Aqualung Night, 2011

Jethro Tull is performing the Aqualung album tonight - at a winery, along a bike trail, five miles from home. How could the Domination of Eiler say no?

Prepared for Aqualung Night by (1) making sandwiches to eat at concert along with the local wine; (2) signing up for cashier duty at Saturday afternoon church rummage sale (thereby committing to be sociable and functional on Saturday); (3) going home early from rummage sale to take a nap.

Now, supported by the magic of live-action journalling:

By his own admission, lead vocalist Ian Anderson is 63. That means he was recording albums at age 20. Boy, that's young.

He's become a bass. Several songs were sung in lower register.

No, not entire Aqualung album, nor in the same order, nor all at once. Somehow they couldn't make room for "Slipstream", even though they also skipped the big ponderous "Wind Up".

10th-row seating was awesome. And very social. Everyone had their own bottle of the local wine handy, and there was a bit of authentic 1970s concert non-tobacco cigarette smoke as well.

At least ten women got up and danced to the inspirational women's anthem, Cross-Eyed Mary.

Half of Aqualung is the angsty religious song cycle "My God". Wonder if local pastors are in attendance. Could ask one...

Outdoor concert. Freakishly cold weather, but at least no rain. Greenland in June (1999) was twenty Fahrenheit degrees warmer than this concert was. But the Dominator was ready with his stylish "Get Lost" hoodie.

Aside from hoodie, the Dominator fit the audience style guidelines. Typical attendees were 50+ with beards and wide-brimmed hats.

Did not get an aisle seat for easy restroom access this time. But no one cared. The Dominator actually showed more kidney fortitude than much of his generation. And an obscure long song about Budapest made a great bathroom break for much of the audience.

No intermission! Jethro Tull played from 7:20 to 9:00. Concert ended before sunset! On the one hand, they thereby avoided several great songs. On the other, we senior citizens in audience got our early bedtimes.

In parking lot afterward, met a phone company professional who works at its local data center, for the project which employ's the Domination Guard mercenary force! Now that's a professional contact.

Bicycle access to concert was of course drastically superior to automobile. At one point, the expedition mountain-biked across the winery lawn to avoid both cars and the pedestrians walking to them. And then there was the bike trail. No traffic after that.