Come Sail Away on my Tales of a Paint Girl Styx Adventure

Hi Friends,
So glad you stopped by my blog today.  If you haven't read my blog before, I'm a mom of three whose busy life had taken over and somehow I came to a place where I hadn't gone out with the girls in eight...long...years.  Recently, I started having just-for-me fun again and decided to blog about it.  And by the way, there is nothing more fun than an 80's rock band concert.  In my blog, I take you with me on my "Tales of a Paint Girl."  Are you possibly wondering from where I got the name "About Paint Girl?"   I'll let you in on a little secret, my husband and I own a paint company, All About Paint.  You get it now...(All) About Paint Girl. ;)

On to the fun stuff we go.  So here it was, the last of three summer concerts that concert buddy, Sue, and I were attending this summer.  For both the first and second concerts--Night Ranger and Heart, respectively--we were blessed with beautiful sunny weather.  And then this concert.  Eighty degrees--not bad!  And rainy.  Downpours.  All...day.  So much so, that my other friends that were attending, and I all thought the show would be cancelled, and that certainly, there wouldn't be anybody standing in line in the pouring rain for this first-come-first-serve seating concert.  In fact, concert buddy, Sue, and I decided not to even show up until 4:30 in the afternoon (when the downpours finally ceased), one hour before doors were to open.  But the rain didn't stop Styx fans from lining up, as you can kinda see in this pic of us (above).  We were waaaayy in the back of a very long line.

After opening the gates and making our way to our "seats," concert buddy, Sue, and I found ourselves at the top of the hill way in the back--which wasn't too bad in this small outdoor arena.  We staked our ground with our lawn chairs and went to seek out much needed sustenance.  Upon returning to our seats and chatting about Bon Jovi--no doubt--over a delicious roast beef sandwich that we had cut in half and were sharing, they announced  the first opening act, CASEY ABRAMS!  Hooray!  For those of you who don't know, Casey finished sixth on American Idol, season ten.  The kids and I happened to catch the whole season of American Idol that year, and we all loved Casey.  I told concert buddy, Sue, that I needed to go up front and grab a few pics (one of them above left) for my kids as I excitedly texted my husband the good news to relay to our children.  Casey was just as great live as he was on American Idol.  What a treat.  He did all original songs.  I couldn't tell you what they were, but if you'd like to check out his music click here.

Up next, much to my delight was Jim Peterik with his new band, Pride of Lions.  In case Jim's name isn't ringing a bell with you--most of you--I imagine, would recognize him as the lead singer for Survivor (ya know, Eye of the Tiger).  And, you 80's kids might remember 38 Special.  Jim Peterik co-wrote their songs, Hold on Loosely and Caught Up in You.

Jim Peterik's other band, Ides of March, opened up for Night Ranger when I saw them in June.  And as you know already, if you read my blog about that, you know that I LOVED his performance.  I've been saying since then that I have to find out where he (Jim Peterik) is playing so that I can see him perform again. And viola!  What good fortune!  There he was on stage.  According to Jim, Pride of Lions does very well in Europe and Japan and they'd like to be more well known here in the US.  If you love 80's rock like I do, Pride of Lions is right up your alley.  And BTW, the singer's vocals were SMOKIN.'  If you'd like to check out Pride of Lions, click here.  (Your's Truly, About Paint Girl, highly recommends, dear friends, that you purchase both Pride of Lions and Casey Abrams music.  Their music would be good additions to your collections.  Just sayin'...)

And look at this great picture (pic above) of me with Casey Abrams!  While Pride of Lions was playing, it started to rain (again), so concert buddy, Sue and I rushed to our seats to get our oh-so-stylish rain ponchos.  When it stopped raining and we were returning our ponchos to our seats, we saw Casey out and about and I got to take a pic with him.  How cool is that!

He also autographed the back of my ticket.  Look at how he drew his beard on the smiley face below his signature.  Too cute!

Last up was Styx.  Now concert buddy, Sue, and I are all for getting as close as we can to the stage, because, frankly, I just think that makes for a better concert experience.  But for some reason, concert buddy, Sue, and I found ourselves exhausted and opted to watch Styx from our seats.  In fact, we actually sat down for some of the songs and we NEVER do that!  That also means I didn't get any good pictures of the band.  I did, however, dear friends, provide PBP (play by play) on twitter for each song.  If you don't already follow me on twitter, you should.  :)  You can do so by clicking here.  (And BTW, I pretty much only tweet about Bon Jovi.)

And now, dear friends, I must wonder out loud, how did I NOT KNOW that TOMMY SHAW is in Styx? His claim-to-fame for ME is Damn Yankees, who, BTW, I saw twice in the early 90's with oh-so-important-to-me great seats!  Man, I would love to see a Damn Yankees reunion show.

But I must get back on track and tell you about the show.  From what I could see from my way-in-the-back seats, the band was quite energetic during their performance.  And they sounded great.  Really great.  They performed songs like Too Much Time On My Hands and Lorelei, including a couple songs that I haven't heard before like I'm OK and Crystal Ball.  For Crystal Ball, they told a fantastic story about Tommy Shaw coming to Chicago to join the band which ended with Tommy writing the song Crystal Ball in a bowling alley.  (I love when bands take a minute to get personal with the audience like that and tell a story.)  They also played my two of my favorite Styx songs, Lady and Come Sail Away.  Keyboardist, Lawrence Gowen, who, BTW, was the only member of the band that we could see from our way-in-the-back seats, engaged the audience (solo on stage) with a back and forth exchange of several popular songs that led into Come Sail Away.  He was full of personality and FANTASTIC to watch!  He also had this cool swivel feature for his keyboard stand.  On occasion, with his keyboard facing away from the audience, Gowen would turn around and play his keyboard backwards (in other words, the keyboard was facing away and Gowen was playing with his arms behind his back while facing the audience and singing along with whatever song they were playing at the time.)  Your's Truly, About Paint Girl thought it was very fun and playful.

Here is my recording of Lady (a little shaky because I was so far back).

All in all it was a wonderful, almost rain-free, show.  All three bands were great and I would go see all of them again.

As I always say, please feel free to drop a comment.  I'd love to hear about your adventures or whatever you'd like to chat about.  If you're enjoying these posts, scroll up a little bit and click Join this Site, on the right-hand side of the page, to follow my oh-so-cool blog.

Until next time...

Best Wishes,
Erica Basile