San Francisco Days, San Francisco Nights

Friday night, Rachel (my wife) and I, had tickets to see Chris Isaak at the Celebrity Theater here in Phoenix. It was the second time that we had seen him live and it was a great, if not a bit short, show. She got the tickets as part of my gift for our fifth year anniversary. He is probably our favorite artist, as a couple. We danced to one of his songs as our first dance at our wedding reception and have great memories of spending a lot of time together before we were married listening to Baja Sessions.

If you aren't familiar with his music, he does a throwback style, rockabilly/country/crooner, Roy Orbison meets Elvis type of music with lots of focus on love, heartbreak, and the blues. Pretty great stuff.

Being an anniversary gift, she sprung for good tickets and we were in the tenth row, right next to walkway where the artists walk onto the stage from the back. What was most amusing were the women at this concert. It was a heavily middle aged crowd, mostly husband and wife combos on a night out, but the minute Chris hit the stage, he was the only man in the place. The ladies screamed like little girls in junior high. He pumped his hips. They screamed. He swiveled his hips. They screamed. He hit a high note. They screamed. They were animals.

At one point, he ventured out into the crowd and stood four feet from us for twenty seconds or so of singing, which was pretty cool. It's funny how when you are a fan of someone it seems so cool to get close to them. Of course, as he is on the way out, my wife reaches her hand over the railing as he walks by and he grabs her hand and gives her this sweaty, lingering hand grab...and for a second, she was right there with the rest of those middle aged ladies. And to be completely honest, I think I was almost there too.

I was wishing I got the sweaty mauling...