HELLOO?......................
Whew! What an exhausting 3 days! The adventures of Lisa and Chrissy started on Sunday afternoon when we met up with Angie and Heather for lunch. We parted ways after that since Chrissy and I had to be at the venue early for the ILAA pre-party. We still ended up getting there early so we drove around to the back of the venue just in time to hear the Leps doing soundcheck! We actually got to hear Women live, woohooooo! Sav started playing his bass and when there was a break Chrissy screamed "Saaaaaaav!" at the top of her lungs. A second later we hear Sav, "Hellooo?" Keep in mind, we are behind the venue and the wind is blowing from the direction of the amphitheater toward us. Chrissy , don't EVER acuse me of having the big mouth EVER again!
MY EYE, MY EYE!.................
We got signed in for ILAA and found a table. We ended up sitting with Animal and Sav Rocks from the OF and chatted with them for a bit. Neal (jerk) Schon and Jonathan Cain came out for pictures and then we headed to our seats. Our seats were right on the end of the third row center isle. The first two rows were a seat or two shorter so we were right in front of the barrier! Needless to say, that when Journey came on we were at the barrier and never moved til the show was over! During Only The Young Jonathon smiled and wrinkled his nose at me so I stuck my tongue out. I was rewarded with a pick, the only problem is, I catch like a girl and it ended up smacking me in the eye and bouncing back over the barrier where security picked it up and gave it to someone else. Hmmph!
WILL I EVER LEARN TO KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT?..............
When Lep came on, it sounded like they were going to start with Hellraiser but no such luck. Chrissy had brought the picture of her and Sav that was taken in Cincy in '03 and kept holding it up when Sav would come our way. It took a few songs for him to actually see it but when he did his whole face lit up! Phil came over and said hi a couple of songs into the set. Toward the end of the set Phil went to the back of the stage and came back out with a really sharp looking black shirt on. I tried to tell him how hot he looked but he must have misunderstood because he said "Okay" and tossed a pick my way. Unfortunately my catching skills had not improved and it bounced off my hand and over the barrier. Talk about Deja Vu! While everyone was scrambling to find it, Phil apparently told Chrissy to make sure I got it. Uh yeah right, a bazillion rabid fans fighting to find it and she's supposed to make sure I get it! LOL In the end however the security guy found it and handed it to me. WooT! After the encore, as the band was saying their goodbyes I opened my stupid mouth and shouted "I love you!" at Phil. Geez Louise!
CAUGHT IN THE ACT!.....................
After the show, we said goodbye to Gina, Sheila, Lori, Heather and Angie. We drove back to the rear of the venue, where the buses were to meet Jan and Cindy. Sav Rocks and Animal were also there and when the buses finally pulled out, they jumped out of their car to hold up a banner that SR had made that said "Sav Rocks". The attack bus went by, followed by Phil and Rick's bus, otherwise known as the "Wuss bus". Rick was hanging out the back window and started snapping pictures. We quickly fell in behind so we could follow them to Cleveland. Rick continued to snap pictures of Chrissy's car, all the way to the freeway! Evidence that we were stalking them, maybe? Geez I hope not!
BUT OFFICER WE HAVE TO CATCH THE BUSSES!...............
When we got to Linndale (almost to Cleveland) we thought we saw the busses get off the freeway. We were wrong so Chrissy gassed it so we could get back on and continue following. Umm, big mistake. There was a cop sitting at the side of the road and within a moment or two, lights and sirens were blaring. We pulled over and found they'd clocked us going 74 in a 60 zone. Ooops. we called Jan and Cindy, found out where the band had ended up, and got our own room at a much cheaper motel. We finally crashed around 4 am.
Joe Columbus 07-08-07
