Wanted Wednesday ~ Boston, July 10, 2008

Please rise, for the singing of our national anthem...

I told you you'd get a band version, I didn't say when.  Close, but no banana on this one.

This performance is from the Lost Highway tour.

Boston Garden, July 10, 2008.  (Yeah, yeah, TD Banknorth Garden, but I'm from here, I can call it the Garden.  Or Gaaahhhdin, if you wanna say it right).

My backyard.

It was my first experience with Fan Club seats, though I do not belong to the fan club.  My new friend Willow hooked me up with tickets.  That was one hell of a weekend.  Met Willow, Big Apple Jovi Girl, and Fiction Mistress for the first time that weekend.  I sent Willow money via PayPal based on a single phone conversation.  Boy am I glad she's not a psycho or anything.  We had the absolutely best pizza ever sitting on the floor in a second-rate hotel room just a few minutes' walk from the Green Line (subway).

At the venue, I got to meet TaraLeigh for the first time (briefly).

And blew out my knee just before the show started.  Not needed-surgery bad, but bad enough that I was glad my pants were a bit snug to hold in the swelling.  Bad enough that I actually SAT DOWN for a song (it may have been Who Says, so I don't feel badly).  Bad enough that whenever I moved, I could feel it shifting around,and would up wearing a lovely brace for the rest of the summer while it healed.

It was NOT bad enough to leave the show.  Even a compound fracture of the tib/fib wouldn't have been enough to get me out of there before the house lights came back up and Sinatra came over the sound system.  I was able to sing and sway (dancing was out) and had a great time.

I did the two Boston shows, then trekked to NYC for the Central Park show that weekend.  (We'll visit the Central Park show later the series, and we'll talk a little more about the experience that went along with it.)

This show was also the first time I'd heard this song done acoustically live.  And it was the first time I got to sing Happy Birthday to Richie.  It was also before I became obsessed with bootlegs, and yet hadn't heard all the wonderful harmonies you can hear without the full accompaniment of the band.

There are far more acoustic versions of this song; some with just Richie, some with just Jon, and some with the two of them together, which is my most favorite way of all.  There are great band versions too, and I promise, I PROMISE you'll get some of those.

For now, though, before I get too far into my psyche looking for the reasons why I love these two guys when they're messing around on their guitars, here's the Richie-Birthday-Show track.



You can download this track here.

~ Hath