[bomp] Weirdness at the Dylan Show

["Immortal Porpoises" <immortalporpoises@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually, before it. (Long Story Alert)

There were 8000 tix sold for the Willie Nelson / Bob Dylan show at Dutchess
Renegades Stadium in Fishkill, NY. Two of those were sold to me & my wife.

The parking lot is only built for the amount of seating that would fill a
ball game, which is around 4,000. So additional parking had to be arranged.
There is an abandoned ghost mall a few miles away with a humongous vacant
parking lot, and the promoters got 6 school buses to shuttle patrons to the
gig. Anyone calling for info starting around 3 PM was told that the stadium
lot was full and to proceed to the alternate lot.

But it was like FCC'ing Woodstock or something, because all exits off I-84
anywhere near Fishkill were backed up for miles. Somehow the promoters
forgot they were opening the gates at the peak of rush hour. According to
the cops (who swooped down to quell a riot that was not particularly likely
to break out in this mostly suburban & rural elderly crowd), the first six
buses out of the lot were expected to take about 90 minutes to 2 hours
getting to the stadium, and then 30 minutes for the return trip, followed by
another 90 minutes to 20 hours getting back to the stadium. There were at
least 500 people still standing in the lot when the cops explained all this.
That would take at least 10 buses, and there were only 6. Do the math.
Nobody was getting into the show if the show wasn't held up. A lot of people
wouldn't get into this show even if it were held up four hours. Only people
who went to the stadium before 5 PM were going to see this show.

People were calling their friends who were already in. The opening act,
whoever they were, went on exactly on time. We figured they were going to
extend their set. Nope. By 7:15 we were hearing Willie Nelson was already on
stage. People answering the phone at Ticket Master or the stadium were
clear: no refunds. People were leaving in disgust. One woman was
photographing the cops and the line as evidence in whatever small claims
action she was planning to file for her tickets. From where we stood it was
easy to see that traffic on I-84 was still at a standstill. By 7:35 the
crowd waiting for any returning buses was down to about 100.

I did some math and realized that even if the bus pulled up right then, we'd
get to the stadium just as Dylan finished his show, and then be stuck in the
exiting traffic trying to get back to our cars on the same bus, and then be
stuck on the backed-up highway trying to get home. My babysitting bill was
going to hit at least $60, and I wasn't even going to see the show. But just
like Donald Rumsfeld's acclaimed dead enders that can hold off the might of
the US Army, I decided that at this point I was going to just stand there in
that parking lot and see how this story's final chapter would read.

Just then two buses pulled in and we all climbed aboard. Cops pulled in
front of & behind the buses, turned on the sirens and lights, and just ran
all the traffic up onto the shoulders of the roads while busting those buses
right through. Everyone was hanging out the windows waving and screaming. We
ended up catching the last 6 Willie Nelson songs, including "To All the
Girls" on which Dylan disappointed me by not appearing for a duet. From
where I was standing it looked like some guy was standing up playing the
French Horn (is that a "Freedom Horn" now?) which I was sure I was
hallucinating, until Willie announced his band and that turned out to be
David Amram, who was indeed playing the French Horn, as well as tin whistles
(two at once, like Ornette) and misc. percussion instruments. I think
getting Amram to play with him makes Willie pretty FCC'in cool. Willie
closed with Pancho & Lefty, and we were more or less getting over our
parking fiasco issues.

Dylan's set was awesome. It was epic. A true stadium performance, it well
exceeded last week's up-close show at the Chance.

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