Psychodelicious ©

“Groan”.
I’m sore all over.
Going to these concerts is taxing.
Parking is a nightmare when you have on average fifty thousand people looking for a spot.
Everyone has to compete with the residents for street parking and the longer you wait, the longer your walk is, that’s us.
We can’t go earlier because of the kids and when we do head out we drive in circles looking for a spot and usually find one half way between my house and the festival grounds.
Now I don’t mind walking and in fact I LOVE walking but there is this fucken hill that’s great to walk down but after the concert when your beat you have to walk back up and I tell you, that’s a bitch to do when it’s on a forty degree angle and about three blocks long.

Inia and I have tried many different routes to avoid this hill even stomping through a field then through a forest, up the side of a small hill, over a two foot railing and across a bridge, then dodge traffic while crossing the highway, while hauling four chairs and a four year old wants to stop everyone to say hi too.

That was the best route to avoid the hill and lots of others fell in behind us.
So many in fact that the police put up large spotlights and set up manned crossing points for people safety the next day because it was becoming more and more popular.

It was something to see after the concert though.
At midnight 2000 people emerge out of a dark forest then walk across a pitch-black muddy field falling some crawling to the street.
One onlooker who was at the bus stop who happened to look back remarked that it look like a scene from Return Of the Living Dead and to be honest, after the Santana concert he was probably right.



There were about 80,000 people jammed up to a stage with temps at 110f in the middle of the crowd but it didn’t matter, especially not to me.
I have been trying to see him for thirty years and now I can say that I have.

Before the concert Inia and I along those sitting around us, whom we didn’t know passed the time by joking around.
We all got there three hours before the show and set up our chairs to wait.
Everyone had food and beer was sold on the grounds so we partied while listening to Steve Winwood who was playing behind us.

It was all-good with some mishaps with people who tried to push us out because they had arrived late and wanted to get closer.
One skinny woman in her late forties flung herself at some tall young guy checking him back few feet.
She must have been menopausal because that look in her eyes said “Fuck with me and your going down with me sitting on your face”.
The guy took off so fast I’m sure he call him momma when he got out of there.

I don’t get it; if you know you want to see someone and want to be close you should show up early like we did to get our places.
At 9:15 Santana took the stage and we all folded our chairs and moved up to the stage.
We were roughly thirty feet from the front and the music was just rocking us where we stood with the lightshow in the back lighting up the night sky.

They showed an anthology of Santana as he played some of our favorites and when he got to Woodstock and the 60’s, the psychedelic fractal display going on in the background had you stoned even if you didn’t get high before the concert.
Not that you had to with everyone around you puffing away on joints.
You got high for free.

For what I went to see, and that was Santana, the man, the guitarist, I left feeling satisfied.
Was the show perfect?
No, but it was great just the same.

Kevin Costner and his band tonight followed by Keith Urban.
Weezer tomorrow and next that’s that for two weeks of concerts.
Next week I …..well that’s a secret for now “Wink”

Here are a couple of pictures for now.
I have to many to put up and I don’t want to muck up your computers.

Until next time, Have a nice day, every day

Walker