It's all down to the hug.....
My Cleveland Alice Cooper Concert Review
I had packed my "travel/dinner" outfit (black jeans, sneakers and Cooperstown t shirt) and my "concert outfit" (tuxedo pants, boots, and lace shirt with the "perfect target" neckline, and top hat) before going to the restaurant in the morning. When I was finally done with cooking, I changed into outfit #1, Becky came to pick me up, and we were off.
Got a slightly later thought than we had planned, but with the rainy weather it ended up being just fine. We weren't going to be walking around Cleveland in any case, so arriving just in time for dinner was perfect.
Stopped at the drugstore for a disposable camera and hairspray, then got on the road. The first sign that it was going to be a magical Roxie voyage was the fact that we got on the highway at exit 77...and then the road into Cleveland was Interstate 77! I was almost dorky enough to take a picture of the interstate sign, but happily I thought better of it. We listened through Dirty Diamonds, Eyes, and Goes to Hell, and then we were in Cleveland! We made one bad turn but found Cooperstown pretty quickly. (it is hard to miss Jacob's Field, and the restaurant is right across the street) There were plenty of fans in various states of makeup and concert t shirt there, having dinner and Poison Ale in the bar. We got our table quickly, ordered our beers and ribs, and settled in. Just as Becky remarked how inappropriate it was to be hearing Phil Collins over the sound system when Alice was in town, the manager switched the TVs over to Brutally Live. An audible cheer went through the place.
The food was very, very good...I love Coop's Coleslaw. We joked about "when does he have time to chop all that cabbage between golf, the radio show and nightly concerts?" Hahaha. I had two 22oz Poison Ales, by the way. The second one was MUCH LARGER than the first (plastic vs glass) The Billiondollarbabyback ribs are some of the finest ribs we've had in restaurants---and Becky especially is a coneisseur. We gave them excellent marks all around on the comment card. The staff were definitely on their best behavior and I'm sure they got some of the best tips of the year last night. I snuck into the back bathroom with my bag and changed into part of my concert outfit...decided against the tuxedo pants and the boots given the weather, but the "target shirt" was a must. Did my makeup under the watchful eyes of Alice and Salvador Dali.
We debated about walking over to the venue, but given the rain we decided to park the truck in the ampitheater lot. Got the shuttle down to the gate and spent some time wandering around. The "midway" was even less exciting than the one at Ozzfest, unfortunately, but some of the performers were pretty good. The girl on stilts was good, and the fire jugglers. Most of the booths were pretty lame, although I did buy a beautiful silkscreened poster. I got stopped by a card magician who was pretty good---he made it seem like somehow my card got in his pants. I tipped him a dollar and he looked shocked! We ran into Becky's aunt and her friend...they just happened to get tickets for the show at the mall one day. Ha!
So then, I went by to casually look at the merch booth. And suddenly I had "casually" dropped $73!!! They had several gorgeous new t shirt designs...the one I got has Alice on the front tipping his tophat and wifebeater that has "dirty diamonds" scrawled on the front(Alice Cooper in the DD font underneath), and a really cool snake logo with concert dates(not all of them) on the back. Also got a nice baseball cap for in the kitchen (Alice Cooper in the DD font on the front, dirty diamonds on the back) and the requisite keychain and window sticker. There was also an orange Halloween t shirt design, and a couple others that were really nice.
Spent a little time hunting for Roxie, and then gave up and went to our seats.
Sixth row was close enough that I could see facial expressions. I had somehow managed to magically seat myself in a direct line to Roxie's mic. And the guy in front of me was real short. It was perfect.
Sat through interminable ads for upcoming concerts (video games live?!?! WTF?!?!) and at one point, I spotted the guitarist of my dreams in his trucker cap walking along all the way on the other side of the venue. He seemed to be going into some kind of green room trailer, so I didn't figure it was worth trying to vault over the crowd. As I hadn't managed to connect with him via email before the show, I was kinda despairing that I might not actually get to talk to him. I convinced myself that would be okay. Little did I know.....
to be continued.....
My Cleveland Alice Cooper Concert Review
I had packed my "travel/dinner" outfit (black jeans, sneakers and Cooperstown t shirt) and my "concert outfit" (tuxedo pants, boots, and lace shirt with the "perfect target" neckline, and top hat) before going to the restaurant in the morning. When I was finally done with cooking, I changed into outfit #1, Becky came to pick me up, and we were off.
Got a slightly later thought than we had planned, but with the rainy weather it ended up being just fine. We weren't going to be walking around Cleveland in any case, so arriving just in time for dinner was perfect.
Stopped at the drugstore for a disposable camera and hairspray, then got on the road. The first sign that it was going to be a magical Roxie voyage was the fact that we got on the highway at exit 77...and then the road into Cleveland was Interstate 77! I was almost dorky enough to take a picture of the interstate sign, but happily I thought better of it. We listened through Dirty Diamonds, Eyes, and Goes to Hell, and then we were in Cleveland! We made one bad turn but found Cooperstown pretty quickly. (it is hard to miss Jacob's Field, and the restaurant is right across the street) There were plenty of fans in various states of makeup and concert t shirt there, having dinner and Poison Ale in the bar. We got our table quickly, ordered our beers and ribs, and settled in. Just as Becky remarked how inappropriate it was to be hearing Phil Collins over the sound system when Alice was in town, the manager switched the TVs over to Brutally Live. An audible cheer went through the place.
The food was very, very good...I love Coop's Coleslaw. We joked about "when does he have time to chop all that cabbage between golf, the radio show and nightly concerts?" Hahaha. I had two 22oz Poison Ales, by the way. The second one was MUCH LARGER than the first (plastic vs glass) The Billiondollarbabyback ribs are some of the finest ribs we've had in restaurants---and Becky especially is a coneisseur. We gave them excellent marks all around on the comment card. The staff were definitely on their best behavior and I'm sure they got some of the best tips of the year last night. I snuck into the back bathroom with my bag and changed into part of my concert outfit...decided against the tuxedo pants and the boots given the weather, but the "target shirt" was a must. Did my makeup under the watchful eyes of Alice and Salvador Dali.
We debated about walking over to the venue, but given the rain we decided to park the truck in the ampitheater lot. Got the shuttle down to the gate and spent some time wandering around. The "midway" was even less exciting than the one at Ozzfest, unfortunately, but some of the performers were pretty good. The girl on stilts was good, and the fire jugglers. Most of the booths were pretty lame, although I did buy a beautiful silkscreened poster. I got stopped by a card magician who was pretty good---he made it seem like somehow my card got in his pants. I tipped him a dollar and he looked shocked! We ran into Becky's aunt and her friend...they just happened to get tickets for the show at the mall one day. Ha!
So then, I went by to casually look at the merch booth. And suddenly I had "casually" dropped $73!!! They had several gorgeous new t shirt designs...the one I got has Alice on the front tipping his tophat and wifebeater that has "dirty diamonds" scrawled on the front(Alice Cooper in the DD font underneath), and a really cool snake logo with concert dates(not all of them) on the back. Also got a nice baseball cap for in the kitchen (Alice Cooper in the DD font on the front, dirty diamonds on the back) and the requisite keychain and window sticker. There was also an orange Halloween t shirt design, and a couple others that were really nice.
Spent a little time hunting for Roxie, and then gave up and went to our seats.
Sixth row was close enough that I could see facial expressions. I had somehow managed to magically seat myself in a direct line to Roxie's mic. And the guy in front of me was real short. It was perfect.
Sat through interminable ads for upcoming concerts (video games live?!?! WTF?!?!) and at one point, I spotted the guitarist of my dreams in his trucker cap walking along all the way on the other side of the venue. He seemed to be going into some kind of green room trailer, so I didn't figure it was worth trying to vault over the crowd. As I hadn't managed to connect with him via email before the show, I was kinda despairing that I might not actually get to talk to him. I convinced myself that would be okay. Little did I know.....
to be continued.....
posted by sheryl at 8:20 AM
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