TOUR ARCHIVE

Date: 1999-04-21
Location: Berkeley, CA - United States [6 shows here]
Venue: Berkeley Community Theater [2 shows here]
Info: Symphonica
Fan reviews: 5 - Add yours!
Author: Dave
Setlist: Yes

My reviews of the San Francisco Symphony shows...hmmm. Can't just review the shows, I gotta review the whole trip. Of course it got off to an awful start. Phil said I should get to the airport earlier than I had planned to, so of course, no alarm went off and I got there 5 minutes before the plane was leaving. Oops. I had a nice flight to Chicago (from Milwaukee)...nobody was near me. Then I had a cramped flight to San Francisco, and the food sucked. Anyway...got to SF and I have to say, this being my first time in California...it was pretty damn beautiful out there. My hotel was cool...I was staying at the Travelodge, about 4 blocks from the venue. I saw Jameson there, and there were some other Maddies there. Anyway, I got my room (after some problems) and then I got to go and wait. I walked around town, but eventually, I just went back to the hotel room and sat and waited...It's always the hardest to wait just before the concert. at 5 oclock I went down to the venue and sat around and waited. Pretty soon I ran out of smokes, so that sucked. Then a bunch of people I knew started showing up. Isabel, a friend that Liz brought to the Rockford concert, and her son and a couple of her friends showed up. Isabel is cool, and I REALLY liked her son (he's just like me, only 10 years younger). I became camera guy for a while as she walked around and said hi to a lot of people (Jameson, Niclas, Dan, and some others) and I got to take pictures. And watch her kid, which I didn't mind. Eventually Jeff (Yeag), Phil, Liz, and some others all showed up, and I got to meet (and remeet) them, which was definitely kickass. Eventually we all got in line (they had been letting people in the venue for a while at this point). They found my camera when we got up front and made me throw it out. Could have been nicer about it. Assholes. Got inside, met Liz and her husband, more kickass stuff. Got filmed by some tv camera. No clue what one. Then I went and got in my seat. Very fucking weird to be seated by an usher and given a program at a Metallica concert. As for the concert itself. I'm not gonna spill out a song by song review...ya'll know the setlist, and the ENTIRE concert was absolutely great. I mean, I loved it. People have said that the orchestra wasn't loud enough the first night, and this and that. Fuck 'em, I loved every minute of it, except for the end, of course. Some highlights for me were the entire version of Nothing Else Matters...I dunno why, but that's my favorite song on the planet...almost shit my pants when they finished it up...and the new songs...they were most certainly awesome. But like I said, the entire concert was great. Afterwards, I went out and waited to see if I could meet up with some of the people again, but I missed 'em, so I just went to the gas station for some smokes, and back to my hotel room (had to smoke outside though).