The show wasn't until 8 pm, but wisely I checked about 5:30 and found a line forming already. So I joined it, sat down cross legged and pulled out what I had left from lunch, a soda. A couple next to me kept running back for food, many did this. Some young college girls sat next to me, and agreed that the drumming was 'way too much, they had headaches too. So I wasn't just being an old fuddy duddy. I was impressed, it was a good cross section of ages, and many were high school age there with parents who were my age. I was embarassed that the college girls I talked about actually seemed to know more about Donovan than I did.

Macaw Hall has a weird decore outside, not unpleasant, but I was put in mind of a cartoon I saw in the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers; one of their friends hooked up a metal bedspring and ran electricity through it to make music ..... only it produced microwaves and they all cooked! Well, this theatre had massive sheets of chain link fence (it looked like) streteched across the foyer outside, and inside too I believe. Macaw made his fortune in some sort of radio business so I suspect this all means something to technicians. Like the EMP, the structure is supposed to mimic a musical concept and collect cosmic vibrations.

We finally got in, and I ran down in front on the left side and managed to get 2nd row back, on the aisle, with a perfect view of the stage. Close enough to make me very happy. Remember this ticket only cost me $16.95! I've VERY happy! The girls outside had said "I wonder if he's old and worn out, and his voice is gone?" I told them Vic and Tom Kelly had given a positive report about his performance two days earlier, so they were pleased about that.

I really liked the structure of the auditorium, the lighting in the house reminded me of the Frank Lloyd Wright theater at the Marin County complex, and they had side "opera" boxes going up the sides. It is built more like an opera house than anything else. Right before the show, a roadie came out and took a picture of the FULL house (people in the front rows shot the Peace Sign for him!). It was really wonderful to see it fill up like that, for a guy who dropped off the map about 30 years ago.

He came out, and didn't look all that much different than he does on the album covers (this was my first time to see him, though I was an avid fan back in the 60's). Yes the hair was going a little thin on top of the head; he was born the same year as Justin (1946), none of this is a shock. But he has taken very good care of himself indeed, and looks good for a gentleman in his 50's. It didn't take me long to figure out, he looks a good deal like the actor who plays Pippin in Lord of the Rings! No shock, as they are both Scots. But the resemblance was striking, unto I wonder if they are related. It wasn't just the Hobbit hair, it was the turned up nose too.

Donovan was wearing a purple silk loose shirt, and plain pants. His guitar (which was incredible tone-wise) had a green face on it, apparently a custom job! I noticed a silver figure on the bottom front, and suspecting what it was....... got out my binoculars. Indeed he has an inlaid silver stag on the guitar. Either he is an avid Harry Potter fan (Harry's patronus spirit is a silver stag) or combined with the green, this is some Celtic thing. I think it might have been a Guild accoustic: I tried to read a name on the head, and could only make out sequins glued on it, in a rather attractive pattern.

On occasion, he would tune (by ear) and also he walked over to and tweaked this huge amp he had on the stage, a big cabinent rather like a piece of living room furniture. It struck me as being very old, it was big and SIMPLE looking, as amps and such were in the early 60's. I bet anything if you could look in the guts of that amp, it was full of tubes/valves. There are those who prefer the tubes to transistors for sound. Whatever the tech details, the sound of his guitar was very very good.

Besides his guitar, the only other thing Donovan had for his two hour show was his voice, and a harmonica (in a shoulder harness, like Dylan does) he took on and off at intervals. All the musicians out there, say it in one voice. WOW.

I'm ashamed to say I did indeed bootleg the show, and don't plan to offer it on Ebay or in Goldmine, but if a friend writes me off line, I'll make you a copy. I haven't had much chance to listen to it yet, but I did play back (until the batteries lugged down) on the ferry, as far as the second song, "Catch the Wind". I was outside cooling off on the ferry, watching the beautiful stars over the black water, and feeling the wind in my face. It is a wonderful boot I hope. When I left the theater some young kid was waving a sign wanting a copy if anyone recorded. I was too paranoid to tell him I had one, but he was impressed enough to want one. Another tribute to Donovan's showmanship!

He opened with "Enchanted Gypsy" which brought back thoughts of he and Gypsy Dave hitch-hiking, with a smile. Then he did "Catch the Wind" sorta as a sing along. I was in tears. That is close to being my all time favorite folk love ballad. Donovan started as a true folk singer, he does the basic C-F-G chord progression, but the melodies he puts to them are what makes them wonderful songs. I was totally flashed back to 60's and coffee houses by the time he finished those two. His playing style (for the record) was basically those three chords, tho' he kapo'ed up a few times to change the key, just for variety. I think it was on "Guinivere" that he did some more complex chords, like bar chords, Eb-major type of stuff. This was not easy for him, as he uses the "claw" grip of the self-taught guitarist, as does Justin Hayward. I wonder if he didn't do that song in the difficult chords just to prove he could do it: all artists have a certain level of vanity after all! :) Less we forget though, it's Donovan's incredible flowing picking style that is his true gift, and he kept up the flow for two hours. It looked like he used three fingers plus the thumb, while Hayward usually only uses thumb and forefinger.

He has a fantastic range to his voice, probably the full 5 octaves of a Diva, which is a tribute to his training in Kundalini of course. His style is DEFINATELY a "singsongy" form of story telling I am more or less familiar with through a Native American story teller I listen to named Johnney Moses. But Donovan could have picked this up in Tibet too, I think his website says he has been there recently. Don even got into weird spook voices, which is freaky to the European listener, but not odd at all if you are used to the art of ethnic story telling. I really enjoyed it.

I ran off my memory map a few times for songs, and will have to go back to the bootleg for it eventally, but here is some of the rest of the line up: "Little Tin Soldier"(?from Anderson's "Steadfast Tin Soldier") then "Universal Soldier" by Buffy Saint Marie (?with political commentary), "Candyman" (with a story), "In the Morning" with a hilarious story about how he woke all his friends up with this when he first wrote it, "Geraldine" (a sad story about a girl left in the lurch by an Irish boyfriend), "Dona Dona" YAHOO!, "Josie Ophelia" (a fave of mine, again a sing along). About this time he left the microphone where he was standing, and going over to a platform, took off his shoes and assumed the Lotus Seat! He really warmed up and got comfortable after that.

Then he did "El Dorado" off Sutras YEAH!!!!!!!!!! (I got weepy in this one too) and he slipped in just a tiny bit of "Tangerine Puppet". Then "Guinivere" "Laleyna" "Sunshine Superman" and some others I didn't know. "Jennifer Juniper" was in there somewhere. Mostly he told some very good stories about his "life and times".

One involved what he said was "four Beatles, one Beach Boy, Mia Farrow, and Me" in the room with the Maharishi Yoganda. He said they all sat there in a sort of uncomfortable silence, awaiting directions from the guru, until John Lennon (the wit of the group) got up and walked over to the Maharishi, patted him on the head, and said "There's a good Yogi!". The audience about peed their pants laughing. The Yogi laughed too, thankfully.

Another story started out slow, and got a bit raunchy (I bet some parents were not thrilled, I thought it was funny). Donovan started talking about George Harrison, and sang a "lost lyric" that George had written for "Hurdy Gurdy Man ', and I must write this out and post somewhere eventally. And then he somehow led into talking about how he (Donovan) was the first of the English rockers to be busted for pot in the 60's. And when he mentioned Harrison, it got a big round of applause.

Anyway Don told his "Bohemian" story, about how one night, Gypsy Dave (his road manager) was out in the front room sleeping wearing nothing but a shirt, and Don and his French girlfriend were in the back sleeping with nothing on at all! Gypsy's old girlfriend showed up at the door, and when he let her in, she was followed by 9 beefy cops (what a nasty little bitch!) .... Dave hollar'd for Don to lock the door (standing there with no drawers on!) And as Don and his lady had just smoked the last of the Hash, he said he could remember going for the door in slow motion........ I lost it at this, laughing, remembering another long ago night I was pretty stoned, and it took about 10 centuries to reach out for a door knob.

Naturally he didn't make it, and the cops burst in, the girlfriend went "eek" with the sheets about her chin ........ and a cop grabbed up Don's beautiful 18th century ivory pagoda and CRUSHED it. About that time, scrawny, naked and all, Don attacked the cop..... it was pretty funny. Somehow he squeezed in that after they spent the night in jail, George Harrison called and offered to help with money, and Don chuckled evilly, saying "Perhaps he knew he was next!"

He said they all went up North after that and wrote the song "Isle of Islay". What a funny story! And such a sad, pretty song came out of it.

Donovan did another really cool thing I think I've only seen Arlo Guthrie do well, that is sling his guitar very neatly, on its strap, to his back (a true troubador!) so it was well out of the way and he could address the crowd and use his hands. He drank up all his bottled water, so he went over to his amp, snuck a short sip of deep red wine, and grabbed a bowl of rattles made out of eggs! He tossed them to the crowd (this was very fun) and did a Jamaica song (the title and tune now escape me). But it was very cool, and different... It was so very very weird, hearing all those songs I have literally not heard for 30 years. Boy what a journey into my lost mind it all was!

He left, and my tape ran out, and applause went on and on and on....... then he came back, and rattled off a long story about the "Antediluvian" and played a few verses of "Atlantis" (apparently this is a very very long song). I have no problems with "believing in Atlantis", but I also have little to no solid proof (and I'm into this and have been for a long time). And then he said something fun, "This is for all the witches out there, you know who you are" he did "Season of the Witch" as the final encore.

Ah those mad Scots and their witch stories, spooky voices and weird stories. What a wonderful night!!!!! Some of the usual aggressive types were hassling the guards trying to get signature (a couple did), and Donovan had only said he was signing for some gal in a wheel chair, and someone said he was overwhelmed by the size of the House...... it was all very weird, but I hung around until they insisted we leave. A shame, I think he signed at other places. I was just too damn cheap to buy a CD, so I had nothing to sign. But I did enjoy watching the fans. Some were even nice folks.

What really surprised me was, for all those years I was a Donovan fan, and I thought he was a much more gentle soul. He came over strong, confident, and really well able to handle himself in the backstage thing too, as well as the performance. I was really impressed, it was a much better show than I was expecting. It was really fun to see him as a human, just telling stories about his friends, and sharing old memories.

It was very confusing getting out of the darkened Bumbershoot carnival , but I finally managed, found the monorail and rode to the shopping center. Then I questioned my sanity for being out that late by myself with two huge bags full of my shopping, hiking through a very spooky dark city at 11 pm. EGAD I was going to miss the ferry! Picked up the pace, and stepped very very smartly down Pike's Place and onto First...then the dock.. down a dark alley... and..... found a huge line at the ferry ticket counter! EEEK luckily they held the ferry, as it WAS Bumbershoot night (the rest of the line was doing the same thing I was!) Our boats left for Bremerton, and Bainbridge, running neck in neck for 10 minutes. I sat out and cooled off on the dark ocean spray bow, and saw two shooting stars. Of course I made a wish. I made two. But one of my wishes was already answered, I got to see Donovan when I thought I never would.