Hey there! For those of you who are new to my reviews here’s a friendly FYI: you can jump to the show now or read all of my blathering, starting now…

This was a bonus show for me. A couple weeks ago I found out that a trip up north to Columbus, Ohio with my hubby would time out right for me to make a road trip. Hey – Tim’s getting a baseball fix and 4 to 5 rounds of golf on this trip, so why not a little somethin’ for me?!

Anyway, with the car my parents were kind enough to loan me, I hit the road around noon. The early departure was due in part to my hopes for "upgrading" my ticket. I’d already bought one – but I was gunning for a closer spot (yeah, yeah - I’m the first to admit that I’m a spoiled CT fan!).

The drive was pretty uneventful. Nice weather, not too hot, plenty of sun – got in around 2:30 pm local time. The State Theatre is in the heart of downtown Anderson – seems like it’s part of an effort to revitalize that area. Like a lot of towns, growth has been away from downtown – leaving a lot of empty run-down buildings. Anyway, most of the time the State is a movie theatre – but not tonight! Nice marquee out front announcing the show and there were flyers all over the place.

Chad in the box office had a ticket a little closer - he was nice enough to take me in the theatre and literally show me where it’d be. He made a big deal about how great my timing was, etc. because Ticketbastard had just turned in their unsold seats, blah, blah, blah. Little did I know, he was SCREWING ME WORSE THAN TICKETBASTARD! More on that in a bit...

As I suspected, security at this venue was pretty lax, so I walked right into the theatre and said hi to George. I was set! In like Flynn for sound check - woo hoo!!!!!

It’s a pretty little space. All the molding and ceiling work are very nice – with more plans to continue efforts to refurbish and restore. The stage seemed roomy enough (although it looked like wing space kinda sucked). There’s theatre style seating with extra folding chairs for the first 5 rows set up on the (covered) pit area. Matt (BEC’s tech) thought the cup holders in the permanent seats were pretty swell. :)

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book and taking it all in. No John Candis for CT’s first 2 shows back in the States. I’d heard he hadn’t made it to Germany. Later on I asked Carla if he was ok and she assured me he was. Hopefully, he’s getting some rest and will be back on the road for the rest of the summer.

On the merchandise front – I was glad to see a good variety of stuff – especially copies of the "Silver" double CD.

Later on BEC showed up. He’d been there for about 20 minutes, I overheard him being told that he was the only one who would make it for sound check.

DOH!

BTW – did you that Simpson’s catch phrase is now in the dictionary?! True story.

Anyway, after seeing the list of cool stuff from Europe’s sound checks, I was really hoping to hear the guys do some similar stuff. Oh well – c’est la vie…

BEC seemed to be in a happy mood - he messed around with his kit and played some riffs - very cool to hear – while Lee finessed stuff on the board.

After all that, I grabbed some dinner (NOTE TO SELF: the grilled cheese at Steak ‘n Shake sucks!) then hung out by the stage door in hopes of getting a chance to say "hi" to some of the guys as they arrived. I was in luck! After chatting with Matt, George and Joe and Laurie (a nice couple from Anderson who were waiting at the stage door, too) a spiffy SUV pulled up to the stage door.

Rick was the first one out and yelled "IT'S LIZA!" (an allusion to the acting stuff of mine he’s heard about, I guess). As we chatted Robin passed by, smiled and said, "Hi
Lisa."

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don’t ask me why but that freaked me out. I had no idea he knew my name. Good lord, what a nice surprise! Tom came along after that gave me a hug and greeted me by name too! I guess I looked pretty dumbstruck because he and said, "That is your name, isn’t it?!"

Wow. I’m still flabbergasted by that.

Still shaking my head in disbelief, I went around to the front to see if my friend Joel had made it in from Michigan. No sign of him, so I went back to my car to grab the Homer sign – only to bump into Robin. (Honest to god I wasn’t following the guy!)

Anyway, I walked him to the stage door and we chatted about London (I whined about missing the London shows - he was sympathetic and asked me how our trip was sans CT shows). I wished him good show before taking my leave…

I stood outside the theatre for a bit, hoping maybe someone would have a front row ticket to get rid of.... while I’m killing time, I decide to ask the guy in the box office for the best seat he's got.

Him: Front row.
Me: REALLY?
Him: Yeah. They became available at 3 today – but I have to sell the pair.

So, here's what I wanna know. Why didn't that other twerp tell me about these seats?!?!? I’d just bought another seat 30 minutes before all those front row tickets became available! That’s OK, though! I enjoy buying 3 tix to a show when I only need one! Grrrrrr.

Oh well. I was still very happy to score a front spot.

A big bummer of the day was when I found out that Harmony Riley wasn’t there. I’m not sure what was up with that. I was bummed that I wouldn't get to see them. I’d really enjoyed their set in Rockford...

THE SHOW

FASHION REPORT

SET LIST (I think I’ve got this in the right order!)

RICK SEZ...

Rick was in high spirits tonight and worked the crowd for all it was worth. After BEC’s intro he pointed me out too, which always embarrasses me and thrills me at the same time...

The obligatory plug for merchandise and the new Silver CD was there, of course...

He took notice of a couple signs in the crowd. First was my traditional Homer one. He held it up and had me tell the crowd which episode it was from. He said although he has the audio clip he’s never seen the episode. "That’s what happens when you’re in a rock band and you travel the world. You don’t have time to do stuff like watch ‘The Simpsons’." :)

The other sign was held by a girl that said, "I love Rick." I think she was 8 or 9 tops. This led to one of my favorite moments of the show. Rick got her up on stage and praised her for her intelligence. After finding out her name was Adriane, he asked her if she was in Rocky. Her sister pointed out that she was the one who drew the sign. LOL

It was all so freakin’ cute! Rick thanked them both, gave them several picks then in true RN fashion said, "Now get out of here!"

During the banter before IKWIW, Tom said that although he wasn’t in Ireland he did go to The Shamrock before the show. Based on the crowd response, it must be a local joint. Tom added that there was a guy with his shirt off there. Rick said he’d heard that I’d been there doing the same thing. LOL

MISC. STUFF

I had a blast – fun show, good crowd. Got 4 of the new picks. They're cool! And they make an excellent background, don’t you think?) Pretty standard set list, though. The only surprise was "Flame" which they did instead of "Heaven Tonight."

Tom seemed to be plagued with problems with his wires for most of the show – he had to constantly readjust them, poor guy.

Robin was pretty animated which is always great to see. Got a few smiles, which I’ll be living off of for a long time...

And how can I forget? I got an unexpected present from Rick before the encores. He tossed me his towel just after giving his left armpit one last swipe. Thanks Rick!

I think… :)

Afterwards, I went back to the stage door. Bigger crowd this time. The guys were very cool and gave a little more time to their fans after the show. Rick came out and signed stuff from inside the SUV. He seemed amused when I asked him to sign the towel, then thanked me for helping with the Simpson’s trivia.

Saw Robin one last time too. Told him good show and all that...

Whew!

I made the command decision to stay the night in Anderson. I thought I'd be juiced enough after the show to make the 3 hour drive, but there way no way. I got a few hours sleep before heading back to Columbus. It was a gorgeous drive, too. The sun was just coming up and the light caught the sparce fog just so. Beautiful...

Well - as usual, many thanks are in order...

First and foremost - thanks to mom and dad for the loaner car.

Thank you, Tim - as George says, "You're a very patient man."

And finally - thanks to the good folks in and with CT. I had a wonderful time - y'all make life really good. :)

Back to reviews