so we were going into the show last night... elton john in case you wondered... and the rent-a-pig who was checking everyone for contraband asked me to take out my cell phone. i work for verizon wireless so i happen to have a pretty nice phone (cuz i get them cheap) and the guy was all 'does this phone have a camera?' i said yeah it does, what of it? of course i could have probably been a bit less 'cocky teenager' and more 'responsible thirty year old' but of course that isn't how i roll. he made me take it back to the car. i was furious because my date has to stand there and wait for me to get back. she was pissed, i was pissed, and that, as usually goes for me, is probably the last date i will have with her. of course, that is no big surprise, and not a great disappointment anyway, but still. why does this 7 dollar-an-hour weeny who couldn't get a real job have to fuck with me?

how does this guy know that i am a photographer and the only reason i didn't leave the phone in the car in the first place was that i was going to try to get some shots with it. granted it is a 1.3mp camera phone and the shots would have been all blurry and out of focus anyway, but hell, at least let me fucking try.

the show rocked as elton always does. i didn't have my phone so i wasn't able to copy down the set list, but he did play Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. Other highlights were Burn Down the Mission and Have Mercy on the Criminal, one that i have never heard him play live before. All in all it was a great show. it is the sixth time i have seen elton play live and the first to a non-sold out crowd. back home he would do two sold-out shows at the palace, a venue that holds 22 thousand people for concerts. here in the 'burque he couldn't even sell out the 7000 seat stinkley arena. oh well, the acoustics suck in that place anyway.

as is normal, he played a few songs from his new album, then about four songs in he asked the crowd, 'youwant to hear more new shit or do you want to hear the old shit?' of course that crowd overwhelmingly requested the old shit and the rest of the evening was full of songs form the golden era of the singer-songwriter. He closed the show, as he always does, with Your Song. to me it was sad that he referred to albuquerque instead of detroit but i still felt at home for a minute.

overall it was a good night. it was a pisser, but a good night. went out after the show for drinks and didn't get in until 7 in the morning, so overall i think it was good. unfortunately i have no photo documentation of the event. better luck next time. thanks for reading my rant. hope you all have a good week. this is my last before the 'great big southwest road trip' that is planned for the first two weeks of march. hopefully the next time you hear from me i will be from a hotel room in utah. :peace: ajm