On the Waterfront
Rockford, IL
August 31, 2003

FYI: this review is long. So what else is new? LOL Here are some bookmarks for folks who want to cut to the chase… Click here for show stuff, click here for set list, click here to read about Harmony Riley’s set at Kryptonite (with a very special guest) or click here to order CT’s newest album, Special One.

For anyone who cares about the artistic process for such a long assed write up, this review is comprised of notes scrawled on scrap paper on my way home from O’Hare. Deciphering them was a job – there were a ton of cute kids running around the gate area, so I kept getting distracted. LOL

Anyway, despite appearances to the contrary, the primary reason for this trip was to meet my nephew, Jason, who was born in late June. He’s ADORABLE and oh yeah, it was nice to see his parents too. ;)

Chris (my bro) picked me up at O’Hare and had WXRT tuned in, in the hopes that they’d play some CT during our drive to his place in Rogers Park. No such luck. Doh!

BTW - later on in my visit I did hear that station play "Pop Drone." Woo hoo! Chris had heard it and was quick to tell me how much he liked it, along with "Scent of a Woman." We Barnett’s have great taste in music. ;)

Note to self: buy Chris a copy ASAP! You can too, ya know, click here to order your copy today! :D

If you live in the Chicago area, or if you’re planning a visit, I highly recommend a great new restaurant called The Supper Club. Wow! But hey, don’t take my word for it: Ted from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" loves it too.

By this time, my parents had made it in from Columbus so it was a mini Barnett reunion at my bro’s condo. LOL Great to have some time with them…

Sorta back on topic… another outstanding dinner was at Piece the next night. This was my third trip to the pizzeria/brew pub and it’s still fabulous! I recommend starting with the mixed green salad, the white ‘za with chicken and spinach then wash it all down with the Passive Aggressive Porter. Mmmmmmmmmm….

RN’s five neck is still on display, although the kewl black and white shots of him have been replaced with some paintings.

And oh! I checked the jukebox and S1 wasn’t on there!!!! WTF?! Rick, if you’re reading this, you can click here to order a copy for Piece. :)

Have I mentioned that the new album’s out? Click here to order your copy. LOL

DAY O’ THE SHOW

The drive to Rockfield (um… Rockford) was icky. Rainy, congested, riddled with construction. And those damn tollbooths! LOL Oh well. I came armed with plenty of change so I could do the manual thing.

This was the final day of On the Waterfront. I’ve read somewhere that it was voted one of the best music fests in Illinois and you could see why. There were plenty of stages for a wide variety of music from local and nationally renowned artists.

Of course CT is a wonderful combination of both. I think I heard Rick mention in an interview somewhere that a show at OTW was part of the deal to do the Coronado show this past spring.

After purchasing my button (no rainy day discount, damn!) I ducked under a vendor’s umbrella to search the program for a write up on CT. I couldn’t tell if the dude selling coffee was amused or scared by my enthusiasm. LMAO!

Thankfully the rain had tapered off by now to a very light sprinkle and I got to the Miller Lite Great Lawn Stage in time to hear most of The Snagg’s set.

The venue itself consisted of a large section of reserved seating (with the same white plastic chairs I remembered from the Silver show) as well as GA lawn seats behind the sound tent. Backstage Club tickets were also available at a premium price; you could see those folks sitting along the balcony in the large area behind and a couple stories above the stage area.

The stage was a 40x60 ground support system with PA wings (which was NOT TOMCAT product, might I add. DOH!). There was also a large video screen set up for folks sitting in the lawn area and a diligent camera op filmed all three of the acts.

Speaking of, back to The Snaggs! Miss Holland Zander continues to impress me with her voice and stage presence. Although I don’t know their songs well enough to BS a setlist, I liked what I saw and heard.

During this time I met several fans, some for the first time: Voices, a couple Dawns (LOL), Deanna, Texas Chick, ctrixie and her hubby, many of whom were kind enough to inquire about Zach. Click here to see some of the latest pix. He’s almost 1.5 years old! I can’t believe it…

Rhonda was there with one of her students, Katie. Lemme tell ya, that girl was crackin’ me up! It was really cool of Rhonda to bring her along. Because Katie is hearing impaired, I tried to sign a few things. Not too well, but we did come up with a good sign for "Cheap Trick." I also had to learn how to say "weird people" for Katie’s benefit. She seemed bemused and embarrassed by all of us CT geeks. LOL!

Because I was catching up with so many folks, I didn’t give my full attention to Harmony Riley’s set. DOH! They did play a new tune that a liked a lot (a mid tempo rocker whose name escapes me now) and my all time fave: "Falling Away."

My ears pricked up when I heard Miles Nielsen talk about a new venture with "my dad." That is, a new t-shirt company called Uncle Dick’s. Click here for the official website. LOVE the front page! :D I’m starting to wonder if Nielsen means "entrepreneur" in Swedish…

Miles also told us that there were t-shirts available but I didn’t find them. DOH!!!!

It’s prolly for the best. If I show up with another black CT related t-shirt, Tim just might throw me off a cliff. LOL

I had another "DOH!" moment when Voices informed me that there was a cool 4 song sound check around 4 that afternoon that anyone could hear from the lawn area. Wah! From the sound of things though, we were gonna get an acoustic set, just like I’d hoped! Woo hoo!

It was fun to catch up with another friend: Brian the Trick Driver. :D Always nice to see my favorite driver with Upstaging, Inc. He talked about the cool gig at the Sky Church in the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Wish I could’ve made that one. I should’ve hit up my boss at TOMCAT to go check out our custom stuff there!

As usual, Brian gave me a hard time. This time it was because I didn’t make it out for any shows this summer. Sad but true. However, I did manage begin and end my summer in CT style (Memorial Day weekend in Little Rock and Labor Day in Rockford)!

THE SHOW

After a decent fireworks display out over Rock River, the guys took the stage a little before 9 just after Dave Rule asked us to, "welcome home… CHEAP TRICK!"

FASHION REPORT

SET LIST

MISC.

As CT went on, there were several untaken seats closer to the center, so Rhonda, Katie, Voices and I jockied around to get a better view. Seems that some people would rather visit the beer tent than watch the show, so we kept their seats warm for them until we got shooed away. LOL!

Back at our seats, I followed a couple others who edged their way closer to the stage. There was some space where you could get closer without standing in front of others, so I justified the move that way. ;)

The side benefit of this was meeting Craig (AKA c10, who believed the 10 pm start time he saw online. DOH!) and a fan from Australia. He was such a cute little guy. He told me he’d come all the way from there just for this show – he hadn’t seen the band since the late 80s, so he was thrilled to be there. I about sent him over the edge when I handed him a Rick pick.

AUSSIE: Really?
ME: Yep.
AUSSIE: I can keep it?!
ME: Of course.
AUSSIE: I have to give you a cuddle!

I’m a sucker for accents, what can I say? :) Happy to share the wealth with a fellow fan.

Anyway, as you might imagine, the guys all seemed very happy to be back in front of a huge hometown crowd.

It was bizarre to watch Robin change guitars every song during the acoustic set, while Rick played the same for all 4. Not that I blame him. That green finish on his new acoustic is gorgeous!

I always have to laugh when Rick is forced to sit still for any length of time. He let out some of that pent up energy yelling, "Yeah!" repeatedly. LOL

As you can see from the set list, it was a longer show than usual, so we were all thrilled. An acoustic set? Five new tunes?! What could be better?!

I couldn’t see the screen from where we were, but I could only imagine the goofy images that were projected as Rick messed with the camera on more than one occasion.

As reported elsewhere, there’s a new CT logo gobo thingy that looks really cool! Especially in such a big playing space.

I have to say this show was probably the most I’ve ever heard Robin talk. Instead of his usual, "Thankyouthankyouthankyou. ThanksforcomingtoseeCheapTrickwe’llseeyou nexttime" schpeal, he elaborated a little more, but then got tangled up in the words. LOL

From where I stood, it was hard to see Bun E. Tom was all smiles, although he seemed to stay on his side of the stage most of the night.

RICK SEZ

At the top of the acoustic set, Rick promised no more rain until after the show and by god, the man was right. At the beginning of the electric set, he said it was "great to be playing Rockford for the first time… that night."

He welcomed fans from places like Canada, Texas (woo hoo!) and of course, Rockford.

BEC prompted him at one point to mention the new CD. Rick couldn’t decide if the proper lingo these days should be "new album" or "new CD." Elaborating more on S1, he equated it to Budokan – "It grows on you." LOL

He went around the stage, asking if the guys had anyone they should say "hi" to. Apparently BEC had lots o’ relatives in attendance. Tom was his usual contrary self. Rick asked about relatives in from Nashville which led into a hilarious impromptu jam, which I like to call Rick’s Country Jamboree. Couldn’t tell you the name of the song but it was hi-lar-I-ous! :D

To introduce "Heaven Tonight" were told about CT’s tours with ZZ Top and Aerosmith and that Billy Gibbons and Steven Tyler both call this one their favorite CT song. "I think they’re getting married and we’ll play it at their reception." Bwahahahhaha!

Another tour he mentioned was their upcoming stint on the Unlimited Sunshine tour with Cake.

After showing off his Ice Hogs jersey (I met a fan who had another one on just before the show – I told him, I’m sorry, can I look at your shirt for a minute?!" LOL) Rick said, "Go Ice Hogs!"

POST SHOW

I headed up to Kryptonite hoping to stay awake long enough (gimme a break, I had a 90 minute drive ahead of me, plus I’m still a relatively new mom. LOL!) to see the HR and Snagg’s show.

Kryptonite is an itty bitty club in downtown Rockford. There’s a narrow balcony upstairs that wraps around the main floor, with a small stage just inside next to the bar. (I think the bar is longer than the stage is wide. LOL!) The patio out front doubles the club’s size.

I wandered upstairs and chatted with Mike, Debbie and her long suffering hubby. ;) I need to get Tim with him. LOL

Anyway, I went back down to the floor just as HR began their set. They did a mix of their own stuff, along with some outstanding covers like "Time" and "Radar Love."

MN SEZ

"This isn’t On the Waterfront anymore, this is Kryptonite!"

He thanked a female fan for the rose she handed him - in fact he played the better part of a song with it between his teeth. LOL (Later on, he handed it to his mom during "Need Your Love," while she just beamed!)

Just before their killer version of "ELO Kiddies," Miles said it was for Cheap Trick.

And speaking of CT, in the middle of their cover of "Let the Good Times Roll" a small group of people was hustled up front. One of those folks just happened to be related to Miles and Daxx, so they let him onstage for a couple songs. ;)

Kidding aside, it was a true pleasure to see Rick make music with his sons again. Miles handed him his guitar and sat upstage, taking it all in, grinning from ear to ear.

Rick stayed up there for one more song – "Need Your Love."

Oh. My. God. Unbelievable.

RN SEZ

After a killer rendition of "Let the Good Times Roll," Rick said he wanted to buy us all a drink. "Oh… I forgot my wallet." Doh! No sooner had he said that, when he pulled out a money clip and threw a $100 bill at the bartender and told him to give drinks to the first good looking women who could make it over to the bar.

Woo hoo! I can now say that Rick’s bought me a drink. ;)

After the commotion produced by such a declaration, Rick toasted us with a bottle of water and thanked us for a great summer. Awwwww!

After NYL, Rick said "Those last two songs were brought to you by the AARP." Bwahahhahahahaha!

Then to cap it all off, I got an (inadvertent) hug from the man as he made a swan dive into our section.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about all this was the way that Rick treated the situation. He came in, played the crap out of the songs, had a blast, then left quickly, so as not to upstage HR.

I’m sorry. They just don’t come classier than Mr. Nielsen.

The rest of HR’s set was fun, but I just couldn’t make it for The Snaggs. I needed to leave so I could be safe driving back to Chicago.

A stop at ye olde Steak ‘n Shake provided me with the opportunity to get a snack for the road and meet a nice fan from online. Thanks for coming up to say hi, Sherry! And I hope I spelled your name right. LOL

It was cool to see so many CT shirts in the restaurant. :D

POST POST SHOW

I got back to Chicago just fine and had another full day with my nephew before heading home to Midland. The day I left was bright and sunny – a great chance to walk by the Lake a bit and say goodbye to my favorite US city.

MUCHAS GRACIAS !

Many thanks are in order, as always!

First and foremost, thanks to CT et al. for another great show to add to my "kaleidoscope of memories."

Mom – thanks for the sweatshirt. (I guess I’ve been living in TX too long. I packed such inappropriate clothes. LMAO!)

Dad – thanks for the lift back to O"Hare…

Thanks to Chris, Jean and Jason for many, many things: a loaner car for Rockford, carting me around Chi-Town on a crappy day for some acting research, but most importantly for a wonderful visit.

And as always, thanks to the two wonderful men in my life: Zach and Tim. How I got lucky enough to have two cute guys in my life who put up with me, I’ll never know. :)

Are you still awake?! Thanks for reading.