Detroit Concert Review June 26th 1999

Posted by Pisces

Saturday June 26th, 1999 Detroit Michigan.
Chene Park Amphitheatre.
Riverfest sponsored by 93.9fm The river.

I don't know exactly where to begin. During the second week in May, a local radio station here announced that Chris Isaak would be headlining their annual concert called, "riverfest". It happens every summer and is definitely something that lots of people around here look forward to each year. The big mystery is always "who's performing this year?". I was thrilled beyond belief to hear chris was the main act and called the radio station to tell the dj how excited I was. He told me that he would be giving away tickets sometime later in the day, so I sat by the radio and the phone and waited. Finally, I heard, "be caller nine right now and win tickets to riverfest"...i jumped off of my butt and called, "hey you're caller nine"....I WON!...I never win anything, and took this as a sign of good things to come. Especially since I won something Isaak related. To me, that was good luck. My luck continued into june, when I got my name entered into a draw to win two tickets to see Chris's show in Lake tahoe in august, airfare, and hotel included. Upon hearing that I had been entered in this draw, I almost immediately came online to find my buddy ECP and tell her that if I win, she was going to come to tahoe with me.

Fast foward to the day of the concert. It was hot. Temps in the high eighties, low nineties. Although it wasn't humid. Again, listening to the radio, I heard a dj say, "come down to the show early and find out how you can win front row tickets for tonight's show"...I got ready as fast as I could, told my best friend Sarah to get her butt in gear, and off we went. We arrived at the theatre early. Chene park is just beautiful. It's located right on the Detroit river. Beautifully landscaped with a huge pond and a little water fountain in the middle of the pond. It is an outdoor venue which is just perfect for the summer. The stage actually appeared to extend out above the water a bit at the back. I can't really explain it...i'll say this, if you were on the stage, and started walking towards the back and just kept on going, you'd fall in the water. Then entire place is covered by a huge white canopy, except for the lawn seats. SOme people came to the show on their boats and just anchored themselves behind the stage and caught a free show.

So Sarah and I arrive at the show. Chene park has a strict no cameras, no recording devices of any sort policy. I of course, being the law abiding citizen that i am (wink wink), stashed two cameras in my purse. We hand our tickets over and are immediately asked, "any cameras in your purse ma'am?"...sarah says, "no, not me." She looks at sarah and says, "i know, not you, her" and points to me. Like I look suspicious or something. I looked her in the eye and told her, "no"...she said, "alright, go ahead"...I was home free. We immediately went to the radio station's booth and inquired about the front row tickets. Whoever I spoke with suddenly knew nothing about any front row ticket giveaway. I explained to them that I had heard it announced on the radio...yada yada yada...i gave up, i was not impressed. I figured, it had already been given away...so we moved on. We came across the merchandise table. I purchased a poster of Chris, Sarah bought one of those surfer's caps.

We began walking around and ended up going up a flight of stairs. And who should be coming down these same stairs right towards us?...why, it's Kenney Dale himself. I immediately stop and say, "hey kenney" which is quite a bold move for me. He stopped and said hi to both of us, we made small talk and then we all went on our way. I did see him stop and check out a booth that a music store had set up. He was wanderin'.

Sarah and I walk around the venue. Stuart Franke, one of the opening artists, was performing. We missed his performance. Sarah decides she wants some grub, so we wait in line for half an hour to get a crusty stale pretzel for her. We could see the stage from the food line, and watched Susan Calloway (another opening act) do her thing onstage. She has a powerful voice. Great tunes. I can't say for sure how long her performance was. We finish up in line. Sarah has her pretzel. She's content. I bought a coke. :)

We find our seats, which turn out to be surpringly good seats. We were located right next to the sound booth. One of the sound engineers in the pit told us that the sound great where we were seated. Cool stuff.

The Robert Cray band takes the stage. The crowd goes wild. Maybe it was just me, but I got the impression that many folks were there to see Robert Cray. Lots of long time fans of him were sitting by us. Also, Robert Cray's keyboardist, jimmy pugh used to play keyboards for Chris Isaak. They put on a wonderful show...Got a standing ovation. The crowd really loved these guys. They played solid blues. Robert cray is a wizard on the guitar. He did some amazing playing. They played for about an hour.

Once their set was done, I knew Chris and the guys would be out soon. I refused to get out of my seat from this point on. And believe me, that was hard to do after downing that bottle of coke :).

The radio station's djs took the stage at this point. The drawing for the tahoe trip would now take place. My heart was beating a mile a minute. I was literally on the edge of my seat. And the winner is....not me. Okay, well, such is life. I was in too good a mood to care. Ecp, we'll get ours one day! One of the djs then begins tossing water bottles in to the audience...everyone is jumping up and grabbing. it was quite funny. They announce that it's Chris's birthday. We all sing happy birthday together. Chris was not out at this point. I Hope he heard it. I hope we were in the right key.

Minutes go by. I hear the opening music. Stage lights go on. There's Brett. There's kenney. There's Roly. THere's Hershel. All decked out in purple irridescent suits. Very sharp. Crowd goes wild. Then Chris hits the stage. He's dressed in his purple crushed velvet suit. Rhinestones et al. That man does wonders for purple crushed velvet. They launch right into "Wanderin'" Everyone in front is out of their seats. Dancing, waving their arms etc. They play a great set. The usual stories. Chris did make some remark at one point about "headboards"...he immitated someone banging their head off of a headboard saying, "oh god chris, oh god"..I was laughing my butt off. His head was bobbing back and forth. Funniest thing I had seen all night. It was hillarious. Lots of "motor city" references from him. For example, SanFranicsco Days was now "Motor City Day" I'm sure he does at each city he goes to.

Chris launches into "Forever Blue". Sings a few lines and then says, "STOP". He tells the lighting guy to shut off the spot light on him. Apprently he was swallowing too many bugs. Light goes off. Chris continues on. Hershel had his solo. Boy that guy can play. They leave him alone on stage. Then they return and try and throw him off with towels around his eyes etc...Chris actually grabbed a spot light backstage and brought it back out, shining it on the audience. The rest of the band gets back to their spots. Chris is still fooling with the spotlight. At one point , he shines it in his own face and then cracks up. I think it's quite endearing the way he gets a kick out of himself. I really think he thinks he's quite funny. Like a big kid. It's great. Chris's jacket is off at this point. He asked some woman in the audience to hold his guitar while he took it off. Then he motioned like he was going to stage dive. But he didn't. During "Wicked Game", some drunk guy infront of me decided to serenade his girlfriend. It was kind of like listening to a wounded animal howling in the night. Wicked Game will never sound the same to me again. Myself, Sarah and the lovely couple next to us were all cracking up. The drunk guy then told me about his brother's boat. I dont know why. He felt compelled to tell me though. So I listened. Attentively."Uh....my brudder...he's got a boat"...I responded with, "yeah, cool."

For the majority of the show, no one on the main floor was seated. Everyone was up and dancing, having a great time. Chris comes out in his mirror suit. It looks great because the light is being reflected on the big white canopy over head. Looks lovely. It's dark outside by now. The water behind the guys looks beautiful. I was pleased to hear Chris sing "Can't do a thing to stop me"...it's one of my fav's. Chris runs into the audience at one point. Just a few rows up. THen he goes back down. Few songs later, he goes back into the crowd. I lose sight of him. Don't know where he is. Then, he reappears. You remember that sound booth we were seated next to?...Chris is standing on the edge of it. Playing his guitar. Doing his thing. He was within arm's length of Sarah. I was in heaven. He was a mere three feet away. Mirror pants. Black shirt. I grabbed for my camera, but the security guy saw me and looked at me like, "go ahead, try it and see how quickly i take your camera away"..so I put it away. And I enjoyed Chris being so close. His butt was facing us most of the time. Which is either a good or a bad thing depending on how you choose to see it. Like I said, I was in heaven! Chris then runs back to the stage. The moment I dreaded came all too soon. Bonnie B begins. Which I know means the end of the show. I love hearing that song live. Few folks up on stage. Chris showed one woman how to do the pelvis swivel. It's a joy watching him do that. If it were up to me, he could just stand there and do that for the whole show. He does it well :) The woman he was talking to begins walking away. Chris says, "Hey get back here". She tries it. he says, "well, we can work on that." Bonnie B ends. Chris introduces the band. Says he'll be signing autographs out front and giving free physical exams. I wanted the free physical. But opted for the autograph.

Here's the setlist: Wanderin', I'm not sleepy, SOTD, Flying, Somebody's crying, wicked game, Go walking down there, BDABBT, forever blue, I want your love, Didley Daddy, Supermagic 2000, blue hotel, Then that song that starts off "Oh i said, blue, stay away from me..."..i don't know the name, Can't do a thing to stop me, Only the lonely, SF days, and Bonnie B.

We took our time getting to the autograph line. I had never had a pic taken with chris and wanted to be at the end of the line in order to ensure that I got one. The security guards were really vehement about getting people out once they got their stuff signed. I talked with this woman in line while waiting. She was awfully nice. She didn't know that he did pics afterwards, so I told her to stick around.

My turn came. I put my poster down. I tried not to look at him. Those eyes of his usually render me catatonic. But he was looking at me, so I looked back. He signed a halo on the poster of the woman next to me. Then he said to me, "Horns for you" and drew devil horns on my poster. "Why the horns?" i asked. He replies, "because that's what you do to me...you inspire trouble in me." I didn't know what to say.I was speechless, my heart racing. We exchanged a few words. Then i went on my way. He's such a sweet guy.

I saw Kenney, Hershel and Brett walking around. Sarah got her cd cover signed by Brett and Hershel. She was happy. I walked up to Brett, asked if he wouldn't mind posing for a pic. "Sure honey" he says and I get a pic with him. Kenney was talking to someone, so we left him alone. I spot Hershel. He was chatting with two young girls. I walked over and joined them. When he was done, I asked if I could bother him for a pic. "Of course," he says. Puts his arm around me and we snap a picture. We exchange a few words and walk away. I've never met the band before. They were all unbelievably nice and gracious to their fans. Happy to be there you know? It's really great to see.

By this time, Chris is done signing. I see them move the tables aside, so he can get out. I grab sarah's arm and drag her into the crowd. I was not going to let anything stand in my way of getting this picture. I moved through the crowd with a surprising amount of ease. I'm very small, so I bobbed and weaved my way through. I popped out in the middle, just as Chris was coming to the crowd. We made eye contact. I quietly say, "Could i get a picture with you?"

He smiles, "Sure, come here". He puts his arm around me. Sarah snaps the picture. I hear some people in the crowd go, "awwwww". I don't know what that was for. Maybe because I'm small they figured i was a kid? I don't know. I'm only up to about Chris's armpit. So i couldn't see his face during the picture. I hope it turns out.We exchange a few words. Sarah and I swap positions. I snap a pic of her and Chris. Then, people started moving in to get their pics, so we wandered.

We spot Hershel again and Sarah decides she wants a picture with him.

"Hershel, would you mind?"....he posed with Sarah and I snapped the picture.

Then he says, "Uh, should we do that again?" I asked, "Why?"...He replies, "well, maybe i'm mistaking, but I think your finger was covering the lens."

Sarah was not impressed. Hershel starts laughing. So I start laughing. Then sarah yells at me, "Have you been doing that with all the pictures?"

I can't stop laughing. Hershel is laughing even harder now. Maybe only the two of us saw the humour in it?...So I snap the picture again. I don't know why, but the whole thing just cracked me up. Sarah pulls me aside and is not happy, "I Hope you didn't do that during my pic with Chris"...suddenly, it's not so funny. I ask her if we should go do chris's pic again. She doesn't want to. We stand around. Kenney takes off. I didn't see Roly. I saw someone who looked like roly standing under a tree. Maybe it was him?

Doug is out by now. Trying to get chris out of there I imagine. Sarah and I are talking. I turn around and a girl says to me, "Are you Pisces?"

I was totally taken by surprise. I hadn't planned on meeting anyone from the bh there. So i said, "Uh, yeah". Turns out it was Redhead and Landlord Chick from The Stagepage. I was very happy to see them. We chatted for a bit. Chris leaves...the crowd dispurses. LC and redhead asked for a ride back to their hotel. My mom had needed the car for the night, so she had to come back and get us. The four of us crammed in the backseat. I was sitting on Sarah's lap. It was tight. Traffic was unbelievable. I chatted with LC and Redhead. I was a chatterbox, still high from the concert experience. My mom laughed at me the whole way home. She knows I love going to isaak's shows....dropped lc and redhead off...and then went home.

So, there it is. My concert experience. Hope I didn't leave anything out. I had a blast. Let's recap.
THE GOOD - Got my pic with Isaak and the guys.
THE BAD - I might have ruined Sarah's pics with the band. Woops!
THE UGLY - I got hit on by one of the security guards as I left...he asked for my number and said that, "he'd like to get to know me better"..."Yeah, I bet you do Mr. Security guy!" UGH!!!!!...

I hope I did this review thing properly. Pisces.

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