#2241 Steve Miller Band at Red Butte Garden

Yesterday after lunch I was in a bit of a crappy mood. I was scheduled to work at the concert at Red Butte Garden that night doing clean up. The show was sold out, so I'd have to find a place to hang out to watch the show and parking would probably be troublesome and the lunch I had wasn't what I really wanted, so I was feeling out of sorts and kind of grumpy.

Then cute Catie who manages the concert volunteers called me and said she had an opening in recycling that night and she knew it was short notice, but did I want to take the shift? Hell yeah I wanted the shift! Recycling is a good gig for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's one of the longest shifts. Long shifts = more volunteer hours. It's all about the hours, friends. Second, the recycling stations offer a good place from which to see the show and have plenty of dance space.

Even with my grumpy mood, I was excited to see and hear the Steve Miller Band. The dude has a lot of hits!

I had to do west side recycling because Thelma and Gu beat me to the venue by a couple of minutes and claimed the prime east side recycling location. Why is east side better? There are a few reasons. First, the stage is slightly angled to the east, so the view is better from that side. Second, it's a much smaller area with a lot fewer cans. Third, the west side is where the entrances and exits are, so many more people bring their garbage and recycling to the west side to dispose of on their way out. There are probably 15 containers (five sets of the three types: garbage, aluminum and plastic, and glass). You gotta be on your recycling toes on the west side pretty much all the time.

Still, I managed to dance and sing and have a great time. Some of the guests even sang and danced along with me. It's all in good fun.

There were three acts to the show. The first singer was Matt Anderson. I got to hear him do parts of songs at sound check. I thought he was really good but I also thought he was testing for Steve Miller or Marty Stuart. Nope. He's his own artist. He did a short acoustic set and was fantastic. The crowd loved him and gave him a standing ovation. What a voice! One of the other volunteers told me she was going down to the backstage area to try to find him. I don't know if she succeeded.

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives were next. From far away, Marty Stuart looked just like he always has with the big grey/silver hair. He sounded wonderful. The band was excellent, fully living up to their name. I loved it when they played some old-timey tunes with Marty on the mandolin and a guy on guitar and another guy on a stand up bass and they gathered around a single mic. They covered the Woody Guthrie song "Pretty Boy Floyd" and Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". So fun!!

Steve Miller Band came out around 9:00. I realized earlier in the day that I had no idea what Steve Miller looked like. I had to google him. In one photo, I thought he looked a bit like Russell Crowe.

Russell Crowe

Steve Miller

LOL

I think every person knows or at least has heard a song by the Steve Miller Band. I mean, "The Joker"? It's a classic. Even my friend Kelsie has heard that one! I only had to sing the first line and she knew it.

Did you know that Steve is 75? He sounded really good. I couldn't see him at all, but he was out there for a long time singing and playing. They did all the hits, plus brought out Marty and the band for some extra country/blues tunes that were fun to listen to. The biggest dancing happened at the end when Steve played "The Joker", "Jet Airliner" and "Rock'n Me".  It was a fun show!

I got home around 11:15 or so but it took about half an hour to wind down and get ready for bed. It was a short night of sleep, but I did okay today.

I've got five more shows to work plus one where I'm just going to be a guest. It has been an awesome musical summer so far and I think the best are yet to come!