Cohassett Review

Posted by mrsisaak

Ok, so this is gonna be pretty short (I think). I flew out from San Francisco for this show. I've gone 4 months without a Chris show and that's plenty long. And I'm originally from Rhode Island so this is also an excuse to visit the family (haven't seen THEM since Christmastime. Oops, I think this says something about priorities!) It was a nice, beautiful day in New England. Threatened to rain but ended up being just gorgeous. I was a little worried when we got inside the venue (it's a big tent) because my seats (3rd row) were pretty much behind Brett's organ, er, keyboards. But I would come to see that this wouldn't be a problem.

We waited outside and waited for the show to begin (my brother and his wife accommodated my need to be there hours before the show was to begin, bless their hearts!) We saw Kenney sitting on a bench, talking on a cell phone. I wanted to wish him a belated happy birthday sometime so we hung out, hopefully rather inconspicuously waiting for him to finish his conversation. I did get to wish him a happy birthday after a couple of "Music Circus" (or so they seemed to me) people finished talking to him. He was, in his Kenney way, very gracious. So my brother (who only knows of Chris via me) decides that he's going to chat with Kenney. I was very annoyed to see that he could carry on a regular conversation with the man without getting all nervous like I always do. Oh well. I guess there weren't enough social skills in the family to go around. He tried to segue me into the conversation when Kenney asked about his Alcatraz shirt but that was right when other people came to flock around Kenney, so that was our cue to leave. Oh well. I had only wanted to wish him a happy birthday anyway.

So the concert is about to begin. They come on right on time (after a comedian warmed up). Come to find out, the stage spun! This was a first for me. So I was happy that I wasn't looking behind the keyboards for the whole show, but that, of course, means that half the time you're behind the stage. But I'm not complaining. They performed the same bunch of songs they've done of late(excluding - much to my chagrin - the Johnny Cash song "Guess Things Happen That Way" and Chris's new surfrider song "Winter Waves"??. Boohoo!) They did do "Can't Do A Thing To Stop Me" which I haven't seen (in its entirety, anyway).

The crowd seemed REALLY into the show. That was good to see. I never hear Chris on the radio when I'm out here and most people seem clueless when you talk about him. He must have a big following that had waited way too long to see him or else he won over a lot of people. Lots of standing/dancing/cheering. The crowd was WAY different than the regular SF crowd, much older and conservative. I think (I could be wrong) that some of them had season tickets for the venue and go to whatever show, regardless of whether they know the performer or not. But I certainly didn�t see anyone who was disappointed! During "Bonnie Bee", there were more people on stage (and this wasn't a big stage) than I had ever seen before. Even a guy ran up on stage. I think that was the first I'd seen that! I'd also noticed before the show that I saw 5 or so guys wearing Chris shirts/merchandise. I didn't see any females doing that. I thought that was a bit different than usual, too. In a good way, of course. The ideal man would adore Chris just a tiny bit less than I do and would therefore totally understand the fascination. Perhaps I missed my soulmate. OK, back to reality.

After the show, the signings went pretty quickly. Only about 15 minutes or so before everyone was cleared from the table. I was disappointed, however, that Chris wouldn't sign a CD for me. I made a "greatest hits" CD at work with a CD burner - no different than making a mix tape, right? I also have been learning how to use CD labelers, etc., at work (and didn't want to practice on official work stuff) so maybe it looked a little TOO good or something and he thought it was a bootleg CD. He said something about not liking "modern technology". Shame on me! It's not like I didn't pay for all the CDs from which the songs came and certainly I've "donated" quite a bit with concert tix and all. And I certainly don't use the CD burner to make duplicates for other people. Whatever. I guess I shouldn't complain because it is very generous for him to sign autographs in the first place....But, unless you want to walk away from the show feeling about an inch high, I wouldn't suggest that anyone else do this.

So, next stop Saratoga! I'm still hoping for Johnny Cash tunes! So I don't know if this is still "short" or not because it's scrolling across and not down. So really it's only 4 lines long, so I think it still falls under the "short" category. Hopefully it'll appear OK on the board. Till Saratoga, signing out!

Jennie

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