I've Still Got the Love for G & the Special Sauce

So every time I see G. Love and Special Sauce live, I remember why they are and have been my favorite band since I first saw them in 1997, in Columbia, Missouri. They, in my opinion, are the best live performing band. G. Love has an enormous amount of energy. He works the room and the crowd. And well I love them.

So that being said, here's the skinny about my trek to St. Andrew's Hall in Detroit to see him. I meet Olive and Angie around 5:30 pm. We needed to get some food and a drink. So because I am obsessed with G. Love we went to St. Andrew's first to see if there was a line. The doors didn't open until 8 pm and it was much too cold to wait from 6 pm until 8 pm, but we (I) needed to see what the situation looked like. Well good news: no line. So we parked the car and went to Sweet Waters tavern for dinner, were we meet some other G. Love fans who where doing the same waiting to wait in line, until the last minute. These fans were of course college students from Central Michigan University. Yes, I feel in love with G.L.A.S.S. in college and it seems that his fan base is getting exceedingly younger.

Oh well. At 7 pm we noticed four brave souls in line. So I dragged Olive and Angie at 7:15 pm over to St. Andrew's to wait the 45 minutes in the sub-zero temperatures, so that we could get a spot in the front row. We got over there to find out only that if we had been minutes earlier, we would have meet G. Love, something that I have never managed to do. There was a college girl, whom we will call Fighter #1 ( pictured below, I will explain the name later) who proudly showed us her picture and of course let me take a picture of her with her picture. I was very jealous, but I gave her nothing but love at the time, I will reveal later why I don't feel much love towards her anymore, but nor does anyone who was in the first five rows of the crowd. Ok so as we waited. I looked toward the bus hoping he might need to appear again before the line got crazy long, but no luck. We waited in the freezing cold feeling old, as we listened to three young men behind us talk about a girl who was "OLD" at 24 years old and then another guy who was "ANCIENT" at 25. I only feel better know that G. Love is closer to age to me than to them, not sure why that makes me feel better, but it does.

So by 8 pm with toes near frostbite they let us into St. Andrews. I made what seemed like a made dash, but it was more like a speed walk up to the front. Where we began to stand against the gate waiting for the concert to begin. Waiting inside however was much easier. As we waited, I stood next to a very young Canadian (18) named Linton. He is studying to be an electrician in Canada. I made he promise me that he wouldn't let anyone slip in between us. He is a good man, he kept his end of the bargain. And standing there for two hours, I learned a lot about him, especially that it was his first G. Love and Special Sauce concert. He seemed to have as much fun as I had my first concert.

The opening act was called Red Eye. They were a young band that is best described as a mix of Sublime and 311. It was an enjoyable opening act, which made waiting to see G. Love a little easier. However, now that I scour the internet I can't seem to find anything about them. I will keep looking and get back later. Olive and I are convinced that we will see them on some MTV music video awards in a couple of years.

So then they get off the stage, by clearing their own instruments. Which they had down to a science. The lights came up and they set the stage for G. Love. Of course now that crowd came pushing to get close. And low and behold Fighter #1 who had been not seen since we were outside came pushing her way to the front, in front of a crowd that had been waiting for nearly two hours now. She stood in front of some other girls trying to stand at the front between my friend Linton, the Canadian, and his buddy. Well they were nice and didn't tell her to go to hell, but the rest of the crowd did. Hence her name. She started screaming about how she had waited outside and you better think she deserve to come and stand in front of everyone . Then she proudly begin displaying her photo. Well her attitude didn't help her cause. That's when the woman behind me gave her, her opinion of her "bratty attitude." Fighter #1 responds, "If you want to hit me B$#tch, then go ahead." Woman behind me says, "No, you aren't worth it honey." Fighter #1 responds, "it would be worth getting hit to get you kicked out your a$$ takes up the space of two people." It was crazy, usually G. Love crowds of fun loving peace makers, Fighter #1 clearly doesn't fit this definition. So after the brew-ha-ha calms down. The girl continues to make loud rude comments, but I noticed about halfway through the concert she left, apparently she couldn't take the heat. There was no love lost with the rest of the crowd, which by the way I was on the rest of the crowds side, but didn't want to participate in the fighting, not my style.

Then about 10 minutes before the concert Angie is not looking well, the heat and standing is getting to here. I quickly steal (in a nice way) a water from the woman behind us and give it to Angie. However, it's too much Angie and Olive have to leave for about 15-20 minutes. The whole time I am standing there with our spots. I am torn between wanting to stay and I am worried about my friend. However I knew that if we had to leave, they would let me know and I would leave. Ok, I would be sad about it, but I wouldn't say anything and I would go. I am not that silly. Silly but not that silly, but anyways it didn't come to that. And the crowd that turned on Fighter #1 was the same crowd that vowed to let my friends have their well deserved spots back. (Which they did: Thank you Crowd!) Shortly after Angie & Olive left, security came and started handing out bottles of water to the crowd.

Ok, so it's taken a long time but we are finally here. G. Love , Jimmy Jazz and Houseman on the drums (there was a new guy on the piano, but I don't know him) come out on stage. It is awesome. They start off the set with a new song: Banger. It's not my favorite song but seeing G. Love in his suit, sneakers and Fedora made it an instant favorite. He sang a good mix of his new songs from the Lemonade album and a good mix of classics. I was happiest when he sang 76er's or I-76 which happens to be my favorite song.

Being in the front row is well worth the 45 minutes in the cold, and much longer on a warm day. I am glad it was only 45 minutes in the cold. He really plays the crowd. I always enjoy his eye contact. At one point he jumped off the stage almost onto to Olive (who was in the middle of Angie & I) we all didn't know what to do. Do you touch him? He's playing his guitar, do you touch the guitar? We were eye level with his junk. Well needless to say, it was shocking, but if did it again, I would have had a plan instead of just standing there in shock. Which is probably what I would do if I ever got a chance to meet him... I hope that I could at least mutter can I have your picture and you are my favorite and maybe something to make me look cooler than I am in reality, but we all know that is very unlikely.

I did manage to get some short video clips, I wanted to tape just one song, but I was worried that they would drag me out, like they dragged out the four pot smokers behind me, which scared the crap out of me. But they didn't say no recording or picture taking, but anyway, I didn't want to get booted and lose my fabulous spot in the front. So I just got some snip-its, which I am including on this blog. G.L.A.S.S. performed for about 2 solid hours.



It was awesome, however it made me wish I had gone to Chicago on Friday and Ohio tonight. But I am not sure I could have found someone to be foolish with me. If it was summer, maybe, but not in this cold.



One of the best parts of the concert was when G. Love brought out Steve the Bluesman a local from Detroit, whom he promised could play with him. It was a lot of fun. Steve & G really entertained the crowd. However, I must admit personally for me, I liked when G. Love was singing his slower songs by himself on the semi dark stage, sitting in his chair with his acoustic guitar and his harmonica. Yes, I am reliving it all over again. And still wishing I had gone to Ohio.



So my review of the concert: it was one of the best, and if you haven't seen him live, just do it. You will fall in love with G. Love and Special Sauce too.