Well that was fun. I hope I get to see Ron in a few other countries now. For some reason I wasn't expecting the venue to be that full, but it was pretty packed, and I was thrilled to see that, just like when he played in Cambridge last, there were some pretty hardcore fans there who seemed to be getting very excited over certain songs, e.g. Never Give Up, where there was a nice little chorus of people singing it around me, though it seemed odd that they didn't respond to some of the earlier classics, e.g. Strawberry Blonde. Maybe the more recent CDs are better known there.
Just Ron and Jason, lovely set, enjoyed the stripped down ESOTS songs a lot. It made me realise there's quite a back catalogue now to choose from, and even though many of my favourite songs weren't played, it didn't matter as there are so many great ones to choose from. I would have liked to have heard Travelling Alone or Chased By Love, but loved This Is How I Know and One Last Round.
Secret Heart was wonderful as ever, but my total highlight was Seem To Recall, always one of my very favourites, and as I'd only got off an aeroplane a couple of hours before, I had to pinch myself to believe it was really happening, it seemed so unreal, and part of me felt I'd died and gone to heaven, a bit like in the Talking Heads song, 'The band in heaven, they play my favourite song', and if this was heaven, it was a pretty good version of it.
On a more mundane level, I deliberately picked a hotel around the corner from the central Madrid venue, on the notorious Calle Montera, famed for the putas plying their trade, one almost followed me to the venue on my way there, and I was relieved to escape back to my room afterwards!
Well it was a very memorable way to get another fix of Ron live. Can't wait till the next time. Would be great if there were accounts from some of the other Spain gigs, though of course massive Bilbao fan Joserra will tell us all about Thursday.