25th Anniversary Show

OK - you know the drill. Go to The Show right now if you don't wanna hear the pre-show babbling. :) Can you tell that the background is my lame attempt at a "silver" color?!...

I was up around 7 am to check out & get to the car rental place. I was absolutely hell bent on being in the front row for the CT show of shows, so I fear I was a little spazy with my fellow travelers. Sorry 'bout that Jennifer & Stephanie! My buddy Christie was good enough to give us a ride to Midway. Her payment ended up being my left over Molson & food stash from the Radisson. :)

As luck would have it, our rental car had a CD player, so we popped in "Music for GURMS" for our first listen. It helped me to keep calm in the Chicago traffic. Well, sorta… :) CT’s cover of "Highway to Hell" will forever be linked to images of the skyline flying by. We all said "wow" a lot during that track! :)

Ummmmm, could there be some more toll booths between Chicago & Rockford?! :P The CT stickers were long gone, so the booths were just annoying IMHO. Gimme a ticket & charge me a couple bucks at the stop where I exit! None of this 40¢ … 25¢ … 30¢ crap! Sheesh…

We decided that we had to drive through Rockford blasting CT 77 as loud as possible. Felt like I was in high school again. How does CT always manage to do that to me?!

We got to Davis Park around at 12:15 and were numbers 8-10 in line. #1 had been there since 8.30 that morning!!!! Now THAT’S dedication.

After scoring some lunch, I grabbed some pictures of Founders Landing Building with the huge "Cheap Trick - The Silver Anniversary Concert" banner. Very nice. I also appreciated the "welcome CT fans" signs that were on a couple bars near the park. :)

It was a beautiful, sunny day – if a wee bit hot. We watched the shade slowly creep our way & were thankful when it finally covered us. Towards the middle of the afternoon we got to witness the "Who d'King" drum choir practice. Rick encouraged us sing along. Robin was there too, with Robin Jr. playing along on his snare. Afterwards, Rick walked by and commented on our early arrival… Later we also heard some of "Time Will Let You Know" and "It All Comes Back to You."

Since we were at the front, things got tense around the time for the gates to open. The crowd was so big and I kept having visions of being trampled. Being from Ohio – home of The Who concert tragedy – you get a little paranoid about these things… Not to mention the fact that I had NOT worn my running shoes! :)

I got my mind off that with the couple from California who had made the Dream Police 2K dolls. They had obviously had another creative outburst. They’d taken one of their Bun E. masks & transformed it into a Rick mask, complete with beard & shades. I bow down to their creative abilities! :)

Looking back was another amazing sight. The line was 7 or 8 people deep in places and stretched clear across the park and all the way over the bridge. Needless to say, I was extremely proud to see so many people turning out for CT.

Fortunately, my crowd fears were for naught. It was a sprinting contest when the gates opened, but my feet (& shoes!) didn’t fail me so I got a good spot for the three of us in front between Robin & Tom. I didn't look back but I could hear Jennifer yelling, "Run, Lisa, RUN!!!!" LOL...

It was your typical outdoor venue. All TF3 attendees got the front section. There were 2 more enclosed sections behind us – the rest was lawn seating. The stage was up about 6’ and there were checkerboarded steps leading down the front. The barrier left us a good 10-15’ from the stage, plus on our side there was a camera on a huge crane. I made buds with the camera operator & he assured me that our view wouldn’t be obscured.

After settling in, I went in search of dinner. To my disappointment every food item had meat in it. Red meat at that. One of the venders offered me a plain bun. :P After assuring him that it was full of "bunly goodness" I walked away. Just wasn’t in the mood. At the risk of fainting again, dinner ended up being a cup of "liquid bread." I just couldn’t bring myself to eat a burger…

As I looked back at the crowd, I was amazed at its size (about 15,000 was what I heard!). The place was packed! And there were boats all over the river that had obviously anchored in for the show. Too cool.

After a long day of waiting, Cheap Trick took the stage and made it all worth my while – and then some.

AIN'T THAT A SHAME	The guys stormed onstage and we went crazy. They all looked happy & were very energetic – Robin seemed particularly thrilled with the size of the crowd.
IWYTWM	Early on, Robin leaned on Rick, looked over at our side of the crowd & smiled and pointed at my Homer sign. :)
OH CANDY
IN THE STREET	Rick talked about how they’d been asked to re-record the theme for "That 70s Show." "2 ½ minutes of pop, coming right up."
VOICES
IF YOU WANT MY LOVE	Jon Brant joined on this one & "She’s Tight". Although he had a big smile on his face, he stayed pretty far upstage & didn’t interact much with the guys.
SHE'S TIGHT
CAN'T STOP FALLING INTO LOVE
GONNA RAISE HELL	Three words: Wow, wow and wow!

The first set was so full of energy – you could tell they were all having fun. We were loving it, too. Tod Howarth was on keys for most of the show. Hope the guys didn’t swallow too many bugs. Seemed like they were getting swarmed up there! The sun had set and they had a relatively bug-free 2^nd & 3^rd set… After a 10 minute break, the guys took the stage for set 2 of 3…

The first part of the set was acoustic. Jonathon Marks and Daxx Nielsen helped out on percussion.

I CAN'T TAKE IT
TAKE ME TO THE TOP	Afterwards Rick said, "Who says "The Doctor" was a bad album? … Well, besides every reviewer in the country!"
IT ALL COMES BACK TO YOU	Ian Zander played ukulele
TONIGHT IT’S YOU	Thanks for doing one of my faves, guys! And special thanks to Robin for singing such a vocally tough song!
TIME WILL LET YOU KNOW	In an evening of great moments, this was one of my favorites. Robin dedicated the song to his wife Pam, "It means a lot to us." The Harlem High School Choir - the same choir group Robin was in during high school, sang back up with 4 members of the Rockford Symphony Orchestra on strings. Daxx was on drums, Miles Nielsen, Ian and others were on guitar. And of course Robin was on vox with his daughter Holland. He sounded amazing, as always & Holland is as beautiful as she is talented. (Like father, like daughter!) There was some feedback during her verse, which obviously startled her. Dad took her hand and held it for the rest of the song. This would be when I lost it completely & just cried like the big boob I am. A beautiful moment, and a beautiful song… As Robin escorted his daughter offstage, Rick said, "I don’t know about you but I have goosebumps right now." When he went to swap guitars off stage right, I could see him dry his eyes…
The second part of the set was electric.
WORLD’S GREATEST LOVER	Rick on vox. "Robin let me sing one." Not to be outdone by Robin, he dedicated this one to *his* wife. He sounded great & was so cute. Afterwards, he smiled and said, "Man – singing is hard!"
THE FLAME	Rick said, "This was our only #1 hit in the US – so thank you…" Robin took my breath away when he popped that note. You GO! The strings were a nice touch, too.
STOP THIS GAME	Robin or Rick said, "OK – enough ballads!"
DREAM POLICE	WOW!!!!!!!!!! Sounded fab with the strings! Really cool. I caught a pic on this one. :)

Before the band left the stage, Tom invited Steve (a fan from Australia) on stage, as well as his girlfriend, Lisa. Of course this was so he could pop the question… He said, "Online my screen name is ‘hezawhore’ – will you be my ‘shezawhore’?" When she said, "Yes!" and there were hugs, kisses and handshakes from all the guys in the band. Before they left the stage, Steve asked Rick if he knew of any bands that could play at the reception. :)

Another 10-15 minute break before set 3. The "walkway" from the stage through the front sections was cleared out by security. Hmmmmmmm…

I KNOW WHAT I WANT
WUWAM
NEVER HAD A LOT TO LOSE
YOU'RE ALL TALK	Slash guested on this one - wearing a black "R's" T and the obligatory top hat. I’m not a G&R fan, but I thought the guest appearance was cool… He broke a string almost immediately and Sven came running out to frantically replace the guitar. Afterwards Rick said, "He was playing so hard he broke a string on the first note!"
I'M LOSING YOU	Rick told us that Julian Lennon was supposed to be here for this one, but couldn’t make it due to an obligation in Nashville. Miles Nielsen took a verse instead and did a fine job.
HARD TO TELL
OH CLAIRE
SURRENDER	I never get tired of watching Rick fling that 5 necked monster around. :)
ENCORES
2 more drumkits and their respective drummers were brought on stage. They spelled out "Drum Choir."
JUST GOT BACK	Billy Corgan played guitar on this. He announced that this was his "personal tribute to one of the greatest bands of all time." I could see him watching the rest of the show off stage right.
DAY TRIPPER	Art from Everclear guested on this one. He & Robin "rammed" their guitars together a couple times. Too funny. Art took the mic after the song so he could scream, "CHEAP TRICK!!!!!!" at the top of his lungs. :) My sentiments exactly.
WHO D'KING	*The* finale. We donned our Bun E. masks, as directed. Rick was on vox (encouraging us to sing, once again) with the Phantom Drum Regiment conducted by Bun E. the drum choir. Robin Jr. played his snare and the rest of the Zander kids came out to help sing. The choir also came out to help sing. With the Drum Choir keeping the beat, there was a huge procession down the steps and into the crowd. The band beamed as they made their way through the audience – stopping to shake hands along the way. Rick’s first couple steps down the stairs were particularly cute – he looked like a happy little kid. The beat went on for quite some time until Bun E. entered from offstage to give them the cut off.

It was sad to see the show end – you don’t want great concerts like that to ever stop! I considered myself one of the lucky ones to see this CT show of shows. After counting more than 6 cameras recording the show, I hoped that meant we’d have the chance to relive it on video some day!

After a late snack at Denny’s (thanks for spotting me guys!), I grabbed a shower at J & S’s room then decided to head for Midway. I was paranoid I’d oversleep, plus I knew I had just about enough adrenaline to make it there before exhaustion set in...

It seemed fitting that the last part of my TF3/25^th Anniversary show trip was to drive down the highway that CT used so much in the early days. The drive & the flights back home to Texas were the perfect opportunity for me to reflect on the amazing events of the last few days. I found it hard to believe that I’d ever considered NOT going!

A big ol’ thanks to Sven and everyone on the crew, to Carla for organizing the whole shindig (& remembering that I was supposed to be on the TF3 list!), and the good people who made the merchandise stand happen! But of course the biggest thanks to CT for all the great music over the years & for giving so generously to all of us for 4 fabulous days.

Rick	black pinstriped suit, mysterious RN T
Robin	white suit, purple shirt
Tom	beige suit, beige T
Bun E.	blue floral print shirt, black pants

Rick	black suit & black Lennon T
Robin	black suit, white T
Tom	cream jacket, light blue pants, pale pink T

Robin	Gold suit, brown t-shirt
Tom	that green suit I love so much, red shirt