TeNgaio Blog Pages: October 2009

Just a few pics of pumpkin carvin' at the TeNgaio Manor last night. Madeline was intent on doing hers as far as she could on her own which made it take on the appearance of a jack-o-latern that got in a squirrel fight. Ethan helped gut the gourds, while Britt helped Madi with hers while manning the camera.

Ethan told me that if we didn't have nice-looking jack-o-laterns that no one would want to stop by our house on Halloween. Carving pumpkins is fun but, good hell, I do not know how some people have the patience to make the uber-fancy ones that take hours – it's just plain insanity to spend that much time on something that is going to rot within a few days. Those fancy patterns they sell with the carving tools are enough to make a person start drinking – madness I tell you.

Good times anyhow and the kids loved it.

Britt and I spent Friday night watching U2 perform in Vegas at the Sam Boyd Stadium. Simply put it was a night of magnificence.

Having listened to this band for, oh, only about 25 years(!), it was like closure to be able to see them live. They have been on our "drop bucket list" for a long time. And they did not let us down.

We've never been to a show of this magnitude (40,000+ people) and I for one was skeptical as to how it would be/sound due to the fact that it was outdoors and we didn't exactly have the best seats in the house. But it didn't matter – the sound was fran-freakin-tastic and they had a HUGE L.E.D. expanding cone/screen-thing that had live shots of the band and was the base of "The Claw". Plus. the stage was so that the band had 360 degrees to walk around so everyone in the stadium could see them.

One thing to be said about a U2 show is how much positive energy there is in the air. Bono was accompanied by 40,000 people singing most of the lyrics to all songs – songs of regret, songs of joy, songs of lament and songs of possibilities. One special moment (of many) in the evening is when he (and 40k people) sang "Amazing Grace" as an intro into "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" which has always been a gospel song IMO and seemed to couple perfectly with AG.

Another cool thing about the show was seeing many families there. Kids as young as 3 years old were there rocking out with their folks. One kid a few rows down from us was really getting into it – especially when the Black Eyed Peas were playing. Both Brittany and I kept commenting how Ethan would have probably enjoyed this show and, hell, Madi too. They both love music and doing the “mock rock” gig at home.

I could go on but will make this short. One other memorable, yet gross (although I thought it was hilarious), moment was while one the way back to the condo after the show witnessing some poor sap in a limo just in front us on Britt's side of the car puke his brains out the window. Ahh, nothing like watching involuntary regurgitated alcohol (and whatever that dude ate) splash on the road right next to you while doing 40 mph. Thanks for the memory you poor sap.

A special night for the Westside TeNgaio's for sure.

For any U2 fans, here's what they preformed in order:
Breathe
Get on Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Stuck In A Moment
No Line on the Horizon
Elevation
In A Little While
Unknown Caller
Until The End of the World
Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy - Remix
Sunday Bloody Sunday
MLK
Walk On
One
Where The Streets Have No Name

Encore:
Ultraviolet
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Oh, and by the way, we obviously did not the take some of these pics – I ripped them from U2's site.