[Unpage@aol.com]

Errr, that'd be me who made the cranky old dude comment.  It was more of a visual reference than a comment on his personality (he seems nice enough) . . . I just think he's got a very distinct presence about him, with the wild eyebrows, boney frame, and more edgy/hardened look about him than the others.

I was at the first two Chicago shows and the one in Milwaukee.  Best moments:  (1) opening the Chicago shows with Redneck, which announces the band's presence like no other song could; and (2) Jim's blistering runs during No Time For Games at the first Chicago show.  Most amusing moment: Watching Peter try to stand reasonably still during the piano/vocal second encore of In The Valley at the Milwaukee show.

I'd also like to throw kudos to Inde for very anti-Yobbo (is that the right term?) behavior at the Milwaukee show.  Will Hoge's following grew exponentially between Sunday and Tuesday -- his two groupies morphed into six as they brought their presumably underage friends to the Rave -- and Inde and others (Tom for one, and others who I can't remember) graciously ceded the front-and-center position for the duration of the opening act, as they had also done in Chicago.  

Once the Oils took the stage, he was back in front, and he and I stood as sort of bookends to a small child who apparently has been singing Oils songs since he was two ("My Countwy Wight Ow Wong"), and who sang along to many of the songs throughout the show.  Dad had wanted to hang out on the balcony, but the venue didn't open it due to the smaller size of the crowd.  Dad's backup plan was to park him up front where there was less chance of him getting crushed.  Good plan -- Inde caught one of Rob's sticks after the kit portion of the show, and was nice enough to give it to the kid.  He seemed pretty impressed with how beat up it was from just a few songs.

It was very good to meet everyone in Chicago and Milwaukee.  The intimacy of the venues more than made up for the cancellations earlier this year.  

I think this is my first post to the list in about two years, so I should be good for another one sometime in the Spring of 2003.

Regards,
John



<< Haha...Back in Chicago, either John or Dan was saying that Jim & Martin are kind of your regular everyday guys but Bones is like that cranky old guy in the neighborhood you don't want your kids hanging around!  

But actually, with the number of smiles Bones puts out during the the concert, he seems a pretty nice guy.

Judy

>>
--