Tulsa to Little Rock
There was no real chance to do any tourism in Tulsa. By the time I got up and got packed, I needed to get on the road so I’d be in Little Rock in time to get ready for the show.
There’s not much to be said about the drive from Tulsa to Little rock. Wildflowers reappeared and so did the road kill. Dead armadillos make so much more sense in southern Oklahoma than they do in Missouri.
Most of the trip was spent running from a big black rain cloud that made the sky far more interesting than the scenery. At least until I hit Arkansas…then the scenery went all WOW! The Ozarks, man, don’t underestimate them. Unfortunately the rain persisted and I was kind of pressed for time, so no great pictures. I swear, I’m going back though. Another thing Arkansas gave me was so much honeysuckle that the air was sweet with the scent even at 70 miles per hour. I sneezed for five miles.
No photos of the show due the Verizon Arena being jerkwads and not allowing cameras. I got there about an hour before the doors opened. Parking was a breeze! The Burger King across the street was whoring it’s parking lot out for the gig and they were literally right next to the on-ramp of the highway back to my hotel. Sweet!
My tickets for the Little Rock show were definitely nose-bleeders, but when I got there, all of balconies were closed. Due to low ticket sales, they were shifting us down to the main floor. So, if the show wasn’t sold out, why did Ticketmaster give me nosebleed sets on fan pre-sale? Bastards! Anyway seat upgrade so, great right? No, meh. I was only 3 rows back from the floor but a full 4 sections further from the stage. :P
How lame is it that Little Rock didn’t sell more? One guy claimed it was because it was a Wednesday night, but Tulsa was filled to the rafters on a Tuesday, so I concluded that Little Rock is just lame in general. LOL. Seriously though, the Arena was 2/3rds full but the crowd was a bit lethargic at first but by the time Motorhead finished, they were roaring and ready to GO! So, there is hope for Little Rock after all.
I had a nice seat on the aisle so my view was unobscured. However, there was a woman behind me screaming like a howler monkey on fire, so that sort of wrecked my buzz a little bit. Thank goodness I brought ear plugs. Of course the earplugs didn’t help with the noxious gas attack someone near me had toward the end of the show. I eventually moved to the top near the entrance, just to evade the methane. Seriously dude, try some Immodium or something.
The light show when they played Generator was mind blowing, but I think the Little Rock performance of Stacked Actors may be the best performance of that song I have ever seen (check YouTube, there are zillions of them). Everything about it was perfect smokin’ rocktastic head-banging bliss!
One of the most charming moments of the show, was Dave shoving Chris Shifflet to the front of the stage for the guitar solo of Tie Your Mother Down (a Queen cover). Chris is sort of shy for the lead guitarist of a major rock band. The Foos also covered School’s Out by Alice Cooper…the crowd went nuts!
Another fun moment came during the encore. Dave was playing acoustic from the platform at the far end of the floor and he sort of got fixated on something in the audience. He asked “Super enthusiastic guy” to do “that thing again…the one where I can see your belly hanging out of your shirt.” I couldn’t see the guy but every time he did it, Dave laughed and gave the guy the thumbs up, then he dedicated Times Like These to Super Enthusiastic Guy.
Seeing the show twice in a row makes you realize how much of it is rehearsed and how much of it isn’t. However, I’ve been a Foo Fighters fan long enough to know that Everlong comes at the very very end…always. Although I do love the tune, it’s not my favorite and while I hate to admit I’d walk away with my boys still on the stage, when Everlong started I slipped out to beat the traffic. My feet were aching from standing up so long and I was tired beyond belief. It was kind of cool being able to clearly hear the Foo Fighters from a whole block away outside at night.
I feel kind of gypped that the day didn’t yield any photos, but I had a blast anyhow.
I forgot to mention, at one point in the show Dave started wafting the air up and inhaling with a dreamy look on his face. "I smell the sweet scent of marijuana," he said with a big grin. "Not that I do drugs. I'm sure it's medical, right? Yeah, kids, don't do drugs unless you have glaucoma or some shit."
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