Heart @ The Mountain Winery
“Fanatic Tour”
Saratoga, CA
Monday, August 13, 2012

Video guide:
0:30 – “Straight On”
1:26 – “These Dreams”
2:44 – “Crazy On You” *
6:04 – “Barracuda”
7:37 – Me and my brother’s reactions (and faces) *
8:20 – Encore/ending

I apologize for all of my screaming throughout the concert, but I couldn’t help myself! There were numerous moments where I wanted to jump-scream-shout-and-yell soooo much (you’ve no idea!), but I prevented myself… Both from embarrassment and from shushing in these videos… 🙂 — Don’t judge me! Gosh, I’m such an old soul…

If only they let me bring in my camera into the venue, I could’ve captured the AMAZING experience with justice. Sadly, this will do for now…Awesome last-minute trip (literally decided 3 hours beforehand) to see Heart! I had some nice chats with a lady from Ohio on BART and watched older folk drink wine and beer as I sat back and listened to the wonderful ladies of rock ‘n’ roll do their thang! If only they didn’t take my camera…. I would’ve been a happy camper. Nothing to commemorate the awesome hard rock anthems and ballads coming from these women’s hearts! An excitement I haven’t felt from live music in a looonggg time. Definitely a gem to experience live!

~

I think attending this concert just proves how much I live “on a whim“. I’ve been thinking this concert over and over again throughout the past month prior, and when it came to the night before I was on the fence about spending that $58 for General Admission (college has made me a cheapskate). Deliberating all day, it wasn’t until that Monday afternoon around 4pm where I finally just threw up my hands in defeat and told myself, “You know what? Forget it. I’m going to this concert. I know how badly I want to see these girls.” I had to drag my brother along with me since he was free and didn’t mind going to the concert with me. The concert was set for that night at 7pm, so I quickly got ready, hitched a ride to the BART station to make my way all the way down to San Jose to meet up with my brother. (Hey, I’m finally getting used to figuring my way throughout the BART tracks! I can even direct other people… I hope they can trust me. :X) The ride took about an hour so I got to the Fremont BART by 6pm. I ended up having to wait a good 15-20 minutes for my brother and managed to have a nice conversation with a woman from Ohio. We were noticing how there seemed to be a Raider game that day (lots of people were coming in and out of BART with Raider gear) and she told me about some other time she went to a game in her hometown where this group of girls was changing in a public bathroom, somehow rushing and not giving a care for the other people in the bathroom, and she told me about her witnessing a lot of crazy events, saying how it’s probably like that everywhere. She then told me of how she got here just a month ago nannying (she was also with the baby :)) and she absolutely loves it here and wants to stay, but her husband is a teacher back home and has to finish the school-year, so they’re not sure on how to figure out a 6-month span of being apart or whether she should go back, etc. She was just a nice, friendly, and such an open woman.. She even asked me if I come to this station often and sadly, I don’t and had to part ways. It’s moments like this that makes me love my home up here so much. People like this are just so lovely to encounter.

Anywhoo, my brother and I headed to Saratoga, which was a good 15 or so minutes from San Jose. He kept saying how we’re going to be the only young ones here while there’s all these white older folk here! (And he was true….) but I didn’t feel ashamed at all! There were a good amount of younger people (of course, only with their parents, hah!) but I didn’t feel ashamed–I love these girls and we were all here to listen to some great music. Who’s to complain?! If anything, I feel special to be a young one here! Anyway, The Mountain Winery seemed to be very very hidden within the old town. Saratoga seemed like a desolate and isolated old town, which was a nice sight to see. Once we got up the long and winding spiral of a hill–the venue was hidden up around the mountains and forested areas–it’s a huge, open, vast winery but clearly a populated venue. (It’s not like people never come here!)

I have to say I loved the entire venue and atmosphere… Just everything. The people were so nice and friendly… We were all there for to appreciate the music and have a good time! Generally, the people were mostly white middle-aged folk, likely winery people with money… The food and drinks were about $20 everywhere! Fish ‘n chips for $18? I resisted everything. But it was so nice to see folk just sitting all around the rest areas, eating, chatting, having drinks and beer and wine with all their friends… People weren’t even in their seats in the venue. It just seemed so chill and relaxed… Definitely a venue for “older folk”, it wasn’t like teenagers were running all around in mosh pits or anything… People were just here to have a good time. I managed to go to the merch booth (of course deliberating over things for quite some time) and a man with his wife (or girlfriend) was telling me, “You gotta buy this DVD! I mean, you paid like what? 60 bucks to get in here? And you can’t get this anywhere else? You know it’s gonna be a good night and it’s gonna be a lot of fun, might as well buy it!” (There was also a later portion during the encore where a guy just randomly hugged me! Hahah, it could be the beer talking or the music talking, who knows… It was fun.)

People were going back and forth from their seats (I was in the General Admission area in the back–still a nice sight!)… It was such a good feeling to be at this concert and experience the entire atmosphere since I haven’t been to a concert or venue or anything where the level of appreciation of the music was the same as mine. It was such a nice experience… (Man, I’m such an old soul!!!) I felt both comfortable, relaxed (it could’ve been ’cause of the beautiful venue), but I was in utter excitement all at the same time.

Once Heart appeared on stage, the night just begun. They didn’t go on until 9pm (the opening act, Pamela Parker–who was pretty good, I might add–had a good classic rock modern groove feel, which I can see fit for this concert; she performed her set for probably an hour or more or so). But man, once they were on stage, it was clear to see how much they know how to own an entire stadium… It’s crazy to know how much power and excitement was pulsing throughout my entire body, even when I was all the way in the back. I was a bit disappointed they didn’t perform more of their older, acoustic-based guitar songs (Dreamboat Annie, Little Queen era), but it made sense since this was an arena venue and they really rose to fame and stardom in the 80’s with their more 80’s-infused sounds and ballads.

They didn’t let me take my camera into the venue (I should’ve stuck in my butt under my dress!) so I used my brother’s phone to capture some footage. I didn’t manage to get a lot, but their last songs (before their encore) were the most electrifying performances (“Crazy On You”, “Barracuda”)! The songs the crowd knew and went wild about were clearly the big hits, such as “Magic Man” (opened with, didn’t catch it on camera), “Alone” (Ann ended up crying/tearing up at the end of the song–she was such a gem and said, “We’re emotional creatures and we write emotional songs…” I thought that was awesome), and, of course, “Crazy On You” (people went WILD!) and “Barracuda”. I didn’t know much of their other songs, but it was awesome to experience their music live… They went on until about 10:30pm.

Their music is definitely something to experience. The people, the venue, the atmosphere… It was perfect. People around me were just having conversations with friends (weird how their performance sounds EXACTLY like their recordings, but of course, that special spark comes through when live), people were singing along to the songs, dancing (funnily, I might say!, but I don’t blame)… I had to refrain from shouting a lot because I was pretty much by myself (would’ve been weird to go all crazy on them while my brother just stared me down! haha), but goodness… Their music just seriously pulses throughout your entire body. I haven’t felt so much excitement listening to live music that has made me want to jump, yell and shout before–maybe ever. There was much raw energy. They definitely know how to rock an entire stadium, fill it with so much emotional power, raw energy, musical expertise, and excitement… In a way, I felt more at my comfort zone at this concert. People were all just having a good time with their friends, drinking, eating, and genuinely there for the music…. It’s like they were all people just like me!–except for the fact they could be my parents, hah. But nonetheless, it was an amazing show, and I can definitely see why these women–girls, mommies, icons, whatever–are so successful. I hope you can get a good glimpse of my experience from my video. (It may be a bit embarrassing for me… but I ‘don care! “ROCK ‘n ROLL!!!”)

P.S. It’s also nice to spend some quality time with my brobro in San Jose! ended up wearing the same clothes for the past 4 days…. (hah! but not when I sleep of course!) That’s how you know you’ve been on the road for some time/constantly on the move (maybe a little unprepared, oh well). I spent the night at his apt and we had some coffee chats.–There’s just so much to love about concerts… which is why I’m officially trading it in for my soon-to-expire Disney pass!–Gosh, how nice would it be to live a life on the road playing music? Maybe that could be me someday? but hah, I don’t want to make any pacts yet. We’ll see where life takes me–on a whim, hah… It will be my downfall someday…

* – y’all know how much I love Nancy Wilson’s guitar playing; go to these stars to see my “I like” moments