Lafayette Square, Lafayette Square... (to the tune of 'Particle Man')
Jo and I left Rochester a little past four and made it to Buffalo by almost 5:30. After finding a place to park (easier than expected), we headed to the square, where the Skydiggers were in the middle of their set. Got some food, walked around, and found Laurie amongst the crowd almost instantly (how can you miss that orange Dr. Suess hat?? :-)
My friend Eric from college showed up, which was a wonderful surprise, and eventually I started running into a *bunch* of people (and I know I'm going to forget names): Dan Godwin, Rosemary, Michelle, Christine, Beth, Amy Traynor (who I met at last year's show) & her fiance, Kelly, Chris/Moe, Jen Brewer, Sandy, Todd/Lisa/Mark (college friends), and a bunch of others.
The Skydiggers stopped around six or so, and between 6:30 and seven, Fruvous came on stage. They played for about ninety minutes, and the set was a lot different than I was expecting, which was nice. Kinda mixed up, with some songs they don't normally do...very cool. The crowd was very enthusiastic, as most Buffalo crowds are, but some people were just plain obnoxious, screaming constantly (and _saying_ very little), bumping into others, and, oh well, it can't be perfect all the time, I guess. :-)
After the set, the guys came out and stood near the stage, signing, taking photos, the usual. Talked to Mike and Murray briefly, but mostly hung out and caught up with Susan Tanner (!!) and Eric. Jo and I finally said our goodbyes and left Buffalo at ten, making it back to Rochester a little past eleven. Not bad, actually. Got a decent night's sleep.
Next stop, Albany...
From Rich Drees:
It seems that in my last few concert reports for FDC, I've ruminated on little life lessons that have seemed to spring out of the experiences of those certain days. Important things that need to be reinforced in our lives such as not taking things for granted or how expectations can be either shattered or surpassed. (See recent reviews for Ithacca, NY and the Boarders Bookstore, Bryn Myr, PA.)
This show's lesson was a little more pragmatic and follows as such-
When packing four FruHeads into a car for a ten hour round trip, make sure you have something better than just a radio to rely on for entertainment!
Face it folks, ten straight hours of ``radio roullette'' is going to cause at least a few arguements among even the best of friends, which of course, Misty, Rich Z., Michelle S. and myself are. And while I'm on it, what's with all the religious talk radio stations throughout New York State? I'm not against religion by any stretch of the imagination, but it seemed that as we spun around the dial every third voice we heard was saying ``Testament,'' ``-sus Saves tho-,'' or ``with a ten dollar donatation.'' (Oh wait, I think that was public radio) But I digress. . . . . . .
Full locked and loaded by 8:30 a.m., our daring little quartet pointed itself in a north westerly direction and headed out over hill and dale on our quest. The trip was fairly uneventful, except for our attempt to blaze a shortcut that had us passing through LeRoy, NY ``Birthplace of Jell-o'' (As the multicolored banners that hung on the street lights proclaimed).
Arriving in Buffalo around 1:30 or so, we were pleased to hear the new single by Ben Folds Five ``Song for the Dumped'' on one of the local radio stations. Since MOxy has shared the stage with Ben's little trio, I took this as a good omen. (And hey, I just like the song!)
Since we had some time before the show, we decided to walk around and take in the sites. Ten minutes later, when we were done. . . (Just kidding)
Actually, Bufallo reminded us a bit of our homebase of Wilkes-Barre, PA- a town that has seen much better times, economically, and is now trying to slowly crawl back from a local recession. I don't know how accurate that may, or may not be though. A nice picnic lunch on the fromt steps of the Bufallo/Erie County Library yielded only a few stares from the locals. A quick trip to that downtown mall found us pulling all the stores copies ``Live Noise'' to the front of the bin where people can see them. (An act of harmless fan terrorism I strongly encourage.)
We wandered back over to Laffeyette Park in time to watch the Lads go through their soundcheck. Mike saw us up at the front of the stage and said a quick ``Hi!'' as did the others as they wandered up. While they checked levels, I took the opportunity to play with my new camera a bit, as this show was its ``test drive'', so to speak.
The show proper started about an hour and a half later, with the opening band the Skydiggers. I didn't much care for them, thinking they sounded like a countrified version of Cracker (a band i do like.) Misty seemed to enjoy them though. Viva La Difference!
The Lads were in fine form when they came out. THe square was packed (I mean PACKED !!!!! Does anyone have a crowd estimate. I'm guessing somewhere in the thousands!) and everyone was loving the show. Near us was one person for whom this was her first show, while next to me a lttle girl around 8 or 10 seemed to be an old hand at this sort of thing. The guys seemed energized by the crowd, and how wouldn't be. Being the idols of millions can't be all that bad. (I'd settle for being the idol of three or four people.) On later anylsis, our group decided that we had never seen Murray appear to enjoy himself as much as he did that night. He was broadly smiling, radiant. (Hey Mur! You're not pregnant are you?)
The boys pulled a couple of songs out of the hat that I hadn't heard in a while such as their cover of AC/DC's ``You Shook Me All Night Long,'' ``Get In The Car'' and the ``Signed, Sealed and Delivered'' medley. I finally got to hear ``Cross Boarder Shopping,'' a song they will only do in Bufallo, but they hadn't performed the last time we came up to see them there in April 97 at Ogden Street.
Afterwards, after the crowd had thinned a bit, we caught up with several
other FruHeads including the might WebGod himself Chris, the always
bubbly Laurie A., and the three lovely ladies from Geneva. Some e-mail
address exchanging later and quick hello to the Fruvous Four and it was
back in the car for a ride home that was punctuated only by te
occassional arguement over oldies station versus Top 40.
Some other tidbits from the performance include:
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