The show was on a Saturday and my husband and I arrived in Vegas on Friday. I was so looking forward to Vegas' warm, dry desert air. But what happened??? It was cool and rainy, just like the Chicago we had left! Ugh!
We checked into the Boulder Station hotel and then met up with fellow online fan Doreen to hit some of the big hotels in the strip. The three of us did the same thing on Saturday afternoon. We played slots along the way as we went from hotel to hotel. I was doing OK, keeping a little above even, only to have a run of bad luck and wind up about minus $50 by end of the weekend. Oh, well...that's Vegas for ya!
OK, on to the John Waite stuff. I passed guitarist Shane in the casino and I had to do a double take...he has cut off his long hair! His hair is quite short now and looks great on him.
Before the show, my husband, Ray, and I met up again with Doreen, plus online fans St. Louis Cindy, Doug G. (with wacky pal Zoe), and Scott (with his wife Diane--she's just as lovely as Scotty says she is!). We had planned on dinner but decided to just go for drinks instead. We had a great time getting to know each other.
We walked into the theater and took our seats in second row, center. It was great to be right in front of JW, but made for some bad camera angles. Most of my pics from the show turned out to be John with his hand in front of his face, holding the microphone. Oh, well! John looked great...hair growing longer, clean shaven, skinny as always, wearing a charcoal gray (black?) single breasted suit in the three button style. Underneath the suit, he had on a white V-neck undershirt.
Here are some highlights for me from the first show:
--During the third song, "Act of Love," I snapped a picture of John. John looked in my direction to see where the flash came from. We made eye contact and I gave him a little wave. I could tell from his reaction that he recognized it was me then, and that was very cool, considering he has not seen me in a year and a half.
--After "Act," there was a pause in the action. John didn't have a set list posted by his microphone stand, so he went over to Shane to see what they were playing next. I yelled out "Change" and John said something like "Ok, we'll do that one." And LOL...I was feeling pretty pleased that my request got played until I saw in the second show that "Change" was indeed the next song on the set list anyways! LOL! Oh, well! "Change" totally rocked. Our group stood up but not many others did, so we wound up sitting back down before the end. <sigh>
-- John's only major lyric screw up came during the second verse of "Straight to Your Heart." But I didn't really care...this is one of my all time favorite Bad English songs and what a thrill it was to hear it live for the first time!
OK, more details about the first show. John did have the lyrics printed out and on the floor in front of him and yes, he did look down to them on occasion. He did a really good job on singing the lyrics right, though.
At one point, I yelled out a request for "Downtown" and John replied, "They don't let us do that one anymore." Hmmm...I have no idea what that means, and I forgot to ask John about it when I talked to him. (Turns out that he did play it on a later date at shows in other cities.)
John and the band sounded great, though John was not real loose. He stood in the middle of the stage the entire time, and didn't take the microphone off the stand or go to work the sides of the audience. The drummer had a bit of a problem; a cymbal stand fell over about halfway through the show and no one ever went out to pick it up for him. The show was about an hour and 5 minutes long. At the end, John didn't thank anybody, but he did use his old double entendre joke..."Thank you all for coming. I hope you come twice." (Hmmm...guess I should add that phrase to the drinking game? ;-) But the joke was pretty appropriate, I guess, since there was a second show to follow. ;-)
For the second show, we were front row, left, directly in front of Shane. (I got these great seats through TicketMonster, can you believe it?!) Actually, being to the left was better than being dead center as it made for much better camera angles. A personal highlight for me on this one was hearing "Whenever She Comes Around." That's the Vince Gill cover I first heard at John's 1997 Chattanooga show. What a beautiful song! I was so thrilled that it was in the set list. John played acoustic guitar on this one. John, PLEASE record this song for your next album!
Some random thoughts on this show...John came out on the stage in the same outfit, but this time he was wearing his glasses. He took them off almost immediately and I was bummed...he looks really good in the glasses and I wanted to get a pic.
At both this show and the first show, John would introduce "When You Were Mine" by saying something like "I had a record out last year, but the record company went under. What the f*ck. This is the single off it." Now, I had not heard about Mercury/Pure going under, but speak of the devil...I got home Sunday to read an article in the Chicago Tribune (newspaper) about how a lot of record companies (including Polygram, Mercury's parent) consolidated with each other and how a lot of artists got lost in the shuffle because of this.
Shane totally ROCKS. What a great & versatile guitarist. He handled songs from every stage of John's career with no problem at all. At one point, we got a little "Shane! Shane! Shane!" cheer going. I think we embarrassed him. He smiled and said, "Oh, stop it!" John was a lot looser at this show. He took the microphone off the stand and worked the sides of the stage, occasionally stopping to shake a hand or kiss a girl in the audience. I myself got one of those kisses...right before he left the stage, he found me in the front, leaned down, shook my hand, and kissed me! Swoon! Ah, talk about making the trip worthwhile, eh? <bg>
The audience for the second show was really into it. They were very loud, with lots of calling out, and clapping and cheering. No standing, though, until (as with the first show), John had the audience get up for "Back on My Feet Again." (Get it? ;-)
OK, on to the Meet and Greet. We hung back and were last in line. Quite a few fans were in line...I think we waited about an hour and a half for our turn. At one point while we were waiting, John was posing for a pic with someone. He looked over his shoulder and I caught his eye. I waved, he waved back. :-)
It finally got to be our turn. Doug went first, then Cindy, then Doreen, then Scott. John took a good amount of time chatting with each individual, commenting on what they brought from him to sign, etc. He was his usual gracious and charming self.
Then it was my turn to talk to John. And LOL--the very first thing John and I talk about is our HAIR! John said he didn't recognize me at first because I had cut my hair off. (My hair is chin length now...when I met John last, it was below the shoulders.) And then I proceed to touch JOHN WAITE'S HAIR (LOL! I just did it automatically...where ever did I get nerve like this?!) and say "And look at YOU! Your hair is growing out...looks great, I love it!" And John did say he was letting his hair get longer. To hear that was yet another highlight of the evening for me, you guys know that. <g>
I introduced John to my husband and Ray told John that he was a fan and that John's music had gotten Ray through many a rush hour commute. And then I told John jokingly that I met Ray around the time of Rover's Return and one of the conditions for dating me was that Ray had to become a John Waite fan. Ray has always been wonderfully indulgent of my John Waite fandom and this night was no exception. God bless Ray...he was our group's designated photographer for the M&G and took all the pix...at one point for our group shot, I think he must have had four people's cameras on him!
I had taken my picture of the Babys at the zoo in front of the alligator pit for John to autograph and he got a kick out of it. John remembered that day at the zoo. He looked at the other autographs (Wally and Tony's) on the pic and stopped to figure out whose was whose. He autographed the pic and then he asked me if I was going to get the alligator to sign it, too. LOL!
Next, I had brought five of my Net Waite giveaway items with and I asked him if he would mind autographing them. He graciously complied. Then John and I chatted for a few minutes and had a nice little conversation.
John was drinking wine during the M&G. I teased him with, "Hey John, I thought you gave up drinking!" His reply, "Yeah, until tonight." LOL!
We posed for pictures, both a shot of just me with him (which turned out terrible, that's why you don't see it here! <g>) and a group shot. As always, I had a great time and it was totally worth the trip. Big thanks to John for two great shows and the Meet and Greet and big thanks to John's manager for making John so available to the fans. I'm looking forward to seeing many more John Waite live shows in the months to come!
Do you have a "I met John" picture and/or story that you would like to share with Net Waite? If so, e-mail me!
Back to Boulder Station
Back to I-95 Meeting Fans
Main | FAQ
| Live & Meeting Fans | News
Miscellaneous Fun | Museum
| Hostess | Guestbook