NOTE: I have changed some of Jake's quotes due to a much better copy of the concert that I got!

concert preview (from the Seattle Times)

I am at college away from Seattle and so I had to fly home for the concert (and miss some classes, oh darn!). On the airplane (Alaska Airlines) I was reading the little airplane magazine thing, and there was a story about a resort in Arizona, near Phoenix, called the Royal Palms. It said many celebrities had been spotted there, including Jake! (Of course, the article spelled his name wrong.) That was interesting.

I got to the Puyallup fair about an hour before the show would start (because of my flight), and over the broadcast system they were playing "Bringing Down the Horse"! Hey I bet people at the fair could hear the concert! I remember when I was at the 7/22/98 show, I could hear Pearl Jam outside of the Stadium. Both were outdoor shows. It had been raining a little before this show, but luckily not during the show!

I was in the front row! (It was reserved seating.) Unfortunately, there was a barricade that was about five or six feet away from the stage, and the guards were really anal about us going up to the barricade because of the guy filming the show for the monitors. Also, my seat (21) was on the far left (as in, Mike's side). But it was okay because then I could look that way and see all the guys in one view! Greg kept looking at me, cause he would look at Jake, then look a little farther and look at me. Also, another benefit to being in the front row-- no one blocking my view! The anal guards came in handy for that because they made people walk around the back of the section unless their seat was in the front row. Also, he wouldn't let people into the front to take pictures.

Lisa Loeb opened and I recognized a few songs. She was pretty entertaining (better than Sean Lennon at the last concert), although she seemed to have her jokes either on a teleprompt or on paper on the ground, cause everytime she'd say something, she'd look down. Even in the middle of phrases! It was a little odd. Oh speaking of odd, there was absolutely no security check to get in! The emcee for the night made a point that "no video recorders, digital cameras, or laser pointers are allowed." Hahaha, nothing about audio. Oh darn! (If you can't tell by reading the rest of this, I recorded the show, as did I the 7/22/98 show).

There were skydivers as entertainment between sets.

Finally the Wallflowers took the stage! Jake was wearing a black button-down shirt (wrinkled in the back) over a grey shirt (probably the same one as last time), and black pants and shiny black dress shoes. This was the same outfit he wore for the Portland show (9/6), and also I heard he wore that outfit to the Tulare, CA show two days later (9/19). He was drinking from his red plastic cup. Mike was wearing all brown (like at my 7/22/98 concert). He was drinking what appeared to be red wine because it was in a goblet and red colored. Mario was wearing a sort of purple colored shirt. There was a water bottle next to the drum stand. Greg was wearing all black. Rami was wearing a black suit, tan hat, and starting from "One Headlight" through the rest of the show he had a cigar in his mouth. He was wearing sunglasses the whole time-- but the Wallflowers took the stage at about 8:15pm, when it was dark!

The Wallflowers opened with "Tonight's the Night." I had heard them do this song on bootlegs, but not live before. They did a good job. It was stuck in my head after the show! Next they did "Ashes to Ashes," which they used to open the 7/22/98 show. "Angel on my Bike" was after that one, and after "Angel," Jake finally spoke.

"Alright, how you guys doin'? You know, there's always a bit of a tough competition at these fairs, with all the rides and all the pigs and sheep... we always hope at the end of the night you'll come and see us. (puts his hands up as a visor so he could see people farther away through the stage lights... I know all about that from performing in choir!) You guys aren't really going to sit down all night-- are you?"

"One Headlight" was the next song. This was the first song that probably most of the audience recognized of the Wallflowers' songs. There were a lot of families there since the show was at the fair.

"Thank you. This is called 'Bleeders.'" Yep, "Bleeders" was the next song.

"Three Marlenas" was next. Another crowd pleaser of course. Afterwards, Jake had this to say:

"Everybody still with us? Say that once more? I do agree. Hey Mario, for this next one, I was thinking you start it with like a rolling drum fill... we'll just, we'll just figure it out from there."

"Sixth Avenue Heartache" was next, and Jake did the following introduction during the song:

"I'd like to introduce, on the guitar and all those smashing background vocals that are doing their best to put me in tune, this is Michael Ward. (pointing to keyboards) On the guitar-- no okay that was guitar, here are the keyboards. You know he plays on so many records these days, that you know, the four of us, it's a treat for us tonight to get to play with him. He is in our group, but I tell ya-- and I don't mean this in a bad way-- he gets around. I keep hearing he's played on this record, he's played on that record. I've played with him for about eight years now... what's the hype? The look is great, the hat is great... Let's all take a listen right now cause I'm kind of curious too-- what's the big deal? Let's listen, he's going to play all of his keyboard wizards-- no that wasn't it... Rami Jaffee. (weird chord) That's the big deal right there. Wow. I do have to say, I feel like I set him up there a little bit. Rami, that was wonderful. Ladies and gentlemen, once again the legendary Rami Jaffee."

"God Don't Make Lonely Girls" was next, followed by "Laughing Out Loud."

After "Laughing Out Loud":

"We're going to try something that's a little bit quieter, but it's equally exciting."

"Josephine" was the one Jake was talking about, and was next. It was so pretty! This is random, but I noticed Jake's breathing during this song. He was taking deep breaths, using his chest. My choir teacher wouldn't have liked that. She always said to breathe from the diaphram (stomach muscles), not the chest. But hey, I'd pick Jake's singing any day over her's! Also during this song, I saw Jake and Rami's wedding rings on the "big screen." (There were two screens showing the concert-- even Memorial Stadium didn't have that, and there were more people for the Pearl Jam show! Well, at least more for the Pearl Jam part.) After the song, Jake said:

"Greg just said to me that during that last section of that song, that my chord choice was 'interesting.' And I was trying to explain to him that I was working on an indonesian uh (he laughs because he was having problems talking), it's an indonesian tuning, Greg. Something you're very unfamiliar with. Very sophisticated tuning. I know that from up here it just sounds like a wrong chord... they (meaning audience) got it, I know you did. You understood. Okay. We're going to take a stab right now at somebody else's song, but I'm telling you it's so exciting a lot of you will just think it's one of our's. It's going to feel like yeah, I heard this song on the radio-- I did. The band looks familar, the sound is familiar. For many of us and for most of us, the year will not be familiar. (as far as I could find, it came out before 1965.) (some people yelled, 'we love you jakob!') That is so kind. It goes a little bit like this-- alright Mike, you ready? Let's do it."

They did most of "Tracks of My Tears," then Jake stopped them. (He got lost since he wasn't singing fast enough.) It was hilarious! Jake was funny the whole night (or as someone else worded it, he was also playful). And he was having some problems talking.

"You know we had a little bit of time off (11 days), and we've been resting. In other words, we've been resting-- we've been rusting. Normally I would've passed right over that and I would've caught up with them and you know what? Being here tonight just means so much to us that we're going to get the bridge right. Alright we're going to take it from the 'I need you, I need you.' (he sounded so corny!) You following me? You know to be honest, I'm a little bit confused. Let's do that, let's go to the chorus and then go to the bridge." (sings "I need you, I need you" then stops it) "You know what? Here's what we're going to do. you know what? I can't figure out what the hell is going on. You guys I'm just going to go onto 'my smile is my makeup,' I got no idea what chord it is, but let's just be there."

They resumed "Tracks" but then when they were almost done, Jake said this:

"Actually this part is planned. I'm going to introduce ourselves. (looks at seven year old girl in front row) Are you having a good time? (everyone laughs and cheers) First rock show? First one? Yeah? Pretty good so far? Nothing too vulgar, mom? You're okay? Vulgar? Vulgar? (pronouncing the word differently each time) No? You're okay? PG-13 maybe. Only on your suggestion-- I haven't done anything. I have to admit I feel a little like the Rugrats here. (everyone laughs) Yeah, Rugrats. (he had this cute expression on his face, and he was looking at me! as he also did the couple of times he introduced Mike!) Michael Ward, right here, once again. Contrary to what some of you might be thinking that I was suggesting earlier, I am his biggest fan, and I do know exactly what all the hype is about. Ladies and gentlemen, the thrilling, the sophisticated, well the thrilling Rami Jaffee on keyboards. He doesn't like me to talk too much, he likes it slow, he likes it low, he likes it simple. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Greg Richling. You know, these five gentlemen up here, we spent a lot of times living in the eighties, and one thing they did in the eighties a lot that they just don't do anymore... is a gigantic, a huge drum solo. Let's have one. (Mario had a solo-- and had a spotlight!) Mario free clinic Calire."

Then played one more verse of "Tracks" and finished the song. Afterwards, Jake made this comment:

"You know that last song is a tremendous song... just because there was never a video made, doesn't mean it wasn't great. Yeah. Excuse me while I just adjust myself (tuning guitar). I would like to just take a quick second to thank Lisa Loeb for playing with us. We're going to try one more. We'd like to thank all of you. It's called 'The Difference.'"

After "The Difference," Jake said: "Thanks a lot, good night."

(encore) Then they left the stage for about a minute and a half (Greg took his towel with him!), and a couple roadies came onto the stage during that time. I could see the band off on the side of the stage (since I was on the side they exited and came on from).

When they came back for the encore, Jake said:

"Rami is making his own personal-- hey come on now-- Rami is making his own personal rock video. Rami if you want to film during this song, then sure this is the one to do it. What the hell are you doing? This is fantastic. You know, before Michael gets started, I was just going to say something real quick. It's just so hard to actually articulate what it is I want to say. I wouldn't know, I was just going to say, knowing that he's not from around here. Everybody, come on now, Sammy Sosa, come on. Mark McGuire, come on now. Boy, I'd love to hit a homerun in that league. Those guys I'm sure, those guys, those guys are heroes. We're just trying to be."

Then they went into "Heroes." They did a good job. I love the way they do that song live, although it always sounds like they are rushing it.

This is what Jake said to introduce the last song, "Won't Get Fooled Again":

"You know, we'd like to stay and do one more. But you know, the truth is, we're into the encore at this point, and you know what? We'll all out of hits. I know how it works. But we're going to go ahead, we're going to play a hit anyway. It's a hit that we-- I think we know it pretty well. It's a little out of my vocal range. Oh but wait 'til you get a load of this, wait 'til you get a load of the song choice now. This is where things really start to get interesting."

Then they did Won't Get Fooled Again," sounding great on it just like last time, then Jake thanked us and said goodnight again and they were done. Again, they exited on my side of the stage (Mike's side). At the 7/22/98 show, half went off one side, the others on the other side. Well, you know what I mean by half. Obviously three and two, I hope! Anyway the concert went by really fast! It was a little less than an hour and a half.

When Mario threw his drumsticks, the person three away from me got one! I don't think any guitar picks were thrown during the show. Nothing was thrown onto the stage during the show because of the anal security. Rami pretended that he was going to throw his cigar box but of course he didn't. I joined the small crowd of people trying to get picks or setlists after the show at the stage. Of course most of the workers claimed they couldn't do anything for us because of some lame excuse or another. Finally one wadded up a setlist and threw it towards me and these two girls who were friends. We had a little fight for it, but one of them got it. So the other friend was asking if there was another setlist (even though her friend had one). One guy finally held one out, and I had my arms farther out (or maybe he could tell they already had one for them, because he seemed to be handing it to me) and so I got it. Those girls were like, no! It was funny. I left after that, so they wouldn't try to steal it!

It was a great show and I can't wait until their new album comes out and they tour again!

In case you didn't quite catch the set list, look here!