Rice Lake, WI - Review & Babble

[SuiteMadameBlue]

I'm still on no sleep and I have camp and baseball every day/night!

Anyhoo I thought to bring my little reviews to this thread. Why, because! LOL

Warning: IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ MY BABBLING, PLEASE SKIP MY POSTS!

Part 1


I had the GREAT opportunity to meet Yogi and his gorgeous wife, two of the nicest people you'll ever meet.

Since my stories are way too long, I'll have to break up my stories - LOL

Rice Lake Wisconsin is a pretty same town WAY up North, I mean WAY up, far away. On the way I forgot my stack of cd's so we were stuck listening to Styx, Styx, Styx, Styx, Styx, The Babys, Journey and Dream Theater. The road trip was long but fun especially passing all the Cheese & Porno shops on the way up. Thank goodness for the cooler filled with Monster Energy & Mt. Dew



We met Yogi & his wife at motel in Timbuckto (Cumberland) and then after a refreshing shower and change of clothing we drove together to Rice Lake.

We drove downtown which consisted of a few blocks but very nice. We saw an area where a stage was set up and figured that's where the concert was. Yogi parked right in the parking lot!! BUT wait, that's where the audience was going to stand - LOL So he decided, what the heck and just park the car behind the stage - LOL Way too funny!

We met up with the band and I took pictures Yogi with Hank, Kyle and Matt. He was talking quite a while with each of them. We stood around during soundcheck which was fun to watch.

My friend Jodi and I decided to sit in front of the sound booth to watch the soundcheck while Yogi and his wife relaxed backstage to watch/listen.

Jodi and I ended up with a very private show just for her and I during a hour soundcheck, no one was there - LOL It was great to listen to the great music and watch how much fun they were having joking up on stage, that was THE BEST!! Way too much fun!!

I think I called Ash, StyxfanNH, Froy, Sadie and few other friends from Soundcheck - LOL

My camera is bad, but here are a couple pictures. Jodi went up and took closer pictures with my disposable camera, I was too lazy. LOL

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Part 2 of 10

Just kidding!

The Music!

When I saw the stage was in a parking lot, all I could think of was of Monker - LOL We decided to stay and hang around and talk to people. Eventually the main street was closed and the grounds were cleared of maybe 3 people. We just hung around and ended up getting in for free. Free is good.

Gates opened up at 7pm, there were pretty many people standing in line to get in. The crowd started to pour in and mark their spots with lawn chairs. We stood in about the 4th row or so. I wanted to see the whole stage. A cover band went on, they were AWESOME and a lot of fun. The place was packed about 1/2 hour before showtime. You couldn't see any bare area from the stage to the other side of the road. They estimated about 4,000 people or more. I would say a good 1,000 or more were born after I graduated in 84'. Like at most concerts I picked a great spot right by all the happy drunks - LOL There was guy that was about 6'5" right in front of Yogi, I was teasing him that he was blocking our view, which he totally was and he moved next to me. Long story short, it ended up raining right at start time and he had an umbrella. It was perfect and we didn't get wet - LOL It only rained about 10 minutes, that was it, just perfect for the 90 degree weather and it felt good.

Anyway, during the show Yogi and his wife ended up going back stage and watched the show there. Perfect seats!!

Concert started with The Message going into The Grand Illusion. The crowd went crazy! Very loud!

Next came the piano intro into Lady, when the keys were played for Lady, the crowd went crazy and very loud again. It was nice to see the look on Dennis and the bands faces from the crowd reaction.

I can't remember the order of the set-list, it was similar to the other 15 shows that I went to.

The loudest reaction was to the song "Babe". No offense, but this was the first concert that I went to where I went deaf from the loudness of the crowd to Babe. Everyone was singing it. Instead of lighters up everyone had up cell phones,that was funny.

The Best of Times, Light Up, Show Me The Way, Don't Let It End and Desert Moon had very loud reactions too. Everyone was singing Best of Times very loud too that he held out the microphone for a long time so the crowd could sing, that was fun. Rockin' The Paradise everyone was playing air guitar and dancing, way too fun!

Somewhere in the middle of the set list, Dennis introduced a song from the album Grand Illusion. He went into "Castle Walls", how weird was that to look around and the crowd was quiet and had a puzzled look on their faces - LOL When the middle keyboards part came in the song, the crowd got loud again and I kept hearing, how this song was "F'ing Amazing", the crowd got loud again until the end of the song.

A lot of people didn't know the whole Styx story. To me it seemed up there in the Wisconsin Northwoods that a lot of people didn't go beyond the Kilroy album - LOL So when he introduced Glen people didn't know the history, think I had to explain to a good 200 people or so the Styx saga, long story short - LOL

They did "All For Love" and that song had a GREAT reaction!! Besides "Babe" the next song that I thought had the loudest reaction was when Glen was singing/performing "Edge of the Century". Again I heard the crowd around me how it "F'ing rocked" "F'ing smoked" ect. Glen adds a lot to these shows, that extra guitar and his stage presense is fricken great!!

I think he could only play for 1 1/2 or 2 hours, I can't remember how long the show actually was since I was there since 4:30 or so.

Overall, the concert had high energy from the stage to the crowd. Even though I was by most of the happy drunks it was one of the most fun concerts that I went to

That was my short version by the way - LOL

I took a bunch of pictures of us in the crowd, I won't bore you with those - LOL Here's one of the stage that didn't quite turn out but, oh well - LOL

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Part 3 of 20 (LOL)

No more caffeine for me!! LOL

After the Show

We ended up back stage and Yogi was able to meet Dennis and Suzanne. Then he talked to Glen for a while. Glen's ride was trying to leave, Glen was so nice to keep talking and talking and talking, it was GREAT! Dennis and Glen signed everything that we had (a few of you will see soon, well within a year - LOL ) I took a few pictures back there, I'll let Yogi post the ones of him. Here are a few others.


Yogi had his cell phone signed:



Glen after signing a few things for Yogi:

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Part 4 of 30 !!

We ended up going to a local bar after the show - LOL I think we were the only sober ones in town. Put it this way, Welcome to Wisconsin - LOL That's all I can say! I didn't drink at all and I was very low key for those who have been out with me or have partied with me. Well except for a fun time with some drunk's cell phone!!

Yogi and his wife called it for a night around 1:30am. Jodi and I ended up going to a Casino which was a little ways out of town where the deer and the bear roam.

Long story short, I ended up winning a nice chunk of money on the Roulette wheel and the Keno machine to pay for my trip and another upcoming trip. Gotta love my lucky 13 !!! We ended up going to bed around 5am ish and were late for check out - LOL

Driving home we stopped at the Cheese shops and Walmart. I ended up buying $80 worth of cd's. They didn't have any Best Buys or any other cd store for hours. I ended up buying music from Rush, Heart, Abba (LOL), more Journey, new Cheap Trick, Motley Crue and went nuts with Sweet and the Ballroom Blitz!!

The End to another great trip!

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Yogi gave me permission to post his pictures I have a crappy camera !

Here's a few with Yogi & Glen after the show:





Yogi & Hank



Yogi & Kyle



Yogi & Matt


Yogi & his wife, where they watched the concert

[bugsymalone]

FUN stuff, Suite! Yogi, you hottie you, LOL!

Great re-cap. Sounded like a real loose and fun show to attend.

Thanks for posting all the pictures.

[SuiteMadameBlue]

Wait until the Chicago show - LOL I'll post a longer review and I'm sure more pictures - LOL

Thanks Bugsy, I wish you were there. You would've had a blast!!!