Celebrate Guajardo Week is a week where Laura and I spend a week indulging, partying and doing as many fun things as we can to celebrate...well
us!! It is built around our anniversary (5/22) and my birthday (5/25). This year, we were fortunate enough to be living in NYC and have no shortage of events and fun venues to pick from to celebrate this special time of year for us. We built our week around two of the five concerts that Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were playing at the iconic Beacon Theatre, and a New York Mets day-game on our anniversary, and of course the Memorial Day holiday. We filled in the gaps with lunches, dinners and many libations all over this magnificent city and just soaked up the essence of being a New Yorker at this point in time in our lives. What a week!!
Since the first Petty concert was just me attending, I decided to walk the almost 3 mile path to the upper west side since the weather was so amazing!! I did not regret this decision at all.
There is no shortage of historic music venues in NYC. The Beacon, the older sister of Radio City Music Hall, is a 2,894 seat, three-tiered theatre, designed as a movie palace for motion pictures and vaudeville. Built in 1929, visitors enter through its bronze-doored vestibule into an
opulent two-story circular lobby. White marble floors give way to mahogany bars
on both the orchestra and mezzanine levels, and two more levels
provide access to both the foot and top of its steeply inclined upper balcony.
Exquisite detailing abounds throughout, including elaborate gilded plaster
moldings, polished hardwood, and brass staircase rails. Corridor murals depict
atmospheric Eastern scenes of trading caravans complete with elephants, camels
and other animals
Opening night of the 5 night run at the Beacon, found me in the third tier. Although I was a bit up, the sight lines where still amazing and the acoustics were so clear. I don't know if I have ever heard a show sound so good.
Petty had promised that these shows would see a departure from their usual greatest-hits type setlists that I had seen many times over the years. They were true to their word.
Deep cuts included
Rebels, Cabin Down Below, To Find A Friend, and
Angel Dream (No.2); the two later being two of my
favorite songs that I had
never seen done live. Amazing. The set also included some covers of some of their favorite artists;
So You Wanna Be A Rock-N-Roll Star (The Byrds),
(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone (Paul Revere and the Raiders, but know more as a Monkees hit),
Willin (Little Feat), and
Carol (Chuck Berry). Of course there was an early hit to keep the crowd into the show;
I Won't Back Down, but the rest of the sing-along songs were left until the end, when they blew the roof off
Running Down A Dream, You Wreck Me and the Petty anthem,
American Girl.
We passed up a fancy dinner for an afternoon in the park since it seems that our anniversary and MLB games are becoming a tradition. Our first anniversary was celebrated at a SF Giants game and this year we headed out to Flushing to see one of the best pitchers in baseball, Matt Harvey, go up against the Cincinnati Reds. Although the Mets lost this one, the weather cooperated and we had great seats. Nothing beats a few cold beers, a ton of great food, and hanging out with your best friend!!
On Sunday, Laura and I headed to the last show of the week-long residency for Mr. Petty and the Heartbreakers. On this night we had seats on the orchestra level with an even closer view of the band than on the first night.
Petty stuck to the same format as he had all week by playing even more deep cuts:
Honey Bee, Spike, Time to Move On, as well as more covers:
Born in Chicago (Nick Gravenites),
13 Days (J.J. Cale), and my favorite cover of the week,
Tweeter and the Monkey Man (Traveling Wilbury's).
Add in hits like
It's Good To Be King, Refugee, and
Listen to Her Heart and Mr. Petty put a big cherry on what was an epic week for he and the Heartbreakers here in NYC. Thanks Tom!!
Finally we wrapped up our week by spending the Memorial Day holiday out strolling through the city, enjoying happy hour under the Empire State Building and enjoying its patriotic glow as we called it a week and headed home. Here's hoping that next year we can somehow top this years celebration!!
