Inaugural Concert Update

The concert was fun. I was dreading it because of the cold and the crowds, but I'm definitely glad we went. You can tell from the mobile post Sunday that we were some distance from the stage- I think the official concert area was everything from the Lincoln Memorial to the World War II memorial, and we were beyond that. The word was that they physically couldn't pack any more people into the reflecting pool area (and upon seeing the broadcast I believe it), so we settled for a cozy spot that was a little further away.

We parked ourselves on the East side of the monument where we had a clear view of a jumbotron. We could actually see the stage, but it was so far the performers were basically black dots against the white monument. We were pretty much seeing what everyone watching it on TV saw, except we could use the jumbotron to correlate the specs in the distance with the actual performance- so we knew "Hey! That dot is George Lopez!" Here's a map aid.

In any case, the celebrities we saw included (but were not limited to): Denzel Washington, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Carrell (a fan favorite), Jamie Foxx, Jon Bon Jovi, Tom Hanks (and oddly, no one charged out into the reflecting pool yelling "Forrest!"), Marissa Tomei, John Mellencamp, Queen Latifa, Josh Groban (a Ramya-pleaser), Kal Penn (easily the smallest celebrity there, but a thrill to the Indians nonetheless), George Lopez, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, Will.I.Am, Tiger Woods (who gave a great speech about the military), Jack Black, Rosario Dawson, Garth Brooks (the best act of the night), Ashley Judd, Forrest Whittaker, Usher, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Samuel L. Jackson, U2, and Beyonce (who inexplicably went on after U2).

But this show was only two hours, so it was rapid-fire. Most musicians sang something other than their own songs. Generally, one would start, and halfway through the song someone else would come out and join them, then later another, giving us odd trios like Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock and Will.I.Am. Where else are you going to see that?

Garth Brooks, as I said, got the crowd involved more than anyone else with a medley of American Pie (that was thankfully only a 90-second rendition), Shout, and We Shall be Free. U2 wasn't the only group to perform their own music (Stevie Wonder did Higher Ground (with Usher and Shakira), and I think Bruce Springsteen's song was one of his new ones), but they were the only group to do two full songs. But, I guess when you're U2, you can get away with a lot.

The worst act was hands down the Bald Eagles. So much so that they edited it out for the TV broadcast. Between U2 and Obama's address, the announcer said "Now, presenting the bald eagle Freedom, with handler Joe Blow." A guy with an eagle on his arm walked out, stood there awkwardly, walked around a little more, then stood awkwardly again. About this time the eagle started to fly away, making us think for a fleeting second that we were about to be treated to an aerial display of some sort. But Freedom only made it about a foot off of the handlers arm before the handler yanked on a leash hooked to the eagle's leg, which began a clumsy, spinning, wrestling encounter, that ended when the handler reeled him back in- thus undoing any majesty they had previously created. They then shuffled off the stage, leaving us all to wonder what we had just witnessed, and more importantly, if we were supposed to clap.

You may think that was it for the bald eagles, but you'd be wrong. They then announced another eagle (with a name like Freedom's Wings), whose main draw was that his handler was a DC native. When this second eagle started to take flight, I thought "Oh, this eagle's going to fly." Alas, no. He was also reeled in and spun around, which made me wonder if instead of an embarrassing blunder in front of half a million people, this was some sort of odd, yet precisely choreographed eagle handling routine. After the DC handler shuffled off, it was time for the man himself.

Then President-elect Obama made a brief speech. It was pretty vague, and not as memorable as his inaugural address, but what struck me more was the audience's reaction. I'll touch on this more if I ever get around to writing about the Inauguration itself, but people love everything he says. For example, there were some ladies next to us who felt they needed to respond to every sentence. My favorite was this exchange:

President Obama: "It may not happen in an hour."
Ladies: "Mmm-hmmm."
Obama: "It may not happen in a day."
Ladies: "That's right."
Obama: "It may not happen in a week."
Ladies: "Oh yeah."
Obama: "Or..."
Ladies: "Yeah, that's right."
Obama: "It may not happen in a year."

They said "Yeah, that's right" when Obama said "Or-" which pretty much sums it up. In any case, it was a great show- you can see more pictures here. Next up, I'll try to post about the inauguration, and how we were almost killed by the massive crowds.