June 5, 2004 - Dayton, OH
Sometimes, it’s more exhausting being HOME than on tour! Real life has unending demands. I found myself among a huge crowd of jumping teenagers Tuesday night at the No Doubt/Blink 182 concert at Deer Creek. I had always liked Gwen Stephani, and she is an incredible performer, owning the stage, exotic, erotic, and with an appeal and a talent that surpasses any other female performer I have ever seen. It was a great show, but pretty damn tiring for this old rock ‘n roller. : ) We had big plans for the weekend and centered them around one of our favorite people. It was BlueGlow’s birthday, and we intended to make it a great one. SueC came over to celebrate with us and after Margaritas and dinner we were treated to a private concert by BlueGlow herself! Alice played us her new song (recently debuted in Orlando) and it’s great! We sat around for a few hours listening to whatever she would play for us and got a medley of The Moody Blues Greatest Hits. The birthday celebration (and it was a BIG one, though not THE big one – LOL) finished up on my deck, in front of a fire. We were full of party intentions, but both BG and SueC had been up early and we died down with the fire, right down to the embers. I roused the girls from their stupor and we headed for bed just as Hubby arrived from the Rush concert. It was a great evening! Saturday was a riot! I had a full house and loved it. People were in the kitchen, people were drinking coffee on the deck, dressing, undressing, playing videos and visiting. No one was happier than my Golden Retriever lapdog, Lucky, who went from woman to woman for some loving attention. I somehow found the chance to get dressed and pack for the week. It was simpler to empty my closet into a large suitcase rather than think about it. LOL CL and her friend Shirley HAYWARD (yes, we laughed quite a bit about that!) arrived from Indy and joined in the party. We got off to Dayton only a little later than we had intended and arrived in Kettering (an upper-middle class suburb of Dayton) around 6, and took the party on in to the venue. What a great life!  THE
VENUE
The Fraze is an odd little place, unique and full of charm. I’ve seen several acts there over the years – Jethro Tull, Heart, Don McLean, Peter Frampton and Double Trouble (guitar tech – the adorable Mr Dan Cook). The Fraze is owned by the City of Kettering and is on a park-like municipal campus smack dab in suburbia. It’s a very attractive setting! The venue is situated between two one-way streets off the main road. There are several parking lots used for the Fraze, all a short walk away. If you get there early, you can park behind the venue on the street (we did!), but if you arrive on the late side you’re going to get stuck walking in from the high school parking lot a few blocks away. Entry to The Fraze is from either street. It’s fronted by an attractive pool guarded by a couple Canadian geese. Quite a line had formed at the two entrances of people loaded with blankets wanting to secure a nice place on the lawn. There are benches by the pool cooled by trees and we waited for the long line to make its way through, entertained by a couple of sincere young people who wanted to “help” the goslings out of the pool. HAHA Anyone who has had experience with geese knows how foolish it is to approach a gosling, and we happily waited for the kids to learn this lesson for themselves. The stage is a permanent structure and has a building attached, I assume for the artists' use. It’s pretty wide, at least 42 to 44 seats, but not overly deep. Mikes were placed no more than 6 feet from the edge of the 3 foot (again, very comfortable) stage. The stage is covered and the overhang provides some protection for concert goers lucky to be in the first 3 rows. There are four seating areas. The Plaza (double letters) is directly in front of the stage and is flat seating. The orchestra is at a moderately steep rise, and the lawn (blanket seating) is behind that. Grandstand type seating at $25 is behind the lawn. Security was pretty serious at The Fraze. They have a large number of pleasant lady employees taking tickets and examining purses. Every blanket had to be shaken out and examined. Our car had made a quick stop for some sinus meds for poor SueC who was still suffering from The Moody Cold. I was riding in CL’s car and couldn’t leave anything in it, so I had to stuff my carton of smokes in my purse. The security guard peered into my purse at the gate and began to laugh hysterically. "Lady, YOU have a problem", she said. Food and drink are available at the Fraze, nothing too fancy, but a darn good hotdog and Pepsi products (yech). A nice patio was open where you could eat and relax. Restrooms are underneath the concessions and almost impossible to get to at the half because of the crowd. The Fraze was SOLD OUT!  THE
FASHION REPORT
The usual stuff – nothing TOO exciting. Justin wore the sherbet western shirt second half. <shrug> THE CONCERT This concert was one of the most FUN Moodies concerts I have attended. The crowd was a nice combination of mellow but enthusiastic, maybe a bit older, but still fun-loving. The weather was lovely, getting a little cool later in the evening. The Band seemed relaxed and put out a solid performance. My seat was good but not great, but I was with SueC and Hubby and could peer down the second row and see BlueGlow. I live an hour away and saw quite a few people and friends from my hometown. After the third song, I looked at the end of the aisle and saw my son’s dermatologist waltz in, late. LOL People were up pretty much after each song, and it looked like most of the audience was up for Question and See-Saw. About the only thing I noticed at The Fraze was John breaking a guitar string during LoM. I saw a piece of something from John’s guitar hit the floor then saw Justin kick it out of the way and JohnB pick it up after the song was over. It looked like a piece that you could step on and end up lying on the stage. I have to say that the sound was pretty bad in the front row of The Fraze. Some bass type sound was knocking into me, loud and ugly. SueC had problems fighting her way to the ladies room at the break (it was a crush) and said that the sound was great at the top of the venue as she walked in. <shrug> I could barely hear Big Red and missed a lot of vocals. The acoustic songs were fine. All I can say is, that’s why God made ear plugs. The overall concert experience more than made up for the less than wonderful sound. I overheard a couple of 40 something guys talking as I walked up to the top of the amphitheatre. One said, "Isn’t this a fantastic concert?" His friend replied enthusiastically, "YEAH! Isn’t it great to be old?" LOL!!! Yeah, it’s great! MaggieMay Old Man, passing by Tell me what you sing. Photos courtesy of SueC |
Pittsburgh |