State Fair, here I DON'T come

This summer has raced by. I have spent only about 2 days total on the Terrace since May. That is so irritating! It's my own fault for taking two classes, working two jobs, and doing the internship. I was going to go to MN for the first day of the State Fair. Brave Combo is playing for the first 4 days, and there's always a new food on a stick. Plus there was seeing my friends Angela and Kathy! Sometimes leaving MN seems like a mistake. But the library school program up there is so expensive (and takes about 5 years).
I did get to see the 'As the world burns' tour twice, though! Once in Mpls with Kathy, and once in Chicago with Paul, Warren, and James. The Mpls show was at the Fine Line, which was OK. It was the first time I'd been there since the fire. I went to class, then drove 5 hours to Mpls for the show, which finished at midnight, then drove the five ohours back to Madison for class the next morning. Ick.
We were able to get right to the front with no problem. The opening band (Riverboat Gamblers, out of Denton) was really good. The lead singer is insane. Think Iggy on meth. He was crawling all over the equipment, up onto the outer edge of the balcony, etc. The poor security guy was run ragged trying to feed out mic cord to him, yet keep it from stranging the crowd. When the singer got back by us he fell off the balcony. Landed flat-assed, legs sraight out ahead of him, and never missed a note. Cerebrospinal fluid doesn't normally like tht kind of handling, so I'm assuming he had a massive headache the next day. LOL
The change-over to the Rollins Band went really fast! They are using a minimal crew this tour. Mike did a lot of the set-up. This is the old Rollins Band, Mach 2, with Sim, Chris, Melvin, and Theo on sound. The only sound issue with the RB was that the volume was so high you couldn't make out the words. If I'd brought my earplugs, that wouldn't have been a problem. The crowd was enthusiastic, and sang along even if they gave Henry shit between songs. It was more like they felt an obligation to give shit than really felt any animosity though. Henry looked like an angry monkey with his eyes all bulged out. For a while it looked like he might have an anurysm right there. Good thing I'm a First Responder! Their set was an hour, and was mainly older stuff with only a few songs from CIAB. They did 'Starve' which made my night. Then they did 'Liar', a song they had said they'd never do again. That was disappointing, but it was popular, and at this point they need to reestablish themselves on the road. So its understandable. The set is very tight, since they are in the sling seat, but it inhibits t heir jamming. Sometimes the show felt canned. Not that they didn't give it their best, but it was not a good situation for them. I look forward to future shows where they might be the headliners again. Quite frankly, I went to two shows because I suspected they might implode while on the road.
X was the headliner, and they were great, as usual. Sometimes I think Exene only owns one dress. We were right in front of Billy Zoom, who does this weird thing of trying to catch the eye of every audience member. I looked away, and when I looked back he was craning around trying to capture my eye again. At first I thought I was imagining it, but my friend Kathy got the brunt of it. If only John Doe did the same thing. Oops, I forgot; we now must always spell that as John Doe, with the word 'swoon' behind it inside pointy brackets officially (i haven't figured out how to make the brackets appear on screen yet. HTML, you're pissing me off!~). He's such a cutie! His solo stuff is amazing. I guess they re-released 'For the Rest of Us' as 'For the Best of Us' this summer. Hmmm. Anyway, they were everything I had hoped for. Then the moshing broke out. Even though we were at the corner of the stage, we cought some shoving. Some beer amatuer spilled his Sam Adams into my ear and down my whole left side. Great! Now I have to worry about tbeing pulled over by the cops, even though I only had a diet soda. After the show we went back to retrieve the car only to find out that the new Library parking ramp closes at 10 pm.Why would they do that?? Anyway, we happened to see the security gurad and he showed us where the late retrieval entrance was. Whew!
I'll post later on the Chicago show. Suffice it to say, I hate the House of Blues.