Tina Turner

The Tina Turner concert was a Birthday/Christmas/Birthday present to my buddy Wayne. When I purchased the tickets, it turned out to also be a "Congratulations you've been let go from your job of 21 years" present. Well we finally cashed in and left for the concert on Sunday at 2:30 pm. We stopped for a late lunch, early dinner in Fredericksburg at the Cracker Barrel. My first time at that restaurant and it was pretty good and all the better with a cute waiter named Andrew. A certain person's anxiety aside, we made it to DC by 6:00 pm for the 7:00 pm concert and we were not in a rush.

Neither of us had been to the Verizon Center. It was larger and steeper than I had anticipated. We were somewhat in nosebleed seats, but well within view of the stage so that Tina looked like Tina and not an ant. The stage was blocked with whore-red curtains that remained closed. And they remained closed until nearly 7:30 pm. I detest people that arrive late. I'm not talking about Tina, I'm talking about nearly 1/2 of the audience. At 7:00 pm, the Center was about 1/2 empty (yes 1/2 not full). We were however sitting in the gayest of all sections. Not entirely sure how that happened, but there was a plethora of eye candy to entertain us as we waited and waited. We were also entertained by AMWAY commercials on the big screens. I was ever so happy to pay for a concert to watch commercials for AMWAY!! But I figure they "sponsored/paid for" the concert, they can infringe on my entertainment.

When the concert did begin, a few late-comers arrived to our section just in time to block our view of the grand entrance. Thankfully, the noise was so deafening that I'm sure they didn't hear me yell "sit the fuck down already!" as they leisurely stood to take their draping trench coats off.

Tina did put on quite a show, but you can tell she's not as spry as she used to be. Her usual fancy footwork was just a fancy box step and wiggle. Not much of the major moves. That was left to the other girls on the stage that was meant to make her look her funkiest, and it did. But the critical eye saw threw the facade. But she can definitely still work in heels while wobbling her knees.

The concert had entertainment between songs that varied on the theme of the upcoming song while she did a wardrobe change. The first one was a bit confusing as it looked like some punk had jumped the stage and was causing a fight with the security guards. But you soon realized that it was staged. She came out in a flowing blood red outfit to sing the Rock Opera Tommy song where she played a druggie whore. She looked fantastic. You could tell they added boobie makeup to give them a punch, which was really not that necessary. But, SHAZAM - there they are.

There was a 30 minute intermission, which was really well timed cause I think everyone's bladder's needed attention. EVERYONE, even the late-comers. During the intermission we were entertained with more AMWAY commercials, no joke.

When she came back, she was sitting down along a line of other musicians and the back up vocalists. They sang three slow blues songs, one where the saxophone had a solo and Tina chimed in to compete with the sax in her sultry husky "I can drown that sax out voice!"

Then she ran off and a skit started that was obviously Thunderdome inspired. Voila! Out she comes in full Thunderdome gear! That entrance was far out.

At one point she sang "What's love got to do with it" and she got the audience involved. She had the women sing that verse first and then challenged the men. One queen behind us said "I'm just not that butch!" But we all chanted and it was a good time. Proud Mary was her last song and it went on for about 20 minutes.

Of course she did an encore and that was the "Back to Pride Rock" song from The Lion King (I am humbly corrected by the Anonymous commentor that the encore song was Nutbush City Limits and he/she is correct, but now I can't recall when she sang Pride Rock - and I know she sang that unless I went into Tina-land and sang it to myself). I had anticipated but was not sure when she would sing that song. As she sang, she ran over to one side of the stage and got into a small cage. The cage started to lift and the stage floor was lifting as well. This was when she was in the Cherry Picker and went out INTO the audience and got different areas into the song singing PRIDE ROCK! That was very cool. Though it might have been even more cool had the cherry picker lifted her up higher into the audience. But with her hanging over the edge like she does, it's probably best not the have her getting to high without being chained in. The woman has guts though. At one time she ran off of the Cherry Picker and onto its platform and danced a bit. All in heels.

I think, had everyone demanded a second encore, she would have sang more. But being Sunday night everyone started getting up to leave. Heck the lights were still dim, which told me that she would have done more. But we left and got back to the smoking parking deck. Cause that's what we did while we waited an hour to be able to think of leaving.

Getting out of DC was a whole lot easier than getting in. Sort of tells you something, doesn't it??? Made me chuckle. Thanks for coming and giving us your money, here's the easiet way out. We stopped at IHOP and had a late dinner and got their monster Colorado Omelets. Man, you need to try those but take your lipitor beforehand. Wayne got me back home at 2:30 am. I was dawg tired but still stayed up a bit to get some lovin time in with the Solomonster. He was very good without me for so long. Then I fell asleep, thankful that I did not have to work on Monday. I was a lazy cuss today.

Thank you Tina!