The drive to the Wolf Trap started off in the worst way
possible. Arriving home a little later
from work than I had planned, Deb and I quickly departed only to come to a complete
standstill less than 7 minutes into our drive.
Our poor little town sits on a peninsula and if something gets back up
going north, it gets really bad as there are few options to get around the
issues. We basically have just two main
roads to get from Lexington Park, MD up to DC.
This wasn’t looking good – at all!
Waze, the GPS enabled routing app came to the rescue. We had to go maybe 50 yards to the traffic
light to make a U turn and drive west to the only other option to head to
DC. It tuned out that Great Mills Road was
nearly as bad, but we did get to Route 5 heading to Leonardtown. An hour, yes a crazy long hour to get 15
miles from our house. All the while Waze
was telling us how much time we lost by displaying the latest projected arrival
time out near Vienna, VA. 6:38 then 6:52,
fortunately by traveling with a quite heavy right foot we arrived in the crowded
entrance just before 7:00 PM. With 30
minutes before the opening we walked the quarter mile up a hill to reach the
park entrance and got in line for some fast food. Only the pork bar-b-que took
a little longer so it was nearly quarter after before we had meals to choke down! Talk about just in time engineering; it was
just way to quick and not a great start to what would be a great evening.
Sting, yes, that old guy, former Police front-man, opened
with one tune and called out his son Joe to join him. Joe took over with several of his originals
which I’ve never heard. He’s a wider,
heavier – though not heavy, version of Sting with similar, though smoother,
vocals than his storied father. His folky sounds were fun, and included a song
he created for his children. Joe called
out the warm up band – The Last Bandoleros.
Let me say this simply to start off.. they were awesome, though hard to
describe. I’ll have some links so you can
hear them because they defy description.
Honestly, they this odd combination of The Beatles, some solid rock and
a little Tex-Mex thrown in for good measure.
They have great 3 part harmonies, and any of 4 of the members could take
on lead vocals among the 2 guitars, bass and drums. Now for some added spice they have a
squeeze-box player that could shred right along with the guitars. They were showman too and were as
entertaining to watch as to hear.
They called Sting and Joe out for their last song, which was
fun. Then Sting took on the show after a
short intermission. There was no disappointment
there at all. There were a number of the
Police era favorites including Roxane, Spirits in a Material World and Every
Little Thing She Does is Magic. He did If I Ever Lose My Faith in You in which
there is a line in that says ” You could
say I'd lost my belief in our politicians.” The DC regional crowd whooped and
hollered hearing that one. They also did the Bowie classic Ashes to Ashes where
Sting and Joe shared the lead. There were other Sting classics too, like Fields
of Gold, Englishman in NY and Dessert Rose.
The other thing you noticed is that the Last Bandoleros were all up on
stage with Joe singing backup, and the squeeze-box player came out on specific
songs to add to the songs Sting was performing.
The fun they were having was so evident, that alone was enough to make
you smile. Just a great time.. until.
As background at Wolf Trap
you have two options. The first is to get lawn tickets and take your chances
with the weather. The second is to have
tickets for seating within the Filene Performing Arts Center, or in other words
the actual building that has the stage at the bottom. The Center is an amazing structure and has elevated
sections like any other theater, while the bottom of the building it open with
columns so stage is visible from the lawn.
Our seats were in a section of the upper tier or Loge.
The other thing you notice
at Wolf Trap is the variety of societal cross-section. You can just tell there are social elite among
the crowd of joe public. It’s cool like
that with one potential problem, and hence my “until comment earlier.
In the Loge, everyone is
seated in a pretty steep section so the row below you is enough lower, like a
stadium, so you can usually see clearly over the people in front of you. This works well enough that everyone enjoys
the show. That is until a lower row stands
up because the alcohol and song selection demand it. There were three people in
the lowest part of our section that stood when Roxanne was started. I could tell the older gentlemen, in the row
below us was really annoyed since he, nor anyone higher up and in back of them
(including me) could see the stage. So
if this happens you need to decide if you too want to stand and if the people
in back of you might too be upset. There
was at least one other upper section where everyone was standing, while most of
the arena was sitting. I’m sure for many
of the performances there protocol and decorum dictate that you remain
seated. There was one empty seat at the
end of the row in front of me and the older gent slid down a few seats and was
temporarily treated with a view once again.
That didn’t last long though as the 4th person in the front
stood to join in the fun a few songs later.. It gets a little better.
As one song ended and the
volume of the music decreased, a guy two row above me yells “PLEASE SIT DOWN.” The expected response was quick, the folks
turned around, looked up and mumbled “no” and continued to stand. A woman one row up behind us also add “they can stand if that’s how they enjoy the
show.” Oh, did I mention that she too
was standing. Though was on the very end of the row and wasn’t really impeding
any others’ view. The fortunate ending
occurred just a song later with the close of the set. We exited and caught some of the encore on
our walk out to beat most of the traffic on the way out.
Before we call this
adventure done here are some links to the Last Bandoleros. The first one gives you an idea of how they
sound with Sting. This one has Joe in
the background and Sting’s guitarists (a father and son) are also on stage in
the case.
The next one shows off
their harmonies and pseudo Beatles, maybe even The Monkeys vibe.
Then they can change it up
to a Spanish sounding ballad.
Hope you enjoyed them.
It was a great night.
Peace,
Brian
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