couple of nights ago, Matt's wife Mandy works there and we arranged to meet up around 4pm. There was a Dodgers game in downtown LA at 7pm, a Lakers basketball game at 7:30 and Rogers show at 8pm so traffic was expected to be pretty heavy all night. I’d arrange a pre show meet up at a bar about a 10 minute walk from the venue and was looking forward to seeing a couple of people there. After a drink at O'Brien's we headed downtown and the traffic was surprisingly easy going, especially for LA.

We parked the car and arrived at the bar around 5pm. Id been chatting to Jason on facebook and by e mail for a couple of weeks, he’d emailed me after reading my blog and i said it would  be great to meet up and say hi face to face. I recognised him as we walked in the bar and headed over to him to have a chat with him and his dad.

Jason, Dale and Mr Hooters                        Myself and Jason                                      Eric and Lisette

   

Next to arrive was Chris Kirby and his friend whom we’d met in San Diego, then Patrick and his girlfriend from Hawaii.

 

We hadn't eaten all day so we grabbed a table inside and order some food. I sent a message to my friend Tony whom id known for over ten years and had last seen at the shows in LA in 2010. He was parking the car outside and came to join us at the table while we ate.Tony was one of the people who were on one of the original Roger Waters forums, Small Candles back in the last 90’s early 2000’s. We had kept in touch via email and facebook and always tried to meet up when we were around. Tony’s great with Photoshop and never ceases to amaze me with what he comes up with.

Some of the pictures of me that Tony has Photoshopped:

Always walling!                                       My favourite one Tony did                      Tony and i in LA

     

After saying goodbye to Jason and Dale, Tony and i headed over to see Thomas from San Diego, (another person from the Small Candles forum) he was in on of the parking lots with a couple of friends. As we chatted to Thomas i saw my friend Donna walk past with Snowy, i gave Donna a hug and said hi to Snowy and we all then headed into the venue.

Thomas and Tony                                      Thomas, myself and Tony                          Thomas and Snowy

 

Tonight's venue was a huge outdoor football stadium but the wall itself had been set up at the half way point on the filed, thus only half the arenas seats were being sold for the show. It was an odd way of getting down onto the floor, from entering the venue complex you had to walk up steps to get to the entrance to the arena, this then brought you to half way up the seating area and you then had to walk back down steps to get to the floor. The last time I’d seen a stadium show was in Buenos Aires, while the stadium there was bigger this one was certainly wider and had no separate levels as such as it was all one level of seating around the arena, kind of hard to explain but i guess it was kind of like a bowl, you get the idea from the pictures below

I climbed right up to the top of the bowl just below where the plane was anchored to take the picture above.I was a huge place and i’d guess seated about 30,000 the way it was set up. I wandered around all over the venue to see it from different angles, the stage itself whilst looked very long didn't look that high and i commented to Eric later on that it wouldn't have looked out of place if the wall had been twice as high! The surround speaker stacks were spread all around the venue and was set up very similar to how it was in Buenos Aires, if the sound was the same then we would be in for an amazing show.

Few pictures taken behind the stage and the other side of the wall.

 

I headed back down to the floor  bumped straight into Robbie and Victoria, love you guys and looking forward to dinner in DC. I again met up with my friend John Slanina from San Fran on the floor, chatted for ten minutes and walked over to where Mr Hooters was sitting, i heard a shout of “Simon” come from my right and a guy I’d met in LA in 2010 had spotted me and said hi, i have to be honest and apologise for forgetting your name but it was great to see you again and meet your girlfriend. Hope you enjoyed the show and drop me an email through my blog and I’ll add your name to the picture below.

Eric had text me to say he and Mr Hooters were still outside in the will call line, i then got a text from Patrick and headed over to his seating area and chatted to him for ten minutes. Had a chat with Pat and Jon as they were wandering around the floor and then headed right back up to the top of the venue as Eric’s seat was up there and i decided to sit with him for the 1st half of the show as I’d really enjoyed the view from that high up and i hadn't seen a show sitting with Eric yet. Lisette and Mr Hooters were on the floor tonight, right section row 9. The climb up to the top of the venue was incredible, each of the concrete steps was about 14” high and i lost count at 85 steps. I sat in the seat next to Eric, he had bought the ticket online a couple of days before the amazing price of $30! however the fees and taxes had pushed it up to $47 but all those people that are complaining about the ticket prices and how expensive the good seats are have it totally wrong! The best seats for tonight's show really were the cheap $30 ones!

The pre show music started around 8:20pm thus normally making the start time about 8:40, however there were 4 extra tracks added tonight in the pre show music making the start time a few minutes before 9. The extra 30 minutes certainly made all the difference as when the lights in the stadium went out for the start of the show it was more or less totally dark.

Panorama taken about 8:30pm, Eric in the left hand side of the picture.

To be continued…..