Now for some videos
aak--videos not uploading--have to covert to a file format blogger likes better.
Glimpse at what's coming
comment on event
This Beck show was part of a fundraiser. Tipping Point is a fantastic organization. Really well-run and delivers on its mission.
That night there were cocktails, then a sit-down dinner for 800-900 people, followed by an auction. Beck was supposed to go on 9-ish. Doors were to open at 8:45pm.
In other words, 800 people have had dinner and bid on auction items. SOME of them would now transition from the area they were in to where Beck would be.
Background: this is a gargantuan airplane-hanger-sized, raw-edged warehouse, located directly on the water (i.e., a pier--Pier 48), that's been transformed by football fields' worth of wall-to-wall thick plus white carpeting with giant green polka-dots, and the rough-hewn concrete walls, pipes, vents, industrial bric-a-brac now draped in various colors of silk, 3 to 4 stories long, hung by masses of people on cranes the day before.
For many of them, this was a really important and fun social & community charity event, completely centered around Tipping Point--hobnobbing with other donors and contributors, getting the skinny on what marvelous things Tipping Point has done the past year, what's up for the year to come, tales about how people's lives have been positively impacted by the org, celebrity and sports figures giving endorsements and storytelling -- super high quality videos about the org, uplifting, inspiring -- people feel good about being there, and their affiliation with this group.
Some are also interested in Beck---but the Beck show is, really, for many of the event's guests who've already enjoyed a lovely cocktail party, multi-course dinner, entertainment and talks by celebrities, celebration of the organization, and then an AUCTION on top of that : (a) the denouement of the evening, or simply (2) 1 of several features of the After Party.
Outside in a festive makeshift courtyard was a collection of food trucks featuring all kinds of sweets and savories, as well as an array of bars serving different types of drinks, and scattered tall tables with heat lamps. Some of the younger people who'd been to dinner seemed to abandon the auction and flit outside in frocks and finery, where they would mingle in proximity of the 450 Bay Area teachers who'd been gifted with tickets for Beck, as well as volunteers and workers (lighting, sound, construction, etc) whose shifts were done, and--I'm guessing--the 300 or so people who bought tkts for $100. I know nothing about the $100 tkts. I read about the existence of those only afterward. So not sure whether people who bought tkts were allowed to dive into the scrumptious food trucks and open bars.
Things always start late, so even doors were slated to open at 8:45 I gambled and returned from dinner with a friend at 9:20pm. Sure enough, no movement outside. I mean, lots of movement, but no forward movement toward the area that I'd scoped out earlier that day, where the concert would be. As said, dinner was in one enormous area, that was separated from the vastness of the rest of the place by silk hangings. In other words, it felt private to people within. On the other side of the dinner area was the after-party space, which was also lushly carpeted but had several chill areas against the walls, basically big blocks and geometric shapes to be used as tables and seating -- all swaddled in astroturf. There were also a couple more bars in there---this was a vast open space tho, mostly, and the stage was at one end of it, at the end of the building.
As said, it would be almost impossible to do sound for that space---if doing sound means doing it the way you would expect it to be done for either a club or an outdoor show. The amount of time and effort that would have had to have been poured into perfecting the acoustics for a space like that would be prohibitive. Especially not knowing how many people would be in the space. It makes a difference for sound -- in a space made of concrete, with 3- to 4-story ceilings, where the cloth would not have been finished being hung from the walls until not too long before the show -- it makes a difference under those circs if you have 500 people clustered in front of the stage or 2000, and whether they will all be in a tight knot or scattered around. Also considering -- although the centerpiece of the first 1/2 of the afterparty's entertainment -- that not everyone in that building would want to be blasted with sound while they were either still in the auction area, or in one of the chill spaces. They might opt out of the Beck portion all together. Hard to imagine for Beck fans, but this is how it is. And it didn't make sense, given all these givens, for SOUND to be "fussed over."
That said, skipping ahead, the sound quality varied, depending on where you were standing.
As said, I've been to many hundreds of shows at this point in my life, and customarily stand a couple/few "rows" from the stage. If you're looking toward the stage, I'll be to the left of Beck (aka "stage right"), so I can see what he's doing on his guitar and because he'll naturally be looking that way a bit more. Bonus if lead guitar is also on that side, so I can watch him and what he's doing - and interplay and interaction between the two of them.
So--I get back to Pier 48 after dinner--some people are drinking up a storm and making much merry outside in the courtyard. Some people are hovering by a particular door. I don't drink anymore and the wasted crowd vibe isn't all that appealing. I also didn't feel like standing in a clump and Waiting. So I saw an unguarded door and went in. Landed in curtained vestibule. To the left I could hear the auction ROARING with activity still. This is 9:20 (almost 1/2 hour after it was scheduled to wrap). To the right I knew was the stage. A small clatch of people followed me in, loud and boisterous, and were booted out by 2 guards who suddenly appeared. Maybe because I was already standing there when they came in I didnt get kicked out. Or maybe because I was on the phone and didnt pay attention to them. Or maybe they were being really nice. I considered escaping from the curtained verstibule but I would have had to actually run to make it from there to the dinner area and then "hide" OR I'd pop out in the after-party area, which is as exposed as a wide open football field. So I bided my time and talked to my friend.
This limbo continued for another 20 minutes. The auction refused to wind down. The outside people were getting (a) restless and (b) more wasted. My guess was the curtains would be drawn back from the dinner/auction and those people allowed to walk that vast expanse to the stage to claim their places. After that, THEN the doors to the outside courtyard would open. As soon as I heard people leaving the dining area, I bolted. The stage was a good short-block away. I could see people in formal dress were already planted on the stage, saving themselves and others places. There were also very monied-seeming fundraiser guests barging into the area. I grew up in a fairly affluent area on the east coast, and not a stranger to fundraisers...but this was something different. This was apparently a lot of relatively new Silicon Valley gelt. And these people had just dropped 10, 20, 30, 60, 200 thousand dollars on the auction. And these determined driven people had already decided they'd be getting the very best possible line of sight available to Beck.
Add auction adrenaline and booze. Shake.
One guy in self-consciously eccentric attire (think: clown meets used car salesman meets Justin Timberlake by way of Jean-Paul Gaultier) was using his wheelie bag as a battering ram, making people move - guess he was heading straight to SFO after the show. When I saw Wheelie I knew this was no ordinary crowd vibe. This was a scene Darwin would be interested in...or maybe a sociologist from the future. There appeared to be a complete absence of the kind of bonhomie or shared joy you get at shows.
As said, girls in the very front were sitting on the stage staking spots for themselves and friends. They would drop to the floor when Beck came on. They could not, however, sit on the center-stage speaker. So that's where I planted myself. Quickly. And literally had to hold onto the speaker because people who'd been at the auction were not arriving in droves and trying to force their way into places of rightful privilege.
Before any music started, a short jolly looking fat man--who must have money because young women were all over him--started humping my ass. My guess is this is a tactic that, in the '90s, was unintentionally successful in making women flee - but he's kept it as a court of last resort in case he wants to get a better spot at a show. Didn't work. I looked at him and he stepped back.
I've never had to literally hold my place like this. I didn't dare look behind me, which I ordinarily would've, to see what the crowd was like, but when I started to, someone immediately started pushing into the "space" I'd created by turning sideways. I had to force them back out and resume facing front, gripping the speaker. I did get to know people directly to my left and right -- they were ok.
The executive director of Tipping Point came on stage. He is a fox, seemingly very cool, as well as, apparently heir to Levi Strauss fortune - which would put him on my Favorite People List. Not because he is a fox (he is). Not because he seems really cool (he does). Not because he's wealthy (don't care). But of all the things he could be doing with his life, running a kick-ass poverty organization is one of the best things I've ever heard. I mean, not even being on the board or running a foundation (which would also be rockstar) but being the ED. Anyway, he was charming, funny and gracious and thanked everyone AND told us that---back in auction land---Sergey Brin had just made a bid of $1million (go Sergey!) and challenged others to match his bid (go Sergey!!), and that people stepped up.
And that Tipping Point made $6.4 million that night -- which is unheard of!
I was almost in tears - being the nonprofit and do-gooding geek that I am - plus just about to see Beck 12 feet away.
But that feeding frenzy vibe of grabbing space by the stage made more sense now. The money flying around that night was preposterous --and --perhaps the headiness of that, plus the competitive bidding, made a few otherwise perfectly nice people kinda aggro.
How might that have affected Beck? What kind of audience was it for him? I don't know. I couldn't see what the audience was like. If they were anything like the the women here (thanks again, Ryan Smith) I would think that would be pretty fun for him. High energy at least.
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