2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#281

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::grin::
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#282

Post by hotouthere »

Hi everyone...sorry it took me so long to find time to present my recap!

I attended the Glendale (Phoenix) concert and was very happy to meet up with and visit with a couple members from this forum. My friend and I drove 144 miles from Tucson to Gila River Arena with a stop along the way at Mills Mall to buy some new shoes at my favorite shoe store and have lunch. We arrived at our hotel, Spring Hill Suites and mostly spent time indoors enjoying our very cool, comfortable room and staying out of the miserable heat. Then we joined in a pre-concert party with a bunch of FaceBook fans at the Yard House. It was a very nice restaurant/bar that had quite a large selection of food and drink items. I enjoyed a couple delicious fish tacos while my friend had one of their specialty burgers. The only thing I have to criticize is that the music was a bit too loud for socializing and it wasn't until we were getting ready to leave that they finally played a Queen song or two!

Before the concert, I was given the impression that we had to move our vehicle into the arena parking lot which cost $20. When we were headed out to the car, there were crowds of people walking through the lot where we were parked so we inquired and they all said that we did not have to move our car which was great since we were parked very close to the arena entrance. Then, we walked the short distance to the area where the lines of people were being screened. They had metal detectors to walk through and they checked our purses. I used my see-though purse that I use for attending college sporting events and had very few items in it. The screener was happy to see it and said that it made his job much easier!

We entered the venue with very little time to get to our seats. I looked at the line for T-shirts and decided against trying to buy something as it was extremely long. I already have a 2014 T-shirt so getting another wasn’t high on my list of priorities especially since I was footing the bill for two tickets and the hotel room. I can't complain because my friend was nice enough to offer the use of her car and she paid for the gas. Otherwise, I would have had to rent a car since I don’t trust my 20 year old Van to go long distances in 115+ degree heat!

If you saw my Periscope, you know that we were seated about half way up on the right side facing the stage. I think we had a great view and the people in front of us weren’t too tall! I was able to hold my cell phone about neck high and didn’t have to block anyone’s view. The drawback of doing a Periscope transmission is that you have to be quiet and very still to get a decent video...two things I don't do very well. Also your hands get pretty tired…especially with my big ass heavy phone! I was getting a ton of notifications and you could hear them on the video. Sorry about that! I forgot to mute or turn off notifications to prevent that from happening. I was able to fix the problem during one of the quick breaks. I also found that it was difficult to stop recording because Queen just keeps performing. They are like the Energizer Bunny…they just keep going and going! Then, there were a few times when the transmission seemed to be stuck and one time when I couldn’t re-establish a connection. Another problem was that even though I chose the setting to save my videos on my phone, my third one didn't get saved. Thank goodness for the experts who gave us some great videos once the Youtube bandits stopped stealing and blocking them.

My impression of the concert: It was SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALADOCIOUS! (Hope I spelled that right!) Adam was at his best ::yes:: and it was like the band never took a break from the last tour. I didn’t detect any problems with the sound and didn’t even notice Adam rescuing Brian from the blast of fake smoke. It is always such a pleasure to hear Adam’s voice in person…watching YouTube videos just doesn’t reveal the superb quality of his voice. Considering that it was the first performance of this tour, I was happy to see Adam really attacking the material and also enjoying the silliness of some of the songs and props he had to play with. The last North American tour, it took him a few concerts before he really found his comfort zone with the music and staging. Like he mentioned, he would just stand and watch Brian play guitar and forget that he was supposed to be out there performing! His confidence in moving and performing has become much more developed. I am also very impressed with his wardrobe. He always comes up with something different but definitely this collection lives up to his special sparkly Adam awesomeness! As for his hair, it is definitely memorable! I am impressed that it goes really well with his wardrobe. The only thing I didn’t like about the show was that they couldn’t keep going a few more hours. I would have been up to the challenge of sticking around for most of the night! By the way, this was my first concert at Gila River Arena and I was very impressed with the acoustics and seating as well as the fact that there are numerous restaurants, a movie theatre, a shopping mall and even a bowling alley nearby! Next time I'll stay longer and bring my bowling ball!

After the show, we celebrated with an ice cream from the shop across from the arena. We spent the next day shopping and having lunch in a little diner located in an antique shop in the older part of Phoenix. It is always so much fun to enjoy a little exploring and sightseeing and socializing along with attending the concerts away from my hometown. Then we proceeded to drive back home during the hottest part of the afternoon! Thank goodness, we made it without any problems.
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#283

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::smile::
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#284

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::hello::
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#285

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::hello::
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#286

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::hello::
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#287

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::yes::
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#288

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::hello::
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2017-06-23 Gila River Arena, Phoenix, AZ

#289

Post by madamimadam »

The OP has been updated. ::hello::
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