Honeymooner

Yes, that is me, and yes, I play both violin and viola (and a little bit of piano). That's actually my viola in the profile picture. My wife and I are part of a string quartet, and we were doing a photo shoot. I play viola for the group, so that was one of my "by myself" pictures. I don't earn my main living in music, but I do it on the side, and I really enjoy it. I'm glad you like hearing the music!

Probably because iPads are big and would block other people's view.

Must be a new member of her fan club!!

Probably because iPads are big and would block other people's view.

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Hey everyone,

We just got back from Lana's concert at Hollywood Forever on Friday, October 17. So, for whoever may be interested, here's my report on the concert.
 
Before I go farther, here's the set list:
 
Cruel World (the entire song, not just the intro)
Cola
Body Electric
Blue Jeans
West Coast
Born To Die
Ultraviolence
Old Money (my favorite of the set.. it was just gorgeous!)
Summertime Sadness
Million Dollar Man
Video Games
Ride
National Anthem
 
13 songs, and the concert lasted about 70 minutes.

First, let me say that I came away with mixed emotions. The music was great, Lana sang beautifully, and was gorgeous as always. We managed to get a spot at the front, but it was way off to the stage left side, so when Lana came down to greet people during "National Anthem," she didn't get down to where we were. That left me bummed, and I was also hoping we'd see her after the show, but that didn't happen, either. So, while I thoroughly enjoyed the show overall, I was disappointed about those two things. Perhaps I had set my expectations too high and set myself up for disappointment. But I'm not sorry we went.

Second, it has hit home that the Paradise Tour days are definitely over. As many of you may already know, I've only been an LDR fan for less than 5 months. I've been watching all of these old Paradise tour videos on YouTube from last year, and was half-expecting a repeat of those performances, including the live string quartet. Well, no live strings tonight, of course, and I've finally had to accept the fact that Lana has moved on from that era of music. While she still performs a lot of Born To Die/Paradise songs, they're performed differently now than they were back then. Makes me wish I'd been a fan 3 years ago.

Anyway, here's the rest of the report.

First off, I got a reminder e-mail this morning from TicketFly, which alerted me to something that had not been made apparent before: The gates opened at 6, but Lana wasn't scheduled to come on stage until about 8. With that in mind, and since the venue *seemed* to be adamant about the "no lining up before 5 PM" rule, we left home in San Diego around noon, stopped in Huntington Beach to have lunch with a long-time friend, then continued up to LA. We arrived in the vicinity at about 4:30. Even though we had bought the on-site parking, we didn't use it because of something else in the TicketFly e-mail: They said the on-site parking wouldn't be opening until 6, and that off-site parking in another garage would be opening at 5:30. I wanted to be in line by 5:00, so we parked several blocks away and just walked to the venue. It took about 20 minutes.

As we walked up Gower St., the street that intersects Santa Monica Blvd., we saw what appeared to be the end of the line. This was at 4:50 PM. So much for no lining up before 5!  This is what it looked like at 5 PM:
 

 
Shortly after 5 PM, though, the line started moving.  I didn't know why, but it was moving and kept moving!  Finally, as we approached the cemetery's front lawn, I saw why:  Apparently, they had set up some wooden stakes with yellow "caution" tape to act as one of those switchback-like things that they use in amusement park lines (the name escapes me at the moment, as it's after 1 AM as I'm writing this), and were having people line up inside that.  We were about halfway back.  We stood there and waited until 6 PM, and then the gates opened.
 
Mayhem.
 
As soon as the gates opened, there were screams, and suddenly the entire crowd just surged towards the gate, paying no need whatsoever to the wooden stakes with their "caution" tape, simply trampling them down.  We were pretty much sucked in.  It didn't surge very far, though, as we were funneled into a single entry line, which eventually became 2.  That took about half an hour or so.  Once we were through the gates, we walked (the security guards kept yelling "DO NOT RUN!!!") down toward the lawn by the stage.  We had ended up pretty far back in the entry crowd, yet it seemed that not everyone wanted to be at the front of the stage.  A lot of people brought blankets and picnic stuff and were sitting pretty far back.  So, we actually got a spot in the front row!!  But, we were way off to the stage left side.  The viewing angle wasn't too good, as there was a column right where our view of Lana was half of the time as she moved back and forth across the stage.
 
So, we stood there from 6:45 on, and Lana came out on stage at about 8:05.  She was wearing a red, long-sleeved dress with a short skirt, showing off those beautiful legs. She came down the stairs briefly to greet the front row during "Cruel World," but only stayed down long enough to greet a few people before going back up.
 
During "West Coast," my wife said she couldn't take the noise anymore (we were very close to the speakers) and wanted to move farther back.  We moved back, but I went back and forth a couple of times between where she was, and where we had been at the front.  I stayed with her during "Ultraviolence," and then went back up for a bit.  Just in time, since the next song was "Old Money," so I could get the whole thing recorded from close up.  I stayed up there for "Summertime Sadness," then went back to where my wife was for the rest of the show until Lana announced that her next song would be "National Anthem," and that she would be coming down to greet her fans.  At that point, we both went back up to the front, though this time, we were even farther stage left than before, since someone else had taken the spots we had vacated.  Lana had earlier requested that the "house front" speakers be turned down, so it was more bearable when we went back up for "National Anthem."  Lana did come down off the stage to greet fans and take selfies, but she didn't get all the way over to where we were -- not by a longshot.  That was somewhat disappointing, since I've seen videos of previous shows where she would go from end to end.  Oh well, win some, lose some.
 
After the show was over, we hung around for a while to see if perhaps she would come out to greet the fans or sign autographs or something.  No such luck, I'm afraid; she was gone.    So, we made our way back out of the cemetery, walked 20 minutes back to our car, and made the 2.5-hour drive home in about 2.25 hours.
 
And there you have it, folks!
 
My suggestion to anyone going on Saturday:  If you want to be in front, get there at 4 PM!

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Yes, that is me, and yes, I play both violin and viola (and a little bit of piano). That's actually my viola in the profile picture. My wife and I are part of a string quartet, and we were doing a photo shoot. I play viola for the group, so that was one of my "by myself" pictures. I don't earn my main living in music, but I do it on the side, and I really enjoy it. I'm glad you like hearing the music!

Yes, that is me, and yes, I play both violin and viola (and a little bit of piano). That's actually my viola in the profile picture. My wife and I are part of a string quartet, and we were doing a photo shoot. I play viola for the group, so that was one of my "by myself" pictures. I don't earn my main living in music, but I do it on the side, and I really enjoy it. I'm glad you like hearing the music!

Will someone please wake me up when this thread actually gets back on topic about Lana's new album? 

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Yes, that is me, and yes, I play both violin and viola (and a little bit of piano). That's actually my viola in the profile picture. My wife and I are part of a string quartet, and we were doing a photo shoot. I play viola for the group, so that was one of my "by myself" pictures. I don't earn my main living in music, but I do it on the side, and I really enjoy it. I'm glad you like hearing the music!

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Since when are singers not considered musicians?

Will someone please wake me up when this thread actually gets back on topic about Lana's new album? 

Will someone please wake me up when this thread actually gets back on topic about Lana's new album? 

Will someone please wake me up when this thread actually gets back on topic about Lana's new album? 

Will someone please wake me up when this thread actually gets back on topic about Lana's new album?