Sir Tom Jones

I love Tom Jones. Love. Love. Love.

In fact, I am not ashamed to say I have a total man-crush for him.

There I said it.

So when I heard he was playing at the Paramount Theater last night, I got tickets for Hotness and I to go see him.

The show was to start at 7:30 p.m., but we needed to meet at the house (which is in the TOTALLY opposite direction) after work so that we could take my car into the big city for the evening.

We made it home and back out of the house in pretty good time, but thanks to the wonderful 520 Friday traffic, we missed about 40 minutes of the show by the time we got there.

It's a drag to be sure, but I had my "Best of" CD playing while we creeped along so it wasn't like I wasn't getting my fix in the meantime.

We got through all that, got into downtown and then tried to find a place to park.

On a side note: tonight was also the opening for the "Sex and the City" movie.

As we searched for a spot to park, we saw SEVERAL women who were dressed... er... well, respectable is not the word that comes to mind.

I couldn't tell if they were coming to see Tom Jones or going to the movie (as it was only about two blocks away).

As it turns out, they were going to see Tom and THEN go to the movie.

Woo-hoo! A banner evening for feminism!

We got parked and walked briskly to the Paramount.

As we entered, we could hear the band playing and watched on TV screens what was happening as we went upstairs to find our seats.

We sat in the second level balcony and we were practically the LAST row of people, so we didn't have to walk in front of anybody to get to our seats. We also didn't have to worry about being in the way of anybody behind us when we stood up.

Here's our view:

Okay, so the show. How was it?

Fan-freaking-tastic!!!

I know you don't believe me, 'cause you probably aren't a fan of his, but it was really good.

There were A LOT of women (and a few guys), but mostly women. And they were rowdy.

Yes, panties were being thrown up on stage, and I saw more then a couple come flying towards him from up in the balconies. (I wondered who they landed on before they got to the stage)

I don't know what songs he covered before we got there, but after we got our seats he finished up a pretty rocking tune that included a brass section. Then he did a great blues tune.

After that... it was like his greatest hits LIVE.

He played (in no particular order):

Sexbomb

Green, Green Grass of Home

She's A Lady (Oh man! The women freaked out when he did this)

It's Not Unusual (the guys even got up for this one)

I Like The Way (a sweet cover of the Bodyrocker's hit)

Kiss (a cover of the Prince song from the late 80's)

What's New Pussycat?

You Can Leave Your Hat On (a cover of the Joe Cocker tune that is on the Full Monty soundtrack, and again.. the women went wild)

... and a few of others that escape my memory at the moment.

Hotness got up and swayed her tailfeather to the music and I was right there with her. I even sang along (although, luckily nobody could hear me).

He totally plays to the crowd and the crowd just eats it up.

He shimmied around on the stage. Thrust his pelvis. Growled into the microphone in that sexy, bedroom way. And everytime he did, screams burst forth out of the audience and more panties flew onto the stage.

If I'm HALF as cool as he is when I'm his age (He'll be 68 next week), I'll be happy.

I definitely want to see him again. Except I'd like to see the whole show next time.

Before we left the venue, I got a T-shirt for Hotness and a photo book from the merchandise booth.

Then we walked to get something to eat.

Most everyplace was packed, but we did manage to get in at the Daily Grill.

Hotness had a chicken quesadilla and I had one of the biggest damn bugrers I've ever seen.

I made a substantial dent in it, but I just couldn't finish it.

.... and that was about it. We came back home and went to bed and now today is a brand new day.

We have the ballet tonight, so we'll be back in Seattle again.

I'll let you know if anything changed there since we left last night.