Fan Reviews: The Guess Who, Rosemont, Illinois, October 1, 2001

TOO FREAKING DRAINED TO VERBALIZE...
VfD/DAN'S REPORT

As I was trying to sing along with "Jet" on the radio today, I found that my range is severely limited ...I'm hoarse and feel like I've been through 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.

All I wanna do right now is...not a damn thing.

Just imagine the surreal experience of driving a van full of people, and they all actually know the words to "Try And Find Another Man" that's playing on your stereo....and it's not often that I've got a passenger who knows all the lines to the "Hi Rockers" dialogue, as did Shillelagh/Clare.

I've figured out that T Ross/Sherry is the person upon whom the cartoon of the girl with the heart over her head on the "Dream of a Child" sleeve is based, seeing her up front, swooning and gazing adoringly upon Burton as he was hamming up the ole Wolfman song (Susan was very obviously enjoying this song as well).

What a trip it was with this great big group of wonderful people. Our row (H) had the letters to spell out "American" (courtesy of SQ), holding them up at the appropriate times during the AW prologue. The band got a huge kick out of this, as well as the "Luxton Fan Club" and "No Klones" signs. Burton really got a kick out of that...somebody got their sign autographed by the band...BC did comment that "Klones" does in fact begin with a "K"...hmmmmmmmm. He also said "there's ALMOST nothing more pathetic than protest singers with nothing to complain about", at which point Shelley and I were both grabbing for that Klones sign.

Although it was reported that BC was suffering from an extremely sore shoulder, this did not detract from his usual animated self. The rest of the band seemed very animated. Bill was doing some jumping up and down. Donnie is playing to the people in front of him alot more than ever before. I had a higher prospective of the band, and could see Garry much better this time. I'm still noticing flourishes from him that weren't there on the records.

One thing to add to the setting, ambience, etc...it was a marvelous Indian Summer evening in Chicago.

There's absolutely NOTHING better than going to a concert with 50 of your closest friends. The band got the hint early on with the signs that there was some mischief afoot in the audience.

"Looking Out For #1" is a song that has particularly grown on me (I thought it pretty forgettable back in ~'76 when it was released). Bachman's fret-hand strength really shows through as he plays extended lead phrases on acoustic. They have honestly found the LOST GROOVE for "Mess Yo Mind". Clare/Shill was commenting that he thought they'd speeded up the tempo on the AW Intro. I didn't have my metronome along, but it is indeed perkier than ever before, with a greater dynamic pulling back for the "Roadhouse Blues" excerpt. I'm surprised that Randy doesn't break more whammy bars (I know this to be do-able). "American Woman"'s never had a better guitar solo than what we heard in Chicago, with him tapping and pulling off and working the CEREMONIAL DRUMSTICK to perfection.

In addition to the aforementioned sore shoulder, Donna mentioned that in St. Louis, she spotted BC along the wings (during Randy's number) blowing his nose like crazy, as if he had a sinus problem. There was a shakey note (slight crack) early on, during "These Eyes", where I wondered how The Voice would hold up, particulary when he stayed low on one "That I will never be free", which had been sung so confidently at Grand Rapids. He seemed able to make all the notes thereafter, however. Kinda like the recent released PARAMOUNT, where The Voice sounds really ragged for "These Eyes", but then he proceeds to do all that insane vocalizing.

I would say that there was perhaps a more lively crowd in Grand Rapids...Clare thought St. Louis was a little more up as well, and that this was due somewhat to the cushy Rosemont seats having a civilizing impact on the audience.

I must say again..."Share The Land" amongst Whooligans was sublime, and that's an understatement to the nth degree.

I'm really glad that things worked out the way they did for Mark from South Africa, and it was great to put some faces with names. We really are a great bunch, aren't we? I got to accompany Shelley on guitar to a couple Guess Who songs...that was a great experience.

Big huge hugs for ((((((Susan)))))) and (((((((Sherry)))))))) for their hard work in pulling this off.

We'll HAFF to do this again!!!!!!!

Dan (VfD)