Concert Review
Silver Reef Casino, Ferndale, WA.
August 2, 2008
This is a review of the concert that David Cassidy put on in Ferndale WA on August 2nd 2008.
I have been lucky enough to see David in concert 4 times in the last two years, and this was by far the best one yet. The three previous times I saw him when he came to Oregon (Lincoln City in 2006 - two nights), and in May of this year in Canyonville Oregon. There were complications at the previous concerts: in Lincoln City first night, he had had a long flight, and his equipment wasn't working, and then in Canyonville he had laryngitis, and was not able to do a lot of singing.
This time he was in fine form, and things were really great. The venue was VERY small - only 440 seats, and there was not a bad seat in the house. The seating was general seating, and so my friend and I had gone to the casino earlier in the day to pick up our tickets, and try to scope out the place where he would be performing.
We had made the mistake of planning a long weekend (starting Wednesday night) since we had to drive up to Ferndale for David on Saturday. We took a ferry up to the San Juan Islands and took in a whale watching tour. We saw lots of whales, and got pictures of them. We stayed overnight at Friday harbor and took the ferry back on Friday night to Seattle. We stayed in Seattle on Friday night and drove up to Ferndale to get our tickets on Saturday morning. We had reserved a room in Surrey Canada for Saturday night after the concert - since Surrey is only about 30 minutes drive from Ferndale. Then we could go to the zoo or the aquarium in Vancouver BC on Sunday.
Soooo, after getting our tickets and talking to the lady in the ticket area, we determined that seating should be pretty good, so we would get in line about an hour before the concert, and believe for the best.
After we left the casino, we headed up to Canada to drop our stuff off in the room, so that we didn't have to carry it in the vehicle all day. No problem, breezed through Canadian customs, and found the hotel within 30 minutes. Piece of cake!! It is now 11:00 AM, and we're thinking we should find a place for lunch, and head for the border around 3:00 PM or so. Then, I got a sensation in my head, and decided maybe we should cross the border into the U S again, before stopping for lunch. It is now around 12:30 PM, and we think... "okay, we can wait another hour or so for lunch." We get with in 2miles of the U S border, and cars are backed up for miles. It took us 5 and 1/2 hours to go 2 miles and cross back in to the U S . It was unbearably hot, and we were literally creeping and stopping to the border. Fortunately, we had snacks and water in the car, so that we did not get too hungry or thirsty while waiting. But as it turned out, if we had waited until 3:00 PM to try and cross we would have missed the concert completely. Thank God for intuition!! As it was we got in to the U S about 6:00 PM, found a place to get some dinner, and off to the casino we went. We got in line about 6:30 PM and there were only about 15 - 20 people in line ahead of us ( we were really surprised to find that more people hadn't been lining up earlier). So, our chances of getting a good seat were phenomenal. When they finally opened the doors up, we determined that 4th row, left of center was the best place to be, so we went and grabbed our seats. {We were in 10th row center in Canyonville, and felt like they were the perfect seats for picture taking and such - you don't have to look UP at him all night, and you're close enough to get really clear and good pictures of him.} We felt the same way in Ferndale. We did not want to be any closer, because it is not the best vantage point for photo opportunities. We purchased a really great camera before the second concert we saw David perform in, and so we have phenomenal zoom and focusing ability. So, we like to sit back a ways, and look straight ahead instead of up.
We had heard from the promoter, Lenny, when we purchased our tickets that they usually get the performers to hang around after the concert to sign photos and talk to people and such, so we were hopeful that this would happen. We took some photos from the concert in Canyonville, and had them enlarged to 8 X 10's and bought some colored sharpies, so that we could hopefully get them signed.
When we got to the casino that morning, there were flyers and posters of David everywhere, so before we left the casino, we asked about getting one of the flyers or posters. They said they just recycled them, and so after the concert they were available on first come, first serve basis. At the hotel entrance, they had two flyers, so we determined to get one before we left. Neely, my friend, would go down there after we got our seats and see about getting a flyer. So . . .after we got our seats, she headed down to get her hands on one. She came back a few minutes later with one in her possession. They did not want to give them out before concert, but she can be VERY persuasive.
Then, we settled in to wait for the concert to start. We had visited with a couple in line, and asked how the casino felt about picture taking at the concert. They said the casino kind of frowned upon it. We were a bit disheartened to hear that, but decided to ride it out, and see what happened. Immediately, when people got in to the area, they started taking pictures, and getting their cameras set for the shots they wanted, and no one tried to stop them - so we were feeling a lot better about our opportunity to get some pictures (I'm a picture fanatic - Neely and I took over 800 photos of David in Canyonville). We had also purchased a new camera with great video capabilities to try to capture the concert on video. We weren't sure how that was going to go over, but had to give it a shot.
When David came on stage, he was in a great mood. He loved the smallness of the venue, and the fact that he could see and hear everyone in the place. I have not seen him look that happy and healthy yet in the concerts I have seen, and it was a really great evening. He started out with "Hush", and then went in to some Partridge songs. There was a lot of interacting with the audience. He kept commenting on how intimate the venue was ( At one point he said, "You all have a key to my shower, right?"). There was someone in the audience celebrating their birthday (as usual), and he took a moment to wish her a happy "35th" birthday. The drinks had been flowing pretty freely as people were waiting in line, and so there were quite a few "relaxed and uninhibited" people there that night. There were some in the left corner that called themselves the "cougar corner". He asked them if they meant the Washington Cougars college team. He then found out a cougar is an older female that dates younger men. So he says to them, "And I fall into the younger man category?". He had a bit of fun with them, and then got back to singing to "get away from the cougars". He also spent a good deal of time talking about his life and career, and choices he had made. It was very personal, and touching to hear him just share a bit about himself. The audience was very hushed and taking it all in. Someone from the audience yelled out that he had done "Dragnet". He responded by saying (as only David can with the smirk on his face) "I did Adam - 12. Don't confuse me with those "Dragnet" people. That elicited a lot of laughter from the crowd.
When he did Echo Valley, he was handed a cell phone, as is the routine. But, this one was evidently all in Japanese, and he could not understand it. So, he is looking at it funny as he finishes the song, and then he goes into this long conversation in his best Shogun impression, and is trying to sound Japanese. It was hilarious.
He did his tribute to John Lennon on the acoustic guitar, and had everyone join him on "Hide your Love". He had the audience do the "hey" part. Someone in the audience couldn't count (or had too much to drink) and could follow the cue. He kept saying it too early. David had a good time with that one as well.
Later, he got to do something he said he has waited for years to do. Teri came up front and sang a song, and David accompanied her on the drums. He looked so happy back there, and when he would look at her, he had the look of a proud papa on his face, as she performed. Getting to play drums really pumped him up a lot. He was flying after that.
He got toward the end of the concert, and was performing "I Think I Love You', and touching people's hands, and greeting them and such. I did not myself see it, but Neely said that a few women grabbed him and tried to pull him off the stage. So, he abruptly ended the song, and off the stage he went. We hung around for an encore, or to see if he was going to do the meet and greet; but he did not. It's sad to think that these few rabid people, had to spoil what was turning out to be a great evening for David. He was having such a great time, and to have people be so unthinking and insensitive really made me sad.
So, as we were hanging around, we saw Lenny, and Neely grabbed one of our pictures and a sharpie, and went to him to see if he would take the picture back to David and get it signed. He said "no" at first, but as I told you, she can be very persuasive. She showed him the picture, and said we had taken it at the last concert. He looked at it, and said - "okay." I was clear across the room at the time, talking to some other fans. I looked over at her, and she looked so stunned. So, I went to her to see what was up. She had the signed picture in her hand, He had actually signed it for us. We were so excited, and others came over to check it out, and ask how we had gotten it signed. Neely relayed the story to them. We had gone out into the casino then, because Lenny said David would not be coming out. A woman that was there told us to go back in to the concert hall because there was a rumor that he might come out later. So . . . in we went again. We got up to the stage, and the fans were taking all kinds of things that David had touched. Lenny came by, and Neely asked him about getting one of the promotional posters. He looked really lost, like he had too much on his mind or something. He said "Posters . . . don't go anywhere. Stay right here. So we stood there waiting, and Neely saw him out in the casino so she went after him. I stood waiting for him to come back, and he never did, so I started toward the exit again. Lenny came by, looked at me and said " I have promised these posters to people, but if I have one left over . . . Here, take the banner." Neely came back at that time, and she had a poster in hand. I had a banner. I didn't know what it looked like. I could see it had David's name on it, but that is all. (It wasn't until we got back to the hotel, that I discovered the banner is 5' x 2' with his name, his picture, and the casino information on it.0 It looks awesome. Since we couldn't find a billboard to take a picture of, I took one of the banner. We made a photo collage of concert pictures with the billboard in the center spot of the photo frame.
Anyway, I digress. We hung around a bit longer, and then Lenny said "He is not coming back out." Teri was still on the stage talking to fans, so Neely wanted to tell her she really enjoyed Teri's singing and the song she had chosen. Teri had one drumstick in her hand (which David had used) and Neely was just about to ask for it when a guy asked if he could have it. We figured we had gotten enough stuff for the night, that we would let him have it. We talked to Teri for a few minutes, and then made our way out of the casino, and back to our car.
Fortunately, it only took 20 minutes to get back in to Canada, and another 30 to our hotel. We were wiped, and still had to do the zoo the next day.
I pray that all of David's fans will get to see him soon, and that he will be as "ON" as he was in Ferndale. If I never see him again, this last concert was a great finale. If I get the opportunity to see him again, I will be ecstatic!! Either way, it was the chance of a lifetime, and I shall not soon forget all the great things that occurred that night. Oh, and we found a different route back into the US on Sunday night. It only took us 20 minutes.
Thanks for partaking of my memories!!
God's Best to you all!!
Deanna
