Ok, I've finally recovered from my heat stroke and my lawn has stopped growing for the time being, so maybe now I can add my $.02 worth to the previous Vegas posts...

Friday: Spent some quality time with our friends John and Debbie out at Hoover Dam. We had been there before but had never taken the dam tour, so when John and Deb invited us, we were more than happy to go. You think it was hot in Vegas! WOW, it was at least 10 degrees hotter out there. There's a lot of Dam cement! So we took the Dam tour, got our Dam blue hard hats and followed our Dam guide around the tunnels of Hoover Dam. We were pretty tired on the way back to Vegas and were unsure if we'd make the Monte Carol gig since we wanted to check with my Dad and Sister to see if they had alternate plans. We ended up eating at Excalibur but that evening Nancy and I headed up the strip to the Brew Pub in the Monte Carlo looking for Grand Funk fans. It was 10:30 and from what I hear, the party was over. Sheesh, we are getting old, aren't we? ;-) An interesting note: As we approached the entrance to the pub, an officer motioned me over and said, "I'm afraid we have a dress code tonight." I looked down at my clothes; nice pair of shorts, nice t-shirt and sandals. I figured no sandals...he says, "You'll have to take your hat off"!! I just laughed and said "You've got to be kidding!". So I carried my GFR hat around looking for other Cyberfunkers or Roadkillers with no avail. We headed back towards our hotel (LUXOR) and stopped at our favorite watering hole (Gonzales y Gonzales) at the New York, New York the casino so nice, they named it twice.

Next....Saturday!

Saturday:

My sister Cathy, Nancy and I got to the Sunset right about 4pm. We headed for the "Sports Bar" to find 3 tables of Roadkillers and Cyberfunkers there. It was very nice to meet some of you there and I apologize for not getting all of your names. I think someone else was gracious enough to list everyone there. Well our timing was pretty good, 'cause we'd only been there a few minutes when in comes Dena. Before I could even say CORONA, we were headed back through the casino and right outdoors to the stage where GFR was tuning up! I had never seen a sound check (or heard a video check) before so this was definitely a treat. THANK YOU DENA!! I didn't recognize Max right away as he had his hair pulled back into a ponytail. We had just started walking towards the stage when Don shouts out, "Cyberfunkers Rule!". That got us going. It sure is nice to get such recognition as fans from such talented and genuinely nice people.

The sound check only lasted a few more minutes then we all headed backstage where there was some shade. While we mingled among ourselves, we see Don and Mel take off with another guy. Mel looks at us and says, "We're gonna go do an interview". "Say nice things" was my reply. I say the stupidest things sometimes. ;-) More later on this interviewer. Cathy spoke to Tim a little and she was very impressed with his attitude and presence. After a few minutes, we all decided to head back indoors (where it's at least 30 degreescooler) and we would meet back at the doors around 6.

Meeting up with John and Deb, we decide to get some dinner. My sister mentioned a Seafood Bar and that's all it took. John started salivating so we all headed that way. Nancy and I opted for dessert and a Corona while the others had seafood. We finished eating just in time to head back towards the doors. There we find a couple of lines of people. It took us a few minutes and a wasted trip outside looking for "bracelets" before we ended up in the right row. There was a woman there who took charge of us fans and put us into our own hallway while everyone else lined up in front of the doors. This is where we ended up meeting Shawn Perry, the man who interviewed Don and Mel. He said they had gone up to the workout room for the interview. It sounded like the interview went pretty well. Shawn said that he had forgotten his camera and was interested in seeing if any of mine turned out. So it's possible that a couple of my concert photos will end up in his story! I'm pretty geeked about that. He runs a web site at www.vintagerock.com and is writing for www.about.com . I will definitely let you all know when the story has been posted. He has written to me since saying, "I was pleasantly surprised by the band. I still miss Mark Farner, but I think the new guys did a remarkable job." So I would expect a pretty positive review. It was also about this time that Oktay and Joyce and another friend (sorry, didn't catch your name) showed up. It was a pleasure to meet them after reading so many posts over the years. Oktay mentioned that his cat Murzik was happier at home because he could get fresh fish. Well, only a few minutes of "Everyone against the wall!" and we were headed outside...

Next up - the concert!

The Concert:

Since we were escorted to the stage in front of almost everyone else, there were good seats aplenty for us. We could have easily sat in the 2nd or 3rd row towards the end, but wanted "center stage" seating so we opted for the 4th row center, right between Mel and Max. This close, we still had a great view of Bruce and Tim. I just wish Don's riser was a little taller, so we had a better view of him abusing those drum heads.

America started us off playing all of their hits. We had seen them last year here in Mt Pleasant and they played the same set. I really enjoyed their music and I thought they were an excellent opener for GFR. They mentioned a couple of times how honored they were to be with GFR. They were a class act and did an excellent job on all of their songs. They did have some problems when singing from the mic at the organ station, but that was minimal.

Following America, stage crews were busy untaping, retaping cords to the stage, replacing keyboards, etc. I was impressed with DJ's abilities as he prepped the stage for GFR. He does a great job for the band and for the fans. Finally, we hear the intro and GFR springs into action. This is the fourth time I've had the pleasure this year and I must say they keep getting better.

Don was incredible behind his kit. Despite the heat, his drumming was incredible. I tried to capture some of his talent on film but it just doesn't do him justice. Following a double show the previous night you would think he'd be exhausted but it surely didn't show!

Mel may have been a little less animated this night, but his bass surely made up for any lack of movement on his feet's part. Even when the spots aren't on him, it's fun to watch him work that Zon! That was one drawback that I noticed at this concert; they needed one more spotlight to really cover the action. Many times someone was really getting into it but the spotlights were covering someone else. I knew where to look, but the musician deserves to be in the light when they're putting so much into the music for us.

Max was excellent. I was only 4 rows back but I thought his vocals came through better than usual. He has such a great voice. His stage presence was excellent as usual (except for the time when he almost fell into Bruce, but I won't mention that! ;-) ). There were times when he would hold the mic out to the audience for our participation and he looked surprised at our response. I think we were as loud as he was at times.

Tim continues to impress me, both on and off stage. Off stage he has really opened up to the fans. As I mentioned earlier he was one of the first to talk to us backstage. On stage his keyboards add so much to the mix. His opening to CTH is especially noteworthy as he really gets into this song. Don and Mel sure knew what they were doing when they recruited this guy. I think they should play Loneliness, even though they don't have an orchestra, they have Tim at keyboards which is the next best thing!

Bruce was Bruce! It's all pretty much been said about this guy. He just rocks and there's no stopping him. He might be in the middle of the most incredible lead riff and he'll just point out to the audience, give a smile and keep playing. He surely has the audience under his thumb. His rendition of the Star Spangled Banner was an obvious hit among the Vegas crowd and he put his all into it. If you haven't seen it yet, just this song is worth the price of admission.

After the concert, as some have already noted, Don took up camp on a corner of the stage and signed whatever people were handing him. What a sight that was. I think if you looked up Musicians With Class in the dictionary, it would say, See Don Brewer. He had to be wasted physically after the past couple of days but yet had enough energy to make a few fans' day. Thanks Don! I didn't get anything signed that night, but I'll always have the memories (I think).

As we were just sitting there another fan sat down beside me and started asking me about the band. He wanted to know where they were from, so I told them that Don and Mel were from Michigan. He said, "So where is Mark from?". After asking him, "Mark?" I had to go into the whole story of Mark's solo career but he was definitely impressed with Max and thoroughly enjoy the show.

Shawn Perry, the interviewer, stopped by again to give me his email address for the photos. We then went back stage. What an honor to have the security there recognize us as "important" and let us through the gates to get back stage. Thanks again to Dena and the band for allowing us access to places many other people have never gone. We were a little late getting back there, but Max was still around so I was able to shake his hand (actually put my scrawny paw inside his huge mitt) and tell him "Great show Max!". Everyone was getting into security vehicles to be driven off, so Tim came running back to get Max, but still took a minute to shake people's hands and flash that adorable smile of his before they both took off.

Some of the group headed back to the Sunset to end a perfect night with some more conversation (and another Corona of course). What a great group of people! Dave was showing off his great photos. Nice job Dave. (He WAS a row closer than I). Mike and his wife were a great meet and great host and hostess. Thanks for putting this all together. It was FUN, to say the least! It was nice to finally match some faces up with email postings too. This will surely be one of those weekends that all other weekends will have to work hard to match up to.

I think we recruited AT LEAST ONE more fan...my sister Cathy. She told me afterwards that it was probably the best concert she had ever seen. I credit her with turning me on to rock and roll in my youth, so I'm glad I could return the favor. (Maybe, just maybe she'll post a review. Hint. Hint.) Now she's talking about seeing another show sometime in Michigan, so that's pretty cool.

Well, I apologize for such long email postings but these events are just that; life changing events. I can't bring myself to minimize them, so you'll just have to put up with me and my long concert reviews. This way as I get older, maybe I can look back on my posts and remember what I did when I was younger. ;-)

SEE YOU IN CLIO!!!

Craig good Clingan, good playin'