No Slow Ride

It was retro night in Creston when Foghat came to town. It was a fundraiser for McKinley Park - the beautiful city park perched across from our home. A few years ago park board people came up with the idea to host a big concert at the old band shell that's been somewhat refurbished. Funds go towards fixing up both the park and the lake - a great cause. Amazingly, they've been able to attract some pretty good but, yes, past their prime bands to our little burg.

Last year it was Marshall Tucker. We were in San Antonio with McFees and Higgins, but I heard they weren't all that great. This year? Foghat! Okay - there was only one original guy, the drummer. And when interviewed for the article in the paper he said something like "rock and roll is slang for copulate and nobody is unhappy when they're copulating" Um, Kyle (article writer), did you look up that word? I hope you don't get a bunch of nasty letters from old folks.

The event day didn't start out too promising, weather-wise with rain. But that put all the farmers in a good mood. That makes everyone else happy because they don't have to put up with mopey farmers asking my husband, "When are we going to get rain"? Like he's the dang rain god...We went to evening Mass and Bobbie and Jeff came over for a drink with munchies after. We could hear a warm up band playing as we sat at the kitchen table and chatted. Odie was nervous - the music sounded a bit like thunder!

We headed over about 7:30 p.m. Mayor Woods took our tickets - there were lots of volunteers helping. Sponsors had forked over $ to help pay for the band. Fareway and the Knotty Pine were cooking up sannies. There were a couple bevvie booths and for those with special wristbands, beer and hard lemonade was available. For $3! Take that DSM...it's not $6! And we didn't pay to park. I got a Summer Shandy tallboy and we made the rounds to decide where to park our chairs. We saw Deb, Baileys and Stormy's Mom. It's fun to chat with people you haven't seen for a while.

McKim's hometown buddies came to visit

McKims were parked at a sponsor table as Don had purchased 10 tickets, so we set up our chairs in front of that area. The band wasn't bad - played some Collective Soul and some other recognizable stuff. Foghat was due at 9 p.m. Deb's hubby Larry was heading back from DSM where he'd been for son Keith's bachelor party dinner. Jud was at the event along with many HS buddies. Larry didn't stay for the party bus part of the night. Jud did! Can't wait to hear about it - not too many details though...Keith and Jud have been friends since age 3.

Keith, Jud - First Communion - thus the ties

I wasn't expecting all that much from Foghat frankly. Despite the fact that there's only one original guy, the good news is that the band has filled in with a bunch of talented musicians. The bass player - excellent! Guitar player could rock. Vocalist could play guitar and sing. None of them were spring chickens either - probably in their 40s and up. A big bouncer stood guard on the stage, and a ring of volunteer stage guards helped keep the drunks off the platform.

We started out sitting in our chairs a decent distance away. A nice couple from Marshall town was near us - they said they'd come to celebrate their 29th Anniversary. He was a Lennox Heating/AC guy and his wife commutes to work in a downtown DSM bank. I told them it's our 30th this year, and Deb and Larry just passed theirs in May. We bumped knuckles! The guy said the secret is to keep having fun together - and doing stuff like this. I have to agree! They didn't know any of the Marshalltown people I know like Pam Blake and Casee Piel. He said if Casee is a cop he'd like to keep it that way...anyways...fun to talk to them. (On a funny note, my new friend said he'd found Southern Iowa to be..."different"). Ha! We like it that way.

view from afar

view up close

Jeff decided we'd better go down close to the stage to get the "whole experience". So we did. There were a lot of drunks down there, but it was a fun way to see it. I enjoyed watching the band members work their instruments. And during the instrumentals some of the dancing couples were working it too! We had to move for a fight at one point. A small shaven head guy in leathers and tats was drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade dancing by himself near us. I got a kick out of that...c'mon man. Harley guy can't choke down a Bud? A group of nerdy young guys took of their shirts and gyrated together - yep that's going to attract the chicks. Susan Dunphy came over and yelled, "I'm having a flashback!" Agreed!

rockers

crowd was crazy

There were a lot of people I didn't know. And many I did. More of my homegirls showed up - Pat and Susan. The band played songs I didn't know so well and then the faves - Fool For the City, I Just Want to Make Love to You, and lastly, Slow Ride. Flashback for sure. I love live music!  Fun night in Crestonia.