Wow. This is a long one - even for me. Go to The Show now if you want. Or not. See if I care. :) You have a lot of time to think on a four hour drive… As I made my way to my last CT show for awhile, I got a brainstorm for a present for Rick. Once I got into St. Louis, I bought the supplies I needed, drew him a picture of Homer Simpson (inside a checkerboard frame, of course!) & on the back I signed it "To Rick: a portrait of one of your biggest fans, as drawn by another…" I hoped to have a chance to give it to him before sound check…

Now here's a shocker: someone beat me to the venue! Billy from Illinois was there about an hour before me. I had to laugh when I finally met my match… He was a nice guy & he had a cool collection of guitar picks: Def Leppard, Aerosmith, the Stones, etc., plus an assortment of picks from Rick, Robin & Tom.

After a bit, Sven came out to say hi. He snapped pictures of the venue, the bus, etc... Dave (aka: Romeo) stopped by to say hi, too. He told me about the first time he saw CT back in the 70s - he was blown away by them then & loves working for them now. He says he sings along with every song, every night - except "Voices." "I let Robin sing that one alone." :) We also talked a little bit about the anniversary show. I guess he wasn't happy with the technical stuff on his end - unhappy enough that he felt obligated to apologize to Robin afterwards.

My Boston friends joined me in the line after donning their Halloween costumes. (I, on the other hand, took the concerts as the perfect excuse to NOT wear a costume!) Jennifer & Stephanie were "bad Catholic school girls" & Darryl dressed up as the lead singer from Motley Crue (what's-his-face). We had a hard time making that awful blonde wig behave!

Can I just say that I never dreamed I'd be helping a guy apply mascara before coming to a CT show???

Around 5, the guys were dropped off for sound check at the front door, right by us. I took this as my opportunity to give Rick his present. After a look of surprise, he read the back, smiled & thanked me. Before they headed in, he also checked out my costumed friends. I was too geeked out to remember what he said to them, though... :)

Poor Rick. He tried to come out & chat some more, but he ducked back inside when some freak kept bugging him. The guy wanted a pick or something. I couldn't make it all out.

Sound check was the best of the weekend & we had a perfect view from the front door. First was "I'm Losing You" then… "See My Friends"! We were all very excited to hear that one again. Darryl gave Tom a big thumbs-up through the window. Thanks for playing that again guys!!! It brought back great TF3 memories...

It was at this time that I noticed my present had been added to the collection on Rick's monitors. As you can imagine, I was excited, thrilled, honored, beside myself... well, you get the idea...

When the guys left, we applauded "See My Friends." KSHE - a classic rock station had a vehicle there - Rick looked at a dent on the side & said, "It was nice of them to send the good car out to our show!" Eventually there were 2 KSHE vehicles. They played music (no CT until after the show, Adam), plugged the show, did some giveaways... Rick had made the classic mistake of coming out to the van first after sound check & that freak literally chased him down the street...

The doors opened at last & I scored my spot again. Woohoo! The venue was similar to the one from the night before. There was a standing area in front of the stage (with a barrier), then a slightly raised area behind it. There were two bars in the back. Check this out: they'd set up several pitchers of water & glasses. No need to go to the bar, no need to pay $2 for a bottle of the stuff. I was impressed at the venue's thoughtfulness...

Sven did some more video taping before the show (of course he doesn't/can't tape the actual shows...) - he showed me some of the footage. Fun stuff.

THE SHOW

Bare Jr. from Nashville opened the show. What an interesting band: 5 pieces, including a mountain dulcimer. Sven was kind enough to ask them for me. We both wondered if there was such a thing as a "sea-level dulcimer." :)

They played a great, well-rounded set - a good mix of rock, country & funk. I don't know what the other ladies thought, but IMHO the bassist was hot. :) My favorite song started with lyrics that went something like, "I said I loved you. You blew me off. It turned me on!!!!!!!!" LOL!

Before CT came out, Sven gave me a present: a can of "Black" coffee from Japan. I've never had brewed coffee in a can before... He let me save it for the long drive I had the next day - I didn't think it'd mix well with the shot of tequila I'd just had. :)

FASHION REPORT:

THE SET LIST:

This was the same as Columbia, except Robin changed it up a bit when he started singing "Voices" instead of "Caroline." Robin was oblivious as Bun E. put away the maracas and grabbed a tambourine (or vice versa) and Rick switched out for the Plexiglas guitar. Tom was smiling the whole time… Ah! The beauty of live performance… :)

RANDOM NOTES

During Rick's first banter session, Bun E. was not happy. Something like "Can I get some f***ing cymbals?" Rick heard it and just said, "Whoa, hello…" Then some guy in the crowd shouted "He's a Whore" & Rick quipped, "Aw, same to you!" Someone else yelled, "Southern Girls!" to which Rick replied, "We're gonna play that one later - just for YOU!"…

The guy standing next to me always held up his cup for a pic when Rick came to the edge of the stage by us. Finally, Rick made a face and pretended to blow snot into it.

Later in the show, Rick showed Jennifer & Stephanie the shirt they'd given him (the "coffin" it came in was next to my Homer picture on the monitors). He said something along the lines of, "I got a new shirt from those girls." He also referred to their costumes: "Those 2 in the front row are underage. They need to be spanked!"

While Rick introduced "Caroline" ("This is a 3 chord song…"), Tom was smirking as if to say, "Oh NOW we're gonna do this one?!" Thought I saw a sheepish grin on Robin's face…

Some more pics came my way - one of which got caught in my hair… But the thing that made my weekend was still to come…

At one point (I forget the song) Rick stood in front of me and yelled, "LISA!" He pointed at his Homer picture on the monitors & smiled... What can I say? I was totally stoked that he liked my present enough to give it a place of honor onstage… Way too cool…

Overall it was a fun show - although my favorite of the weekend would still have to be Columbia.

The only bad part about the weekend was that it had to come to an end. I was sad to see it draw to a close, since I won't get to another show for awhile.

I didn't see Rick or Tom afterwards, but Robin & Bun E. came out to sign some autographs before they got in the van. I didn't get over to Bun E., but I caught Robin and thanked him for 3 great shows. He smiled, patted my shoulder and said, "And you were there in the front every night!" :)

On that happy note, I'll (finally!) close out my Halloween reviews. :) Whew!

Thanks to the band, their super-swell crew & all the nice people I met over those 3 nights. It was the best Halloween I've had in years!

Now, back to reality... sigh...

Peace,

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© Copyright, Lisa Jebsen, 1999