Jimmy Buffett in Concert

Of course, the reason I went to Sydney in the first place was to see Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band in concert at the Hordern Pavilion.  I probably would have gotten there eventually, but this was probably the best reason I would have.

My plan on upon buying a single ticket to a Jimmy Buffet concert was originally to fly in, hit up the grocery store and the bottle-o and head down to the tailgate party and make friends.  My research into the concert venue and the planned events led me to the saddest forum post I have ever read.  It said that Australians don't tailgate before a concert normally, and for Jimmy it probably wouldn't change.  I couldn't believe it.  So when I got to Sydney I did the Australia day thing instead.  I did catch the bus to the concert about 2 hours before the gates opened though.  Surely something must be going on.  Directly across from one of the sets of gates I found this:

It was obviously a grass parking lot during bigger events.  It is difficult for me to imagine the mayhem that that field would be hosting in the States two hours before gates.  Its a small venue but clearly, a couple of thousand of Parrotheads in the US would have put that field to good use.

With the area immediately next to the pavilion empty, I would have been able to hear any blender within a mile.  So I walked up past the Sydney Cricket Ground to look for other parking lots that might be filling up.  Again nothing.  So back down to the pavilion and into the adjacent Fox Studios.  As I rounded the corner I found it.  The single bar that was home to about a hundred Hawaiian shirts, various odd hats, grass skirts and a whole lot of happiness.

So I stayed amongst this phlock until show time.  The Asian tourists walking through Fox Studios would stop to take a picture of the funnily dressed people all amassed at the bar.  I'd be generous if I said I was half the average age of the phlock.

Concert time came and I headed over.  A quick stop at the merchandise stand and I forked out some cash for my first ever concert t shirt.  Not that it wasn't just as expensive, but I thought it was probably justifiable.   I then made my way to my seats where I met my first set of parrot head friends a couple and her sister.  The sister decided she would claim me as her temporary son since I pointed out I was certainly the youngest person in attendance that bought their own ticket.  I was secretly hoping for a Margarita but to no avail.

The concert itself was fantastic.  It was a small venue so despite being one of the farthest sections away it was just fine.  The crowd was fairly mellow, taking in most of the concert seated.  Being in the last row, I didn't have to worry about courtesy or such things and stood the whole show.  Its probably because I have grown up on lawn tickets but sitting through a concert just feels wrong to me.  Jimmy and the band played a terrific set and although they took a break, they were staggered so the concert never stopped with Jimmy and Mack doing a solo and Nadirah doing another.  The playlist was:
1  Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes
2  Coconut Telegraph
3  It's Five O'Clock Somewhere
4  Pencil Thin Mustache
5  I Will Play For Gumbo
6  Pascagoula Run
7  Jamaica Mistaica
8  Come Monday
9  Weather With You
10  Volcano
11  One Particular Harbour
12  Brown Eyed Girl
13  Grapefruit-Juicy Fruit
14  It's My Job (ft Mac McAnally)
15  Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw
16  Creola (ft Nadirah Shakoor)
17  Take Another Road
18  Last Mango In Paris
19  Son Of A Son Of A Sailor
20  Gypsies In The Palace
21  Boomerang Love (last played in Mansfield, MA on 08.28.2003)
22  Cheeseburger In Paradise
23  A Pirate Looks At Forty
24  Southern Cross     
   Band Intros    
25  Margaritaville
    First Encore
26  Scarlet Begonias
27  Fins     
   Second Encore
28  Lovely Cruise  

The band did Scarlet Begonias and Fins and then Jimmy came back out alone for Lovely Cruise.  Throughout the concert he promised to come back to Australia for a full tour in a year.  And was excited to get to New Zealand and surf.

Unfortunately, as you probably know, Jimmy met a Gravity Storm after Lovely Cruise.  Its only ok to say that because it turned out OK (unless you had Aukland tickets).  For whatever reason he just walked right off the edge of the stage.  The place went silent and no one knew what to do.  The security and some people got to him quickly but only the front row would have known what was going on.  Eventually, Chuggs the Australian Tour manager came on stage with a microphone.  "As you are aware we have had an incident.  Please leave.  The show is over.  Please leave now."  And no one did.  Most of the people in the audience had been waiting 20 years for this concert and they just watched their hero walk off the stage and not get up.  Chuggs continued to tell us to leave.  Security started coming around ushering people out.  They expected us to leave faster than would have been possible if nothing had even happened.

Eventually I got outside and made my way around the pavilion to where the bus would be.  Walking there I saw a stretcher go slowly by one of the open doors.  Around the corner the ambulance was parked and a crowd had gathered.  We stood and waited for quite some time when Chuggs and his minions came out.  He told us how disrespectful we were being and how it was embarrassing for Jimmy and that we should all just leave.  The crowd angrily replied that we didn't care what he thought at all, because we were quite certain that Jimmy would want to know we cared.  He had just done a song about having his plane shot at in Jamaica for alledgedly carrying pot.  Certainly, this was going to be laughed at in the future, if we just new what the status was.  Chuggs growled again and went back inside.  One of the EMTs came a little closer and asked us to just hold our applause or cheers for a sign from Jimmy, a thumbs up or a wave or something.  We politely said thank you and when Jimmy came out just a voice or two said "we love you Jimmy!" at which point he promptly raised a defiant arm and waved emphatically.  And as they say, the crowd went wild. 

Phins Up!