by Jerry Fitzgerald

Created on: September 05, 2008

Early in 2005 I was reading the paper and came upon the schedule for the House of Blues, and saw that the band Kansas was playing in a week. I hadn't heard of the band in a long time, but I guess thanks in part to movies and television, classic rock bands were making resurgence among younger generations, which enabled these bands to tour again and try to capitalize on the past, which as we all know is as American as apple pie.

The tickets were cheap and the venue was close, so why not. I've heard their music before, I was a fan, and the House of Blues is a very cool venue for a band. It was a good night and the place was pretty crowded. Once they started playing the crowd went silent and we started dancing. They sounded good, just as they did back when they were popular. The show lasted about 2 hours, and was capped off by a somber version of Dust in the Wind that brought the house to it's knees.

It was one of those shows that you probably wouldn't go out of your way for, but it was worth seeing. And at that time I didn't realize that it was the beginning of my four city tour. It was a good month later, that I heard about the next show. A double bill at a venue that I had only experienced once before, the Beach Boys at Yankee Stadium. This time the names were not as big but just as well known, and the venue was a now a minor league ballpark.

Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan at Coastal Federal Field, home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, a minor league affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. Now this venue could possibly eclipse the House of Blues. The show was mid May, about a week or so before my thirtieth birthday, so my sister Jennifer had gotten me tickets and some of our friends came with us. It was Jennifer, Dave, Brandy, Stephen, and me.

It all started, like most great concerts with the tailgating. Which I hadn't done since Widespread in north Charleston, except this time it was a little more quite, but it was all there. The shirt's being sold out of trunks, Frisbees flying around, walking around with your rum and coke looking to trade some food for some beer or maybe just a toke.

The tickets were general admission, so once inside the stadium I got to do something that I never thought I would get do, walk around the outfield of a baseball field. I took my shoes off and left them somewhere I thought I would be able to find later. I walked across the field from first to center, and I'll tell you, the grass was soft that day, softer than the very clouds above. It had rained

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