I Wanna Be In A Rock Band!

They have this festival here every year called Common Ground. It’s got concerts each night for a week or so and is real popular. The music varies in genre but it seems that there is something offered for everyone’s tastes. It’s all festival type seating and it’s first come first serve when it comes to getting a good spot. People bring their lawn chairs if they want to sit because there are no seats.

Saturday night they had a show for those of my generation with three bands from the 70’s. A friend had got there early in the day and set up a few lawn chairs for a couple of us that were going so we had chairs in the first row. When we got there it was pretty empty so we were able to walk up and stand right at the barrier to the stage. Pretty cool as I was able to stake out my own little section of the gate and could lean up against it.

The first band to play was “The Sweet” of “Ballroom Blitz” fame. They were a major “glam” rock band back in the day and it was a tad disappointing to see them come out in tee shirts and jeans with no make-up. The only original member was the bass player and he looked like a beat up old woman. Mean, I know, but just an observation.

There was a young girl, maybe 18 or 19, about seven or eight people down from me. Very pretty girl but young enough that when guys my age look at her we kind of seem like the lecher from the song “Aqualung”. The guitarist for the band, who has to be at least ten years older than I, consistently flirted with her and actually invited her backstage. Now, if I had asked her to spend time with me, I’d be considered a dirty old man yet it’s kind of expected of a guy in a rock band. I wanna be in a rock band.

The second act was the band “War”. Gotta say, totally impressed. They played all their hits from “Spill The Wine” to “Low Rider” and had the crowd in the palms of their hands from the moment they hit the stage.

Being so close to the stage I happened to catch the eye of the lead singer during the song “Spill The Wine” and as I was singing along with him he changed a few words. He saw me flub it up and actually mentioned it while pointing at me and laughing. Pretty cool.

This is actually quite a band. Though the only original member is the lead singer, he was still the guy who wrote all the songs so you couldn’t really tell if they were missing anything. I really enjoyed their set. I was actually dancing, if you can call what I do dancing.

What I thought was the coolest thing about the whole night happened during their part of the show. Off to the side of the stage, in the back behind the band there were a number of people. Three of them were members of the first band that played, “The Sweet”. The others were all members of the headliners of the evening, “Grand Funk Railroad”. They stayed right up until the start of the last song, which meant they only had another 10 minutes to prepare themselves for their own set. Getting your peers to stand in back of you to see your set, to me, shows a great deal of respect. I think that’s something we all could use in our chosen careers. I wanna be in a rock band.

As I said earlier, the headliner of the show was “Grand Funk”. The band was originally a three-member group and during their heyday they actually became the only band to sell out Shea Stadium in New York faster than the Beatles. They were pretty big for a while. In the 70’s. Over the years they’ve continued to tour and record but they pretty much live off their old hits and who could blame them.

I wasn’t really into their show, probably just tired of the songs. The band is also without their original singer and main songwriter and he’s someone that’s hard to replace. The other side of that is the guys in the band are into their early 60;s and you gotta give it to anyone who can do what they do at that age. I mean, honestly, sixty something years old and still traveling around playing in a rock band. I wanna be in a rock band.