Electric Park – Tucson Family Fun Fest
Tucson, AZ
July 4, 2002

Ahhhh… There’s nothing like a family road trip. My god it sounds weird to say that… Believe it or not, since my last review Tim and I have become parents. However, parenthood has done little to stop me from jonesing for a CT fix, so before Zach was even born, I’d hatched a plan to get us out west for a couple shows. Parenthood has also done nothing to improve my tendency to babble, so read on for the whole thing or skip ahead to the show or the set list.

We left mid-day on July 3 for Tucson. I had a work thingy to do that morning otherwise we’d’ve left a lot earlier… Oh well. The drive was nice – especially once we got out of the Permian Basin. Midland has been a great place to live in many ways but the scenery ain’t one of ‘em. Shhh – don’t tell the Midland Tourism Bureau I said that!

Surprisingly, the drive was shorter than we’d anticipated.

And no, Tim wasn’t speeding... Much…

We got in to Tucson around 8:30 pm local time… Ummmm… can someone explain to me why Arizona refuses to do the daylight savings thing? I’m one of those insomniac types who finds it nearly impossible to sleep when there’s daylight so dawn at 4:30 am SUCKS!

Anyway, enough ranting…

The Clarion Inn was darn nice for the price. Nice pool. Big ol’ room. Me likey. The best was yet to come though. Zach had tolerated the drive (to the best of his abilities) but I thought we’d pay at night. The other trip we took him on he hardly slept the first couple nights... However, he slept from 9:15 pm until 6:30 am.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! Party!!!!!! Zach had NEVER slept through the night before, so this was a big freakin’ deal! Tim and I thought, "$hit! Does this mean we hafta take a 9 hour drive every day?!" LOL…

Part of the deal was that Tim and I would swap babysitting duties. Tim would be on Zach patrol for the CT shows and I would take over a couple mornings so he could play golf. So the morning of the 4^th, I dropped him off at a course (practically next door to the hotel) then Zach and I went to Electric Park to check out the set up.

Yes, I’m queer. Later that day though, I caught a BTO fan doing the same, so it must not just be a CT fan thing. ;)

Electric Park is part of the Kino Sports Complex – spring training home of the White Sox. A very nice, new looking facility. From the looks of things, the stage was out in left field <insert joke here> with a fenced-in area of about 300 seats right in front, known as the "Red Zone." Everything else was a general admission, sit your ass on the grass kinda thing. LOL…

Now, GA tickets were $10, while seats in the Red Zone were $40. The kooky-nutty-wacky thing was that you couldn’t buy those premium seats online. You had to go to some special Tucson location. DOH! However, I’d been assured by 2 dudes affiliated with the event that there’d be Red Zone seats available at the door.

They lied! I got there and was sorely disappointed to find out otherwise. Sold out. Lisa’s SOL. *sigh*

Not only did I have to endure sets by Foghat and BTO, I had to watch people getting into that section and actually choosing to sit 10 rows back. WTF is up with that?! LMAO!

Oh well. As luck would have it, security felt our pain and after CT started, they let folks into that section. Sold out but it never filled up. Weird. The concert seating gods were with me that day so, I ended up in front anyway. Right by Rick’s steps…

The Foghat bassist set his drink on them at one point, BTW. I almost stood up and yelled, "GET YOUR *#&@$% CUP OFFA THERE! SHOW SOME RESPECT!" :)

Oops. I’m babbling and getting ahead of myself…

ANYway… Tim got back to the hotel (he shot 82 – a couple birdies! – go Tim! LOL) and after a late lunch he dropped me off at the park so I could get in line.

Ummmmm… It was f***ing hot, people. Something crazy stupid hot, like 108 degrees. God. The craziest part was that there were already a good 20 people there. I’ve no idea how long they’d been waiting, but I got there an hour before the gates were to open at 3. Couldn’t help but recall that the last time I saw the guys was Rockford when it was f***ing cold. Sunburn? Frostbite? Lordy, what won’t I put myself through?!

We baked on the sidewalk (no shade, of course) until the gates opened. A side benefit for those who bought their tickets online, though – we had our own entrance so we got in ahead of other folks with regular tickets.

As we ran out onto the baseball field all I could think was I bet the groundskeepers just LOVE it events like this. However they did a good job of keeping us on the grassy areas. We may trample the outfield, but the infield diamond was fenced in and safe ‘n sound from the drunken masses.

The Fest seemed to be well attended. Especially since there’d be no fireworks. Big loser firefighter/starter had taken care of that. There were tons of beer and food stands, plus all sorts of radio stations and local business giving out free stuff like water guns and whatnot.

I got to the stage area and staked out my spot. Because I was by myself, I’d brought along some reading material (Surfacing by Margaret Atwood – LOVE her!). This got a laugh from the Upstaging dude who was there to drive CT’s semi. We chatted a bit since I work for TOMCAT USA and we do business with that Illinois company. He told me that the shows in Texas had been great. I’d opted out of those because:

A. Tickets were $70+ a pop after Ticketbastard’s "convenience" fees.

B. My seat would’ve sucked.

C. CT was third on the bill with Foreigner (bleh) and Bad Company (sans Paul Rogers – no thanks!)

D. We’d already planned this trip.

Not too long after that some random security dude came over to strike up a conversation. Nice guy. Had to laugh at him encouraging me to bum rush the stage. Ummmm… isn’t that what he’s there to prevent?! He snuck me a bottle of water – saving me $2. Woo hoo!!!! ;)

Foghat came on around 4. As I posted elsewhere, neither they nor BTO were as annoying as I imagined they’d be. They sounded fine. But I can live without them. Bonus points to BTO’s drummer. That dude has a LOT of energy.

Between sets we had the obligatory "DJs throwing out t shirts" sessions. Swag is great and all, but I’m one of those people who doesn’t get excited about that kind of thing. Not so with 2 chicks who stormed their way up to the fence to beg for a shirt. I had a bad feeling about them... So…

When one came flying our way, I barely scooted out of the way in time. Unfortunately, Anthony and his mom Lily weren’t so lucky. After kicking, stepping and falling on this poor kid, the scumbags ran away. Security showed up shortly after that and tried to figure out what had happened.

I felt really bad for Anthony (he was pretty shaken up by that) so I gave him the 2 Rick picks I had in my bag: one with the "R’s" motif and one of the "old" ones of Rick with the beard.

Oh – before the bands started there was a presentation of colors by some members of the National Guard, followed by the "Star Spangled Banner" which was sung quite nicely by a lady from a local fire department. Of course there was a lot of talk about 9-11 and the fires plaguing Arizona. A moment of silence was held in recognition for the people serving those causes. Of course some moron yelled, "ROCK N ROLL!"

Dude, yer kewl!

Not.

THE SHOW

CT came on about 8 pm…

FASHION REPORT

SET LIST

RANDOM NOTES

Interesting start. Dave Ruhl (Rick’s tech) does an intro – something like "Please welcome that all American band… CHEAP TRICK." Not sure how long he’s been doing that – I’d never seen it before though. He does a darn fine job and all, but I must confess that I miss the "I Must Be Dreamin’" riff.

There was a bad ass security dude right in front of me. He cracked me UP! Man, could he give a dirty look! The nice thing was that you caught him groovin’ to the tunes now and then. He even mouthed some of the words!

Rick had flicked some picks my way but since my catching skills bite, other folks snagged them all. During "Voices" though, Mr. Security Dude handed me one that Rick had sent my way. After that Rick constantly bombarded the poor guy. Gotta love it when RN messes with security.

Tom has a picture of Osama on his amps. Why?! … Even though it had cooled off a lot by that time of day, he took off the cowboy hat a couple times and shook his head.

OK. I hafta say this. I love Robin. But I hate his straw hat. "I love you honey but I hate your hat." LOL...

He sounded great though. I can’t imagine singing in such a dry place. The man has vocal chords o’ steel! He’d shaved off his beard at some point before this show. I was kinda hoping he’d pull a Rick and do it before the encores at one of these shows. LOL…

Everyone seemed to be in a good mood. Lots of smiles all around. It was a fun time – the only bad thing was that it was a short set. I had a feeling it would be since they were on the bill with 2 other acts.

RICK SEZ

In a very pointed statement, Rick announced that CT had all 4 original band members there (BTO and Foghat didn’t, of course). He introduced BEC, RZ and TP, as well as their gear. He kept trying to age BEC’s kit, saying it was from the 50s while Bun E yelled that it’d been made in 2000. LOL!

Rick acknowledged folks who were there in the crowd from Rockford and then gave a shout out to me. Always a thrill! :) He went on to ask me where the baby was and when I said, "With my husband" Rick made a crack.

After "High Roller" he did what I’m gonna call the "Kid Parade." He got 4 kids up on stage, had them all introduce themselves and then they had to name their favorite band. The first girl shrugged and said, "I dunno." Got a huge laugh, of course. Rick’s comment was that it was probably Britney Spears**. :P "She’s my favorite group, too... Both of them." Doh! Of course Rick caps it all off with, "Now get outta here!"

Later on he made a comment about spending a month in the desert. He and BEC went back and forth about getting tan and playing golf.

As has been reported elsewhere, Rick says the new album is finished and will be out "later this year." Hope so!

POST SHOW

Reality hit hard and heavy when I called Tim to come pick me up – Zach was screaming in the background. Doh! Poor lil’ guy was tired. We got back to the room and all 3 of us got some much needed rest. We hit the road early the next day for my next fix in Las Vegas. :)

Thanks for reading! My review from that show is on its way.

P.S. Gregg keeps me honest!

Here’s some stuff that Gregg remembered that I didn’t. With all my babbling, it’s hard to believe I left anything out! LOL!

#1 – I got the stage location wrong. Oops!! It was actually *center* field. Tim would hang his head in shame knowing his wife couldn’t tell center from left field. Oh well. I liked having an "out in left field" joke. ;)

#2 - The picture of Osama on Tom's speaker cabinets is the one of him with the head of a penis substituted for the turban... What can I say? I’m really nearsighted. :)

#3 – Tom’s mic was "way up in the mix" so you could hear him loud and clear doing the "Robin's alright, Tom's alright" stuff on "Surrender." He added "Rick's f***ed up" at the end. Bahahahahhaa! Sorry I missed that.

#4 – Poor Tom had a tough time at the end because some losers kept chucking beach balls at his head during the last song. That sucks! As my uncle Frank sez, though, "Ain’t no corner undumb!"

#5 – One thing I *didn’t* miss, but I forgot to mention was during IWYTWM. Rick was over on Tom’s side and I caught him nudging Tom then mouthing alternate lyrics. "I want you to blow me!" LMMFAO!!!!!!!!!!! The real meaning of that song revealed!

*True story: a while back, I saw Mark Radice’s email on the Yahoo CT Club so I dropped him a line to tell him how much I like "Tonight It’s You." I get an email back from the guy asking me if I’m single. When I told him I was married he never wrote back. LMAO!

** I’d just like to take the opportunity to say that Britney sucks! LOL… Not only am I subjected to her tripe on TV but she’s all over the trade publications we get at TOMCAT. Just now I noticed that one of those damn pop up screens from Geocites is a plug for Britney. Oh the irony...