Johannesburg August 5th, 2012

So….back at the lodge reeling from another great show but also sad it’s all over. What a great crowd! First time I’d ever seen a, er, ‘matinee’ gig  but you’d think it was 8pm again from the response! 😀 😆 😉

But first, Greg and I got to experience SA’s public transit LOL :lol:.  We decided to go down to Mandela Square which was a mall (yes I know, we’re on vacation…malls aren’t site seeing…) but outside the mall was advertised a large statue of Nelson Mandela and also a cool spurting water fountain. Well, the statue was there….the water fountain…turned off still for the season due it being the very beginning of spring/end of winter there. Darn 🙁  Funny thing though, we’re waiting for the train to come and Greg decides he’s going to take a few sips of a water he’d bought earlier. Before we knew it, a police officer was coming over and saying “no eating or drinking on the platform” and points to a sign that we didn’t see. :shock:. OK, rules are rules but wow, not even on the platform? But that’s not the funny part. So on the way back from Mandela Square, we’re riding and I had found one of the chocolates from our flight back from Cape Town in my purse. Since trains in Chicago (and pretty much anywhere I’ve been) allow eating, I didn’t even think and popped it in my mouth. I don’t know what is up…maybe the police have some special radar in them but literally as soon as i closed my mouth, an officer appeared and was like “ma’am, no eating on the train”. I immediately realized I was an idiot and felt bad but I also didn’t know what to do. My thought pattern was as follows “shoot! OK, um…what to do…should I spit it out as I’m not supposed to be eating and he’s police but…ew, that’s nasty.  Do I swallow? But then I’m eating and what will he do?… Um….um….” and I ended up moving it to my cheek, embarrassingly saying “OMG, sorry!” and then chewed twice and swallowed, then said “I won’t do it again, sorry.” Ugh! 😳  (though Greg and I couldn’t help but laugh later at my mistake…duh!)

Now… the show. Well, like mentioned, it was quite strange to be doing a gig so early. Even the guys at the lodge laughed but then again, knowing how early things close around SA, I guess I’m not surprised.  It allowed us to wander the casino a bit though (Emperor’s Palace=a close replica to Ceasers Palace in Vegas!) and we even took a small try at the slot machines…that is after we figured out how to get them to work as it’s quite different than here in the states. But ah well, that was what I wanted to experience (losing money is the same in any country though LOL :wink:) Then we had a nice, sit down dinner at one of the finer restaurants. I had decided in keeping with wanting to eat traditional SA cuisine, I’d order ostrich….until being told after the mall by our lodge guy that a lot of ostrich meat had had to be destroyed due to disease. 😯 Yeah…..scratch that! Ended up having Kudu (though, unlike ostrich, they’re cute and seem so sweet that I’ll admit a part of me was feeling bad :sad:)

When it was time, we headed over and  found our seats…both Greg and I were front and center together this time…and settled in for our final gig. 😀  So DS starts, Mr. H.#2 and Mr. C. come out and the cheers start up as expected but then, when Mr. H. and Mr. M. come out, Mr. M. stops at the microphone and says “well, this is an interesting time for a gig. Are we going to have a picnic or a party?” 😆  People were up and dancing and this continued until Radio Waves. Things were a bit quiet it seemed when Mr. M. introduced it and even during the early part of it…but once it got going and the fans saw it was another poppy dance song, I think they warmed up to it. 😆 😉

HoM1 came with Mr. M. promising “bad dancing” that we all had to join in on and I laughed when Greg actually started bouncing…for a few seconds…then he was done. 😆 But there was another girl about 4 people down that was bouncing too…with a massive smile on her face….yay, it was adorable. 😀  But it wasn’t quite enough because after, Mr. M. said we were getting better but we had one more song or he’s going home…and then they did Pandora’s Box. A good sized cheer for it and he seemed pleased when he turned to give Mr. H. the spotlight. “So the truth is, I’m just the warm up act. The REAL star of the evening is this man here.” Mr. H. started laughing and was like “no, no” but Mr. M. continued “and he dances better than me” to which Mr. H. said “don’t listen to anything he says” and laughed. As Mr. M. came over to play the synths, Mr. H. said “there….autopilot mode” and then came front and center to a huge cheer. He hadn’t even announced the song, people just knew it from the starting chords and him coming out to us….awww. 😀 A bunch of us were singing along and as usual, Mr. H. looked like he was having a blast. When it was all over and he started to head back to his synth, Mr. M. joked by starting to play some of the keys and said “despite popular belief, I CAN play this.” Mr. H. laughed and said “I know, I was just kidding.” 😆

Well, IYL got the great sing-a-long it pretty much always does but the one camera man ended up being serenaded to. 😯 😯 Early, I think during Tesla Girls, Mr. M. had put his face right up to the camera and sang a few lines to it but this time he sang to the camera man and joked around with him, to which the camera man cracked up. 😆 😆

When JoA came on, everyone joined in on the clapping and Mr. M. was really going at it on Old Faithful near the end. Don’t know how the rest of the band can like 69 better…Old Faithful was sounding amazing tonight! 😀 It went down brilliantly but then MoO began and tonight for some reason, I decided to pay more attention to Mr. H.#2s drumming, particularly during the second half of the song when Mr. M. is doing his non-stop windmilling….OMG! 😯 😯  OK, I knew audibly the drumming was amazing but to actually watch him DO it…arms all over, right hand crossing over left to get to other drums…massive force on them all…DANG, just friggin AWESOME!!! 😀 😀 When it was all over, the crowd loved it and Mr. M. said “I promised 20 years ago I’d stop…but I’m still doing it. Though I may need some oxygen.” 😆 😀

Statues came as the much needed wind down/mellow out session after all the windmilling and as often witnessed, Mr. M. and especially Mr. H. seem to get into their ‘zones’  and it’s special to see!  There was sitting for TLaC tonight and Greg ended up getting Mr. M.s water bottle. 😆 This was also the time Mr. M. coaxed out a young-in to come out and shake his hand….and he later went over to Mr. C. and shook HIS hand too….gotta love it. 😀 By the time SMS came on, I was thinking “ya know, this crowd seems to actually be a bit louder than last nights and it’s not even sold out.” 😯 😀 I apologize as I can’t remember now (I’m quite tired…brain is shutting down 🙄 😳 😆 ) but either for SMS or Dreaming, Mr. M. jumped off the stage and started down the line slapping hands. 😯 😯 I wasn’t sure if he was getting everyone and was so intent on watching for Greg to get slapped that I missed getting mine up there but Greg didn’t (which was great as he had wanted a slap. 😆 ) And the nice thing…no crazy fans “molesting” him…PHEW! 😆 😀 Things were just really going well and the smiles on the guys faces were getting larger and larger…all four of them were beaming! 😀 😀

Locomotion antics involved Mr. H.s mic stand again and SotSS was friggin brilliant like the other two nights. I had originally planned on recording it so I could hopefully capture that essence and true crowd enthusiam but was so into the whole gig, I didn’t remember til the song started and the massive cheer erupted so I decided eh, never mind but yup, HUGE sing-a-long. Mr. C.s solo seemed extra great tonight…him playing all intently, eyes closed. 😀 When it was nearly done at the last chorus, Mr. M. said “one more…LOUDER” and people just shouted it out, though we were all pretty much doing that already but this time it was just louder shouting…wow, SA LOVES that song and like last night, the guys were floored. 😀 😀

Well, Enola Gay was the usual beginning to the end and Mr. M. began thanking everyone for being “brilliant” and coming but then he added that they were sorry it’d been so long but they’ve already been asked to come back so it seems it won’t be too long til the next time. 😯 😯 Bet THAT piece of good news made everyone’s day! 😆 😆 Near the end, that girl who had been bouncing…and who actually continued to bounce throughout the night….got a pic from Mr. M. and it made her night….sweet. 😀 When it was done, the guys paused a bit to soak up the crowd and Mr. M. punched the air in a “yes!” motion, then Mr. H. thanked everyone for coming and emphasized the “WILL” in “we will be back”….yay! 😀 😀 Before they started to walk off, the crowd started shouting “More! More! More!” and Mr. M. just laughed, the other guys smiling from ear to ear . But they eventually left and the lights went down. Tonight there wasn’t any work done on Mr. H.#2’s drums so I’m assuming things finally got settled…phew!

When the guys started walking back on stage, the crowd warmly welcomed them and it was at that point Mr. M. spoke what I had thought earlier. “Ya know, for a sunday afternoon, you guys are fantastic! You’re even louder than last night.” 😀 😀 Well, WotMW found everyone shouting out “Hey Hey!” and Secret was awesome imho! Mr. M. went over to Mr. C. and whatever he said or did, Mr. C. smiled and nodded. But then, Electricity….massive cheer as we all knew this was it. One final chance to get our bouncing, dancing, singing etc out and we all took full advantage! When it was over, it was obvious the guys had been thrilled with the gigs but they weren’t the only ones. Fans had smiles on their faces and sweat all over too. My guess is it was the funniest Sunday afternoon they’d had in a long time! 😀 😀

When we walked out, a lot of people were milling around and I noticed one of the posters earlier displayed around the area was up on a board near the concession stand so I went up to the guy working and politely asked if I could take it. He gave me a look that was half confused and half surprised.  Not sure if he’s just used to people TAKING vs. asking 😆 so I said “I wasn’t sure if I could take this home” and he shrugged and said “go ahead” so I thanked him and carefully pulled it from its tacky tape. 😀

So now it’s done and we head home tomorrow night but wow! I know I’ve said this before, I’m sorry if I sound like a broken record but it’s the truth….I feel absolutely blessed to have been able to do these gigs! SO lucky!!! A HUGE thank you to Mr. M., Mr. H. X2, and Mr. C. for coming out here to play because I’m guessing not too many bands come to SA. You all were truly fantastic and Greg and I (and the other friends who will remain nameless 😉 ) had friggin awesome times and I know we weren’t the only ones! Safe travels home!! 😀