I'm off to see Stevie Wonder tonight at the Santa Barbara County Bowl! Yay! I was fortunate enough to get tickets via my sweet cousin! $72 for my seat... not counting the three hour drive I'm gonna do to get there. But, for Mr. Wonder, it is well worth it!

Off I go! I'll fill you in on the concert when I return tonight... or tomorrow morning when I get back home! Yikes.

I'll be Master Blaster, Jammin'!!!

Very cool

Can't wait to hear your review!

I am so jealous!

Have a great time!

AAHHH June7 have a fabulous time!!!! wish I knew you were coming here so we could meet up. Maybe I'll run into you there. Love Stevie!!!!

I got the last ticket to San Diego by pure luck and enthusiasm! On the afternoon of the show too. This show had apparently sold out in 2 minutes on the internet and I missed out. I had extended my stay in the USA for an extra week when I heard about this tour and was attempting to get a ticket off ebay where I saw quite a few being auctioned. When I looked the next day they were all gone.
I was staying in LA and on the day of the show I set off in my rental car to San Diego. I was by myself, as my friends had left the week before, which is when I was supposed to be heading back as well. My plan was to head to the venue and find a scalper nearby. I got there mid afternoon and couldn't see much going on. I thought my luck had run out. I approached a guy working in the parking lot and asked if he had seen anyone selling tickets. He said no. But then he said "I may just be able to make your day" and pointed me toward the box office.
I ran and asked the lady and she said they had 2 tickets available to the show!
I thanked my lucky stars and said I'll take it! But my credit card declined...aargh!
I had made a transfer the day before to wipe debt off it but it can't have been cleared yet. I asked if I could put down a $20 deposit and go and ring my bank from the nearest payphone. She replied that there's no way they can hold the ticket like that.
I had no choice but to track down the nearest payphone and try to contact my bank. I scurried to my car and scavenged it for 4 quarters which is the cost for an overseas call. Found a phone and was put immediately on hold of course. I had no idea how long that dollar was going to give me on this call. After approximately forever, someone picked up and figured out my creditcard had been blocked for being over its limit. Which I thought was wrong because I had already transferred payment to it. She looked through my file and found that it was apparently still over the limit and asked if I could I transfer some more money over phone banking. It appears my banks "limit" system is a bit of a farce. I tried to dial my pin but the digits don't make any sound when you press them on this payphone. I convinced the lady to do the transfer herself with my instructions. She said OK the block has been taken off, and "if there are any more problems with using the card" I was to ring collect to the following number... then the phone cut off. Ha.
I sprinted back to the box office half expecting to be disappointed.
The lady said don't worry bout those tickets because she got me a better one! 13 rows from the front! The anxious moment awaiting the "accept with signature" reading on the machine quickly turned to joy as I held tightly in my hand the last ticket!

It was such a small and intimate show with only 1300 people there. Epic. It was right by the water and there were people having parties in their boats waiting for the music to start. Probably about 100 kayaks too, were just milling around playful with anticipation. When he opened with "Loves in Need" and followed with "too high", I was writhing with excitement. Most of the show was spent up on our feet dancing. He did 6 songs from Innervisions which I was ecstatic about. It was great to witness him doing awesome album cuts and not just the hits.
The band was money and included Nathan Watts on bass who played on some records with Stevie in the 70's including "songs in the key".
Stevie himself was in excellent voice and spirits, cracking jokes and enjoying himself. The crowd was totally giving it up for the hero.

I wouldn't hesitate in driving quite some distance to see one of his shows on this tour. Take a chance if you need to!

he's coming here to baltimore in a few weeks. i passed on getting the $32 lawn seats, not knowing that they would be worth 4x that much on ebay right now. but there will be more people surrounding the venue than in the actual concert--at pier six you can just sit outside the gates on the water and hear everything fine. not to be a smartass, but why pay a car note to see a concert you can hear for free? i mean it's gonna be stevie at the piano, and then stevie at the piano, and then...stevie at the piano. it's not like there's some great choreography that's gonna be going on. i wish i had bought the tickets, but i'm not gonna go broke over it.

Just got back! It's 1:23am. I'm sooo tired, but can't sleep! What a great and wonderful show!

He started at about 7:30pm for a show billed as starting at 7:00pm - which means I won the bet that he would start late. Stevie is notoriously late... still, I was just glad to see him!

He walked out onto the stage with his daughter Aisha leading him. He was dressed in black with white trim, he looks fantastic. He greeted the crowd with an explanation behind the "Summer Wonder Tour", saying he had pretty much dropped off the earth when his mother died last May, and didn't want to do anything and dropped and cancelled all previously scheduled appearances and concerts. This carried on for quite awhile, and he had planned to drop a wedding he promised to sing at, but this voice in his head told him to go through with it... he went, sang and felt this wonderful vibe and that same voice told him to get his "butt out there and sing". He claims it was his mother telling him to get on and do what he loved to do. So, cut to a quick press conference and three weeks later an actual tour in the making!

He lovingly introduced his daughter, and told all guys to look, but not look to long, as he will pull out his gun and that he isn't that good of an shot, as he doesn't really care where he aims! The crowd laughed and Aisha gushed. (she's quite attractive, btw). She sang as a back-up singer all night.

Then he sat down and was tinkering on the piano, as if he hadn't touched one in awhile... then, slowly led into "Love's In Need of Love", while the rest of the band quietly went to their instruments and started playing along. By the time he hit the chorus, it was in full swing... absolutely beautiful... was that a tear running down my cheek?

From that into "Too High", from that, into hit after hit after hit... I can't even remember all of them, but here's a few of what I remember singing along with (I sang all night to pretty much every song! It was magical!):

Master Blaster, Jammin'
Knocks Me Off My Feet
I Wish
Sir Duke
My Cherie Amour (great story told before this was sung)
Part-Time Lover
Overjoyed
Superstition
Higher Ground
Signed, Sealed & Delivered
Isn't She Lovely (with Aisha sitting next to him - so beautiful)
I Just Called to Say I Love You
Ribbon In the Sky

Oh, I know there was more, more more... but it's late and I'm getting tired. What he didn't sing:

Lately
Do I Do
Love Light in Flight
Send One Your Love
That Girl


The show lasted about 2.5 hours, and had to end at 10pm, due to city ordinances in Santa Barbara... He soooo did not want to leave the stage. He did no encore, as he would have been fined. I've never left a concert so early!

He did a lot of crowd playing and participation, he really enjoyed being on the stage.

Although the venue at the Santa Barbara County Bowl is absolutely beautiful (you can see the ocean far off to the right, there was a beautiful full moon right above the stage), the time constraints would prevent me from seeing another evening show there...

Anyway... if this show comes to your area, by all means, check it out! It was fantastic!

So Jealous!!

June7 said:

Sounds fantastic!! Lucky you.

That sounds great. Probably I will still get the chance to go and see him sometimes in the future.

Sounds like a wonderful night!

Thank you for sharing your evening w/ us.

I saw him on Sunday in Concord. The highlight was when he sang "Isn't She Lovely" with Aisha by his side. He couldn't sing the last line of the song as he was crying. I was crying too as that was the song I played when I got home after my daughter was born. I send her to college in three weeks. Ugh.

Sounds like an awesome show!, I'm jealous

I saw Stevie perform some years ago. Excellent.


Glad u had a great time June7

I saw him in the East Bay on Sunday night. Not nearly as good a venue as the San Diego show, or even Santa Barbara, but it could have been worse.

It was a great performance. Pretty much the same set, but he also played Livin For The City, Visions, and Golden Lady (as I suspect he did at the other shows).

His drum solo was off the hook and the vocoder jam was fun. He talked and talked, obviously having fun.

It was a very cool night in an otherwise forgettable month for me.

Edit: He did play Do I Do on Sunday. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi...9RQ6CM.DTL
[Edited 8/29/07 21:07pm]

oldmanjohnson said:

Yeah, that did tug the heart strings. All the ladies around me were weeping.

Stax said:

See, the drum set was set up for the Santa Barbara show, and I expected him to go off on them... he never did.

June7 said:

It was cool, but I would have traded the drum solo for the SB venue.