I'm still exhausted but will try to hit some of the high points. It really was a special night. Met up with Darice at HOB early and hardly anyone was there so Darice just opened the door and walked in after we heard the rehearsal going on. I followed, of course, and we got to listen to the "pre-show" a bit. Then I had to go wait in the "Industry" line to pick up our tickets from Guacamole Fund. We were chatting with two guys standing behind us when one said "there's Joni!" as she slipped through the VIP entrance. The guy sounded like he knew her but I didn't think much more about it at that point. We waited a long time in the line because apparently the guest list of several pages kept burgeoning and the powers that be wanted to have it all finalized before they let anyone in. Once we finally got in I was amazed to see that the audience was comprised of at least 90% celebrities and family and friends of Graham and the band! It was a strange feeling - being a regular folk - it felt like barging in on a "private party" in a way. The actor Ed Begley, Jr. hung out at the bar with us a bit and offered us some french fries. Nice man. Then the show began. Graham and band (Kunkel, Klein, Pevar, Parks, Raymond) were just perfect throughout the night and how could they not be? Interestingly, Graham only played about 3 or 4 songs from his new album, and devoted the majority of the show to all his best songs of the past 30 years. It was wonderful. At least three times, he made references to Joni while starting a song! She seemed to be definitely on his mind. He sang "I Used to Be a King" almost right off the bat, the song that he claims to have written the day they broke up. While he was playing the interlude from The Whale Song and right in the middle segued to a bit of "River" before going on to "Wind on the Water." Before another song that I don't recall now he said "Joni taught me this crazy tuning!" at which point several in the audience starting calling out for her to come down to the stage and sing with him, but she didn't. He did beautiful renditions of "Pavanne", "Winchester Cathedral," "49 Bye Byes," and also "Immigration Man," "Pre-Road Downs", Marrakesh Express," "Wasted on the Way"" and "Military Madness." Graham's wife Susan was standing next to us at one point and we talked to her a bit. She is beautiful and very sweet. So you know me - had to go check out the smoking porch upstairs and while I'm on my way there I run into the two guys from the ticket line heading the same way (and passing Jackson Browne on the way). So they start talking about Joni again and I asked if they knew her and they said yes. I asked what the one guy did and he said he mastered records - asked his name and he said Joe Gastwirt (!) This is the man who did all the remastering of Joni's (and CSN's and Grateful Dead's and a host of others ) albums for HDCD. He also did the CSN box set and Joni's "Hits." Amazing - very friendly and nice guy and he said Joni and Graham are his favorite people to work with. Back downstairs for more Graham, who introduced with mock irony his first encore as "the song I will be singing the rest of my fucking life" "Our House" ;-) and then ended with "Teach Your Children." After the show Darice and I were supposed to meet John, the tour manager up on the exclusive third floor because he was supposed to take us into the dressing room. We got up there and he told us to wait just one minute at which I ran out for another smoke, running into Joe Gastwirt again. Darice followed me out. Well, it's all my fault because John came out frantically looking for us and said he'd had them all lined up but thought we'd left - argh! He did take us to meet Graham for a quick bit and as we were heading that way, Joni was heading past us, probably to the smoking porch! Ha! She really looked good - slim and stylish and healthy but that was the last we saw of her. After meeting Graham, we headed into the Foundation Room and hung out at the bar a bit with uber-photographer Henry Diltz who was as fun and nice as ever. I made Darice show him the blow-ups of Mick Jagger and Brian Jones that she took with her Brownie camera in San Diego in 1964 - lol - he got a kick out of them. Mr. Klein was sitting on the other side of us, but was with someone and we didn't interrupt him ;-) Met some other interesting people and Darice will have more to tell. It was really, really fun for these old girls ;-)
Kakki
