New York State Fair

A two fer one day! CT twice in one day for $8? Are you kidding me?!

Skip now to the show or the set list, if you like. Or read on. :)

Back when I planned this trip, I'd decided to just stay in Buffalo the whole time, rather lugging all my junk to Syracuse. It turned out to be a good thing. The hotel was sorta in the middle of the places we went in the Buffalo area, it was right next to I-90 (the road to Syracuse) plus it was near the airport. This is an important thing when you're taking the first flight out! ;)

Because Junko and I are of the same mind, we decided we had the energy to get up early for the 2+ hour drive to Syracuse. Man oh man, did morning come too soon. Bleh! Apparently I was still waking up when we went through the booths at the beginning of I-90. I managed to get in the EZPass (or whatever the hell they call it in New York) lane. Of course after I realized what I’d done, some dickweed got right on my ass so I couldn't back up and get over to a manned booth for a ticket. *sigh*

I knew this was a bad thing, so the only thing I could think to do was pull over at the next exit and hope that the attendant would believe that I'd made an honest mistake...

Well, sixteen miles later, Tollbooth Willie would have none of my explanation. Although I didn't have to pay a fine or anything, he was pretty mean. I hope it makes him feel better about himself to talk to someone that way. Loser. :P

Once that unpleasantness was behind us forever, Junko and I made good time to the New York State Fair. We got a good parking spot by the gates nearest the Cole Muffler Court - where CT would be playing. Apparently I was *still* not awake, because I had to send Junko in while I ran back to the car for my purse. Doh!

<insert "having a blonde moment" joke here>

I felt silly having Junko stake out a spot. Hell, it was 8:20 am. We should be fine, right?! Little did we know!

On my way back, I stopped to look at the fair program. I asked the youngsters in the booth if there was a picture of CT and the girl stared back at me with a blank look on her face.

HER: Who?
LISA: Cheap Trick. They're playing 2 shows today. They're the only reason I'm here.
HER: Who?!

*sigh*

I weep for the future.

Fortunately the guy with her redeemed their generation quite a bit in my eyes when he said, "CHEAP TRICK! They're only the best rock bank in the whole world!"

Couldn't've said it better myself. ;)

As for the program, there was a write up of CT but no picture. :P Lordy. The dang puppet show got a photo but not our guys?! What the hell?! LOL…

Anyway, by the time I got to the stage area, Junko had already encountered bane of our existence that day…

One woman was sitting there holding the entire front row and a few spots in the second. Her "friends" would be there in a few hours.

Ummmmm… WTF?!?!?!

Apparently the day has come. I'm gonna publish a book on concert etiquette. It's gonna include this unspoken rule:

Holding a spot for a friend or two is cool. Holding spots for 15 is NOT.

The chick beat us there, fair and square, but I just don't see how she had the gall to hold that many spots. WhatEVER. Turns out she doesn't have as many friends as she thought. I think maybe 2 of them showed up. :P

As my Uncle Frank says, "Ain't no corner undumb."

Screw it. Next time I'll get there a 6 am and rope of the first 10 rows for 100 of my close, personal friends. So there.

ANYWAY, it was a beautiful day. Sunny, warm - very good fair weather. Apparently a lot of people thought so because by 11 or so it was a wee bit crowded. T

his is one big ol' fair, lemme tell ya! Just about any kind of food you could want (er… at least any kind of food you'd feel comfortable buying at a fair, LOL). Of course there were all kinds of exhibits, demonstrations and entertainment. Too bad I didn't really get to look around much. We pretty much stayed on that end of the fairgrounds all day.

That morning I introduced Junko to another American culinary delight: Poptarts. LOL… I'd grabbed some and stuffed them in my bag, so unfortunately they were a crumbly mess by the time we opened them. Oh well. :)

A contemporary Catholic mass was said on the stage around 9 that morning. I think one of my favorite things this weekend was trying to explain communion to Junko. LMAO!!! Wonder if CT's ever had a priest open for them before?!

<insert High Priest of Rhythmic Noise joke here>

A little bit later the service a NYSF Gospel Choir did a couple songs. They sounded really great. Although some asshole head honcho dude did a stupid dance off to the side the whole time. I thought it was pretty disrespectful and you could tell the choir thought so too. :P

Their drummer had a Fat Albert shirt on! Cool! That was one of my favorite 'toons growing up. :) Israel, the leader of the group seemed surprised when I told him how much I'd enjoyed their music. He told me where else they'd be performing that day and encouraged me to come.

Thankfully the "facilities" for us fairgoers were *not* those disgusting port-a-potties. LOL... It was weird though - each restroom had an attendant, complette with a tip jar. What's up with that? Are they trying to f*** with the carnies? LOL…

I had a nice chat with Missy. At first she thought I was Felicity. LOL! Someone in Vegas this summer thought we were sisters. Fine by me 'cuz I take that as a compliment. ;) I remembered Missy from the photo session at TF3 and she remembered me from my moment of infamy that night. :P

My god. Was TF3 really 3 years ago?!?!??

Before too long fellow hard core types like Adam (AKA: Taliban LOL!), Adam (AKA: Lord O) and Cara arrived.

The usual assortment of IATSE locals were on hand for load in. They were also instructed to take out a row of benches so a barrier could be put up. Later on, Matt (BEC's tech) was crackin' me up when he did sound check for the mics. He seemed to be getting his inspiration from the various food stands around the Cole Muffler Court. "Check one. Sausage. Robin's mic, Check. Sausage. Wine Court. Check!" LOL!

Some townie was pissed at Matt for playing the drums too loud, I guess. He came over and yelled something at him. LOL... Why not talk to the sound board operator, dude?

Soon after that I caught up with Rhonda, Carolyn, Grace, Cece and Marygrace (sp?! Sorry!). Sounds like traffic was a nightmare coming in. Guess we missed the nasty stuff because we were so freakin' early.

As the afternoon wore on, it got pretty warm. YOYOY must I like wearing black so much? It made things pretty toasty that day.

Just before the show, some state troupers positioned themselves on either end of the stage. They informed us that we were to remain seated during the show.

*Sigh*

What is up with these venues that make us sit?! Maybe that's ok for the crowd coming to see Pat Boone later that week but this is rock 'n roll, people! Gimme a break. Adam thought we ought to make a sign that says "We aren't allowed to stand up. L " Since no one had a blank sheet of paper, I made one on the back of my Homer sign. LOL!

THE SHOW

Dave Ruhl announced the band again - leaving out the "f" word he'd used the night before - LOL! Then the guys hit the stage with a *ton* of energy.

FR

BEC	Blue jeans and a black tshirt and a blue b-ball cap I couldn't read
RN	Black shiny suit and the tshirt I'd given him the night before! Aaaaaawwww! :) I also noticed his shoes - the checkerboard pattern was distorted. Not sure if they're new or I'd never noticed before but they're cool!
RZ	Black sequin shirt, blac... No wait! I take that back! He had on a beautiful white suit with a white sleeveless shirt underneath and some sporty white tennis shoes with a black accent. Before they started the first song, I caught Robin's eye and mouthed, "NICE SUIT!" :) The shades came off part way in to the set.
TP	White western style shirt, cowboy hat, blue jeans, cowboy boots with a cool red and blue design

Hello There
Big Eyes
He's a Whore	I love watching RN tear into the guitar solo on this one.
IWYTWM	How do the guys find such energy to play this song after all these years?!
IYWML	Rick got a big laugh with his typical intro for this. Robin gave me a smile during this that about sent me over the edge. That should be illegal. LOL!
IKWIW	With an "Oh, Claire" intro. Hadn't heard that before - very cool! Rick showed me the t-shirt underneath his jacket and obliged me with a photo op. :) Think I can deduct my trip as a TOMCAT business expense? ;)
High Roller
Voices
She's Tight	Robin was all over the stage on this one. Very, very fun to watch.
Surrender

MISC.

Tom saw our "we're not allowed to stand" sign first and encouraged us to stand anyway. LOL... When we saw the audience standing up on stage right, we all said, "screw it" and stood up too. No one ever said a word.

Although none of us had been there for the infamous CA show with Jeri Ryan in the crowd, we all felt like we got a little taste of that . Robin was so freakin' animated it was killing me! He was all over the place and really into every song.

Me likey! :)

As you can imagine, the troupers were some of Rick's favorite targets that day. He and the rest of the guys really played it up to the kids in the crowd, too. On either side of the stage there was a veritable "kid pit." LOL! Very cute!

During the obligatory Kid Parade, one little girl (T.T. is her name, I think) got very scared and started crying, poor thing. Rick was going down the line, talking to the other kids, so he didn't notice. T.T.'s dad was encouraging her from the sides to stay up there, but she was *really* not into it. I think she was pretty scared to be in front of so many people...

Anyway, Rick asks her what her name is. The poor little thing could only whimper a reply. He *still* doesn't know she's crying (he was standing upstage of her and she had on a hat) so he said, "I can't pronounce that!"

By that time, Tom and Robin decided it was time to let the poor kid off the hook. RZ was *pissed*! He came downstage and yelled, "Who are her parents? Where are her parents?" When Peter (T.T.'s dad) raised his hand, Robin and Tom walked her back to him. T.T. was clearly grateful to be back in dad's arms and Robin and Tom remained there for some time attempting to console her. Then Collin (Robin and Tom's tech) came running out with not one but *two* t-shirts. You just knew that Rick felt bad about the whole thing. Several times during the rest of the show, he went over to her and tried to make her smile.

OK. I have never, ever been more impressed with CT & Co. in my life. The whole thing was so sweet, it made me want to cry! As much as I love CT's music, it's times like this that makes me think my lil' ol' heart is gonna explode. :)

With or without the three great chords, they really are FOUR GREAT GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think we were all so taken by this that we ignored the rest of Rick’s spiel. At one point he said, "Is this thing on?! That was supposed to be a joke." I laughed really loud then immediately felt like Ed McMahon. :P

RICK SEZ

Looking around at the crowd during the first "banter break" Rick got a bemused look on his face and said, "Something's wrong. Why are you all sitting down?!" At which point we held up the sign. I can't remember exactly what he said, but it was a snide comment of some sort... Imagine that. LOL!

Rick wanted everyone to be clear that "This is Syracuse and we are Cheap Trick. *Not* Alicia Keyes." LMAO... (Ms. Keyes was playing the grandstand later that night.) Of course Rick had to add, "Although she *has* been known to frequent my dressing room... Every hour on the hour…" <insert BEC rim shot here>

He encouraged everyone to stay for the evening show because BEC said there'd be a completely different set. (This got a big "Woo hoo!" from all of us in front.)

After welcoming the state troupers, he said to see them for a free t-shirt... He also announced that the latest BBB 4 was available. "Is it 4? 5? 6?" Bun E shrugged while we screamed, "4!!!!!!!" Rick heard us and said, "Yeah, they know in the front row." LOL! He also told everyone their tour plans: with Aerosmith this September plus Europe and Japan next spring.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm… I *really* wanna go to Japan. I’d better start saving my pennies now… Think Tim and Zach will let me go? ;)

He was also kind enough to acknowledge our little section in the front, rattling off where we were from.

THE END

The only discouraging thing about the afternoon was the smattering boos after the guys left the stage without an encore. Some people were pretty peeved. IMHO a quick DP and "Goodnight Now" would’ve kept the natives from getting restless.

That said, I had a great time during the first show o’ the day. The whole "T.T. Moment" just made the show for me. I wouldn’t trade witnessing that for anything. :)