UCLA-ROYCE HALL REVIEW/PHOTOS. . . here
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UCLA-ROYCE HALL REVIEW/PHOTOS. . . here
The previous weekend was time well spent in London with all the fans from the Abbey and TD show at the Forum. The cold wind and rain was to be expected! Thanks again to Colin and all the fans at the Abbey for welcoming my wife and I. On Sunday, my flight back to LA, I was still in TD mode from the concert. Looking ahead to Nov 7. I had Monday to recover from the quick trip over the pond and it was back to work on Tuesday.
After a very busy day of work at LAX , I was off to Westwood Brewing Company for the fan pre-meet. The drive from LAX to the Company took a little over an hour. 9 miles! This is a typical Friday afternoon commute on the 405 (northbound). Temperature for that day was in the mid to upper 80 degrees F. A far cry from the weekend before. By the time I got to WBC I was cold and thirsty. I arrived just past 4pm. Dale and Lorraine (a big thanks for setting up the pre-meet) was already there. I was the 2nd to arrive and after introducing myself, I put down my first pint (Stone’s Arrogant Bastard). The WBC is very much the place. They had around 20 bottles to choose from and another 20 on tap (including their own beer they brew. Great selection. About 20 minutes later some of the fans started to show up. A lady fan flew in from Florida and had another friend she had just met from online drove in with her. I’m so sorry for not remembering all the names at the WBC. Soon after the WBC started playing TD music. Not the newer stuff, but the old, really old classic albums. Wahn, Alpha Centauri, Tangram(my fav), etc. The WBC caters to the students of UCLA. So it was already full of students and more was coming in at that time. I don’t think many of them knew what they were listening to. They were probably too busy drinking and socializing to even notice. Most of the TD fans showed up from 5pm and on. By then I had finished off my 3rd pint and working on some food and more beer of course. By 6:30pm most of the 30 some fans had shown up and getting psyched up for the show. I left the WBC just past 7pm for the 5 minute drive to Royce Hall. Had another beer(Samuel Smith ale) in the lot, and it was off to the venue and merch stall.
Doors opened at 7:30pm. Unlike the Forum there were no pre-entry for the fans holding the TDOC cards (it didn’t matter as at the Forum, they let everybody in at the same time). Checking out the merch stall, they had 3 different design T-shirts for sale. An Electronic Meditation cover, an alien picture t-shirt(with tangerine dream written on top and ultima thule below the alien pic)-the one I bought, and the magic music design they sold at the London show. This one was different. The UCLA shirt was a bit heavier on the gold color. I liked the London magic shirt better. Glad I picked up mine in London. They also sold the alien shirt in long sleeve. Price-$25 US for the short sleeve and $30US for the long. CD selection was slim. Around 8 or so titles to chose from (all new including Choice and Fallen Angels, Booster, Anthology, Tangram 2008, even Iris’s cd). Missing was Edgars solo works and the KEEP. Glad I picked up my copy in London. No DVD’s. Very disappointed. There were no pushing and shoving to get to the front of the table. No thefts to report either. They had 3, sometime 4 individuals working the merch stall. Well done. When I presented them with my TDOC card for a discount, they looked at me like “What is that?” They had no clue.
After my time at the merch stall I went inside the venue. Very nice layout. Seats were cushioned. Balcony was u-shaped . Not sure how much it holds. I would say close to the Forum. Very clean. I sat in row S center section, seat number 10. I also had seats 12 and 14(isle) for my 2 friends that still hadn’t shown up yet. While I waiting for my friends to show I was talking to some of the fans around me about my trip to the Abbey and Forum show. At 8:10 the lights dimmed as the song Trauma opens with Linda at the spotlight. Bernhard was missing for the first 15 minutes. That’s when my friends showed up. 2 and half hours to drive from Orange County(Disneyland area) to UCLA. Normally a 1 hour drive. Edgar was at his usual spot. The stage was larger than the Forum. A large screen (2 pieces) behind the band covered from side to side. The usual overhead lights and 2 rotating lights next to Edgar and Thorsten. No lasers. No smoke. No camera crew. No UCLA DVD. Bummer. The visuals were similar to the Forum. But was hard to see at times from the overhead lights. The show lasted for 2 and half hours with 2 encores(Cloudburst Flight) compared to 3 hours and 3 encores for the Forum. Set list was similar to the Forum show, some songs taken out and others (from movie soundtracks) thrown in. I heard a cut from Flashpoint. But it was definently shorten. They still had the sound mix problem. Too heavy on the percussions and bass. Not as bad as the Forum. Most of the crowd there was to see TD. It’s been too long-14 years! Some of them never heard of TD, as they had bought a series subscription to Royce Hall events. I did see a few get up and leave after 30 or 40 minutes into the concert. Too bad for them. Some of them had first choice in purchasing tickets. After closing words from Edgar (hinting that they would like to come back to the US soon) the crowd headed out the doors, some heading back to the merch stall for what was left to buy. I took some pics of the crowd at the stall. Some of them asking me which cd’s to buy. Most seemed lost with TD’s newer cd’s.
A Royce Hall worker came out and announced that there would be a meet and greet around the corner. So those who were lucky enough to stick around headed in that direction. They had two tables with chairs set up for Edgar and band. Iris, Linda, Thorsten and Edgar came out a few minutes later to a well round of applause. There were about 50 or so fans waiting. Even saw Bianca taking pictures of the meet and greet. After a quick hand shake and hello to Thorsten, Linda, Iris and Edgar, I had to head home as I had to get up at 4:30am to go to work the next day. But not before mentioning to Iris that I was there to see them perform in London and flew back home to LA the next day. I think she was a little surprised that I was from LA. When I talked to Edgar in London, I mentioned that I would be there for the UCLA show too. He remembered! I said I would fly back next year to see them again. Edgar said that he would for sure have a concert next year. Where? We’ll just have to wait and see.
2 TD concerts in 1 week. Priceless!
Thanks to all the fans and EB n TD at both events for making this Dream come true. Till the next Dream.
I'm working on the pic's!