The Mall Roll Call

Ok guys who's all going to the spectacle thats going to be held at the mall today??????  Not from the DC area but while in the area why not do all this festivity crap.  I'm going to try and get and see how close I can get or get killed by it.  Either or would be fine.  Oh yeah saw the Ravenettes last night too and it was awesome.

yeah, thought the Raveonettes were good - seemed like a short set though

Yeah that set was short i thought.  I've got some videos of the show so will need to post it and hopefully I can get some video of todays mall thing if I'm not 10,000 yards away which may seem like might be the case if I dont hurry up and get the fuck out of here.

The most pleasantly surprising show I've ever seen was the Raveonettes at the Black Cat about 3 years ago. I've never seen a crowd rock as hard (at the BC) as the one at that show. Who'da thought?

I am going to pop down there, although of course I won't be able to see anything since I didn't get there at 8am…

wow  herbie hancock + cheryl crow + will.i.am + bob marley song = TRAINWRECK

and whats up with letting Garth Brooks do "Shout"?  seriously Jack Black could have done a better version of that song….

but it was very cool to see Bettye LaVette up there, shame she had to share the stage with that white dude…

For anyone who did attend, was the sound there problematic as indicated over at WaPo?

Any clues on who came out with James Taylor other than John Legend?  And who was the third with Pete Seeger and Bruce

Pete Seeger's grandson

kosmo wrote:
wow  herbie hancock + cheryl crow + will.i.am + bob marley song = TRAINWRECK

and whats up with letting Garth Brooks do "Shout"?  seriously Jack Black could have done a better version of that song….

but it was very cool to see Bettye LaVette up there, shame she had to share the stage with that white dude…

For anyone who did attend, was the sound there problematic as indicated over at WaPo?

Any clues on who came out with James Taylor other than John Legend?  And who was the third with Pete Seeger and Bruce

that was one of my guesses…

jeffml wrote:
Pete Seeger's grandson

kosmo wrote:
wow  herbie hancock + cheryl crow + will.i.am + bob marley song = TRAINWRECK

and whats up with letting Garth Brooks do "Shout"?  seriously Jack Black could have done a better version of that song….

but it was very cool to see Bettye LaVette up there, shame she had to share the stage with that white dude…

For anyone who did attend, was the sound there problematic as indicated over at WaPo?

Any clues on who came out with James Taylor other than John Legend?  And who was the third with Pete Seeger and Bruce

That was Jennifer Nettles, the lead singer of the country band Sugarland, singing with John and James.  She dueted with Jon Bon Jovi that song Who says you can't go Home.

got her… i was wondering if there was anyone of note in James's backup singers or where they just his normal backup singers..

I had a good time. We decided to go down last minute (left courthouse at 12:30) and got in at about 2:20 after waiting in line an hour. The metro going in was pretty empty and crowd walking down to the mall was great. I thought the whole show was surprisingly fun. The sound was problematic between the PA on the reflecting pool and the PA to the south but I think the logistics of having all these set up are pretty complicated and hard to do right. This was way better than the Millennium concert at the memorial back on new year's eve 1999.

Glad to see Pete Seeger…jesus, he can still walk at 89.

U2 not so much…..HAHA

was anyone else expecting bono to go off on some 5-minute monologue about gaza after that israeli/palestinian shout-out?

There were a lot of hokey moments, and Tom Hanks' reading was beyond awkward.   "Pride in the Name of Love" is a beautiful song, and Bono should've just quit while he was ahead.  But taken as a whole the event struck the right tone, I thought.  And the symbolism of Pete Seeger, who was once on an anti-Communist blacklist, coming on right after Obama, was huge.   "This Land is Your Land" was immensely moving – although I never knew how many verses it had.   To hear everyone singing along made me realize that we've finally taken this country back.  This land was made for you and me.

The sound was terrible but I was pretty close and I'll be able to post them up on youtube.  Too many people too and I was packed in there like a sardine.  Overall it was ok at least I got to saw U2.

Ok, I've blogged with some details on yesterday and a few more pics:

http://dcalex.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-land-is-our-land.html

I don't shop at "malls" anymore, I only patronize fashion parks and the like.

One of my vids of U2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-tkoU2SXvc

allright peeps - can y'all answer a few questions for me??

we are thinking of heading down to the mall tomorrow but have a few important questions first

we know that strollers are not allowed on the Capitol grounds but think that they are allowed on the Mall? Is this assumption correct? If we try to enter through one of the checkpoints with a stroller are we likely to get hassle?

Also, is it correct to assume that you cannot enter the Mall without going through a security gate of some type? Even if you tried to enter way down at the Lincoln memorial?

Brennser,
I would think regardless of the rules, getting a stroller through compacted crowds could prove very difficult.

The Washington Post has a pretty good guide for tomorrow, including maps, entry points, and rules.  Linky.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/inauguration-central/