My good friend Jon Lewis (Lou) and his family have flown back to our nation’s capital to take in the inauguration festivities in Washington, D.C.
Lewis, who has written about the arts for a number of years in the north state, caught quite a show Sunday at the National Mall.
His knees were screaming at him after a long day on his feet in the frigid cold, but he wasn’t too tired to share some thoughts about the experience late Sunday:
We took a crowded, buzzing, excited Metro train in to D.C. proper, arriving at the Smithsonian station about 10:30 a.m and started making our way toward the Lincoln Memorial for the “We Are One” Inaugural concert. Already a huge crowd assembled, people flowing in from several angles, everybody up and positive despite the 32-degree weather and cloudy skies.
Masses at The Mall / photo by Jon Lewis
Finally got settled into a spot about three-quarters of a mile from the stage but with a big Jumbotron screen in clear view, had 2 hours or so to wait. Still amazed at the mood of the crowd. Have never been in the middle of what the Washington Post is saying was a crowd in excess of 400,000 and have never been around such a big group with no fighting, yelling, shoving or anything else negative. Probably helped that law enforcement was everywhere, on horseback, FBI agents in camo jumpsuits, park police, D.C. police, etc. But no attitudes as far as I could tell.
Stirring “Fanfare for the Common Man” kicks things off, Joe Biden and Barack and families are introduced and seated. Master Sgt. Caleb Green, an awesome tenor, belts out the national anthem. Denzel Washington welcomes the crowd and talks about the “We Are One” theme. Moves right into Bruce Springsteen with a balls-to-the-wall version of “The Rising.” Bruce on a 6-string acoustic and backed by a huge choir. Just amazing. Crowd goes nuts.
Mary J. Blige sings “Somebody to Lean On,” and Jamie Foxx does a spot-on Barack imitation, quick shot of Obama chuckling. Others follow: Betty Lavette and Jon Bon Jovi, James Taylor (“Shower the People”), a totally revved-up John Mellencamp doing “Pink Houses” ; Herbie Hancock joins Sheryl Crow and Will.i.am for “One Love.” Tiger Woods, George Lopez, Rosario Dawson, Tom Hanks give quick talks on Lincoln, U.S. history, some MLK anecdotes. Garth Brooks (sounds sketchy, but he really did do a decent job) on “American Pie” (Barack shown singing along, his daughters jumping around, clearly having fun). Garth slips into James Brown’s “Shout.”
Stevie Wonder and Shakira do “Higher Ground.” Forrest Whitaker gives a talk, and then U2 tears the joint apart with “Pride.” Bono says what an honor it is for four Irish guys from north of Dublin to be allowed to honor the man we just elected president. Crowd goes nuts (common theme today).
Barack gives a brief but stirring speech on what lies ahead. Everybody’s wondering just what’s in store for Tuesday.
Springsteen is back out with Pete Seeger to lead a sing-along for “This Land,” and Beyonce cruises out for “America the Beautiful.”
Short, slick and sweet 2-hour show. Everybody on stage was into it and very respectful. They got on, sang, bowed or waved toward Obama, Biden et al and got off stage. I’m still amazed at the logistics. The PA system alone is kind of mind-blowing to think of the watts required to drive speakers spread out over more than a mile or two, not to mention the multiple video screens. Am looking forward to seeing how it looked on the HBO broadcast, which I taped.
Anyway, off for more sightseeing tomorrow, and then it’s up and at ’em early on Tuesday for the inauguration.
