USGP 2007 - Qualifying and Race Day, Indianapolis, IN

University of Illinois, Urbana, IL

Ah, Urbana. A wonderful university town and this may have been our last trip there. Our dearest friend, Nagraj, graduated on Mother's Day. This was our first trip in the summer to Urbana and it was a beautiful day to admire the serenity of a university town in summer. It feels so...undergraduate-free.

The commencement ceremony was the usual. Javed Karim's talk was fascinating - imagine graduating in 2004 and being a founding member of YouTube by 2005. Nothing makes a success story like the right brains in the right place at the right time! Two years earlier, it may well have bombed, now it is just too late. Innovation follows it's own time, slave to none - if it was to be, it was the right time for it to be.



Congratulations to Nagraj. This visit also motivated us to get closer to our own commencements faster! Will 2007 be the year? Will innovation come take Adi and me by the arm? Unlikely. More likely we will need to drag the damn bugger off his pedestal and beg him to take a trip with us.

The Who Live at Conseco Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, IN

Tis the morning after...I thought I'd write a review...have divided it into three sections: pre-show, the show and post-show.


Pre-Show:
After jaokman announced that he thought he had seen the "In the Attic" trailer-van, I headed down to Conseco at around 3:30pm - no such luck. But I stood in the 27F cold, Leeds LP and blue sharpie in hand and waited (an hour later I found myself singing Two thousand years...have I waited!)

Anyway, a solitary guy named John walked up - said he'd driven from Missouri to catch this gig...told me about the Who at the Fillmore East and three other occasions he had seen them...told me about Shea Stadium and the Beatles...we spoke for a long, long time and he kept me entertained in the cold...(I was born in the post-Moon era...this was my first Who show ever!).
I stood out till about 5:45pm, with no luck. Then, I headed back home to pick up my wife and I had also promised to get John something to eat. Returned by 6:20pm and what would you know - I had missed one limo: it had come in around 6pm and the security guy was told "it was the big guy", by which I assumed they meant Pete...I stuck out there, waiting for the second limo, which duly showed up around 7pm...I waved, danced, displayed my LP and sharpie, but the limo just dipped into the ramp to the loading dock. The security guy shrugged and I walked in to Conseco for the show...

The Show!
My seats were overlooking Pete, to his side - the best thing about the seats was (they were the closest I could get) that we were right above the entryway to the artists' dressing room, so they would all walk under, and look up at us and smile/wave on their way out...I just kept screaming "Thank you, Thank YOU!"

This being my first show and all, I must say it was incredible! I thought they sounded on the top of their game and performed very professionally - Roger's voice was spot on. I thought Endless wire and T&T at the end sounded better than they did on the album, but that may have just been the thrill of seeing them live...

The highlight of the night was Baba - at the end of Baba, there was a magical intensity in the fieldhouse as everyone kept clapping and would not stop till Pete broke it up. That was a moving experience - there is something about the intensity of a Who audience and the band that I have not seen at any of the other shows i have been to...I chose not to get distracted by having to take pictures and soaked in the show...hence no pics of the show itself, sorry! From where I was at, the band was in my line of view, not the screens, so I didn't get distracted at all...and since Pete and Roger stand a good 10 feet in front of the rest of the band, my eyes were trained on them all night long.

As far as the acoustics of the venue - I thought they were a bit lacking, especially when the opening act, The Tragically Hip played: I was worried the Who would sound like that too, but such was not the case. I think the Hip had 3 guitars competing with the vocals. Nonetheless, the bass was lost in the mix all night - Pino sounded muddy, even when he did the little Generation solo...the drums sounded awesome though, as did Simon's backing vocals...I read somewhere else that he was "superfluous"...I don't believe that for a moment...He polishes the sound and plays a very significant role in my opinion...the three-part harmonies on BWE were gorgeous. Zak was incredible as ever - saw him with Oasis, but he really blew me away last night.

PW was opened with the Tenacious D remark and Pete doing a mock flurry of strumming, before he got into the PW chords...T&T at the end was moving - I think Roger changed a lyric: instead of "One of us failed...", he said "All of us failed...". I think it was a super way to end the show...just the two of them and a guitar - don't you just love the fact that they can enthrall with as little as they need or as much as they can manage...

Another highlight was Roger smashing the tambourine to pieces---literally!!! Yay!!!

Post-Show:
I headed out and stood at the loading dock again...and met kubachek and burtonanderson...nice guys. Didn't go to the pub with them though, hope you two had a fun time. We waited there and 20 minutes later a limo pulled out: it was led by a cop car and an ambulance...no way were they stopping for 5 fans. Five minutes later another limo pulled out and was gone...I did see someone waving to us in both cars.

Summary:
So I didn't get my Leeds LP signed. But that's fine...I returned home without the slightest feeling of disappointment. Well ok, maybe just a little. The show was the best I have seen - the energy these two guys bring, inspirational. For now, that is what I will hang onto fondly...not many people can bring so much joy so quickly to so many...


TheWhoTour.com forum members burton and yoursdhruly outside Conseco waiting (in vain) for P&R (photo taken by kubacheck)

Finally, an old post (on one of my discontinued blogs) from Pete Townshend! In many ways, this surpasses a signature on an LP...

Check out Pete's blog: he is writing his memoirs!!! Wonderful stuff by a wonderful artist...what more could a fan ask for?
http://www.petetownshendwhohe.blogspot.com/

Indianapolis Salsa!

We've finished two months at Indy's IntoSalsa and it's been a great experience thus far. Month 3 begins in March (Advanced Beginner). The key difference in the way Salsa is taught here and was in Pune are the fact that the folks at IntoSalsa (indeed most Salsa schools here, it seems) do not focus on the technique early on at all, which makes it more fun for the beginner who is not constantly being asked to watch the angle of his/her feet. Also, a key stylistic difference is the Salsa here is less spread out - smaller steps, in compact patterns are emphasized over the more showy ballroomish Salsa we see back home in Pune. It is still Salsa though - quick, quick, slow! (or 1-2-3...5-6-7)

Interestingly, I noticed that there are at least three different Salsa organizations in Indy: IntoSalsa, IndySalsa and SalsaIndy...not very creative name-wise, but the websites of all three are very well done and worth a visit if you're into this sort of thing. We're yet to hit a dance floor outside of our class studio and will be doing that early next month!