As you know, Dave Chappelle was in Portland yesterday (and may still be here for all I know.) From what I understand, he made a quip which turned into a rumor and by 11:30 last night, about 4000+ people were in Pioneer Courthouse Square, patiently awaiting his arrival. Wizardboots and I had nothing better to do, so we headed down. I honestly didn’t think it would happen, so was there more for the spectacle and to see what the power of Twitter would create. I was blown away. Really! It was an awesome sight to see and everyone was cool, even those removing clothing while wandering atop Starbucks.
Around 12:45, people started getting restless due to Dave not showing. Some believed we had been “punk’d.” Others were still hopeful when suddenly to our right, the crowd screamed and a surge of the crowd moved that way, knowing Dave was in the house.
Dave brought only a little amp, so not many people could hear him. We were close enough to hear every little bit, but nothing like a show. PDXPipeline has some great videos of the “set.” After awhile, they did attempt to hook up a PA system, but realized there was no power to the outlets in the square. At that point, Dave called it and headed off into the night. 2:15 am or so.
In the end, a great night. So we didn’t get to see a comic do his act, who cares. Portland got together via the Internets and had a wonderful night meeting each other and just hanging out to a quarter moon. The Portland Police, always ones to look at large crowds as potential riots, were calm and collected, allowing the event to take place without incident. 10 years ago, there would have been batons at 12:05 am.
Thanks Portland for creating a memory for me that will last a lifetime. I’m still giddy.
More of my photos (albeit a little grainy and dark)
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My teen (a huge Chappelle fan, thanks to the Netflix access his mother so lovingly provides him) is really, really angry at all of “your Twitter friends, MoooooooOOOOM.”
Turns out what he first thought was cool is just another case of rabid fans putting too much pressure on delicate flower Dave. “Don’t you know that he walked away from his show and millions of dollars to get away from all of your crazy friends? He’ll NEVER come back to Portland again, Mom. And it’s your fault.”
(Or something like that, anyway. All I know is, well, it’s my fault…)
I love how teenagers how such paramount insight!
Nathan, that sentence makes no sense.
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