View from the cop: Crime & punishment
View from the Cop is moving to a new site on Wordpress. Blogger Steve Rose of the Sandy Springs Police Department gives his take on crime, offers safety tips and give his weekly picks from the police blotter. Follow Steve Rose to the new blog site.
AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2005 > May > 27 > Entry
Come sail away with me to Styx concert
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Like many 50-plus people, I enjoy what we call classic rock. I like bands to sing into microphones instead of wearing them on their heads while they do the “Robot.” I like guitars and drums solos. I like the long hair and the old rock ‘n’ roll attitude of playing your instrument well. You can tell when a musician is accomplished. In the heat of the song, they’re too busy to grab their crotch.
Such was the case last Saturday night at the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater in Peachtree City, or the Fred . If you live in Peachtree City, you’re lucky to have such a nice place to listen to music. My wife, Detective Sandy, whom I’m not allowed to write about anymore, and I took our friends to the Fred to see Styx. Peachtree City is about 7,000 miles from Ball Ground so we had been traveling for a week. We apparently arrived in Peachtree City during a golf cart convention. They were everywhere.
All around us were nice people riding golf carts and carrying coolers into the Fred. We were lucky enough to get passes for the pre-concert Meet and Greet. The Meet and Greet is usually an assembly line to the photo-op and then you’re kicked out and a Polaroid is thrown out the door as you pick yourself up. My friend Dan is a very big Styx fan; more like a rabid Styx fan, so I was having a lot of fun with Dan going goo-goo as we met the band members.
It is rumored that Tommy Shaw, guitarist and singer for Styx, reads some of my reports, so I’m thinking we’re connected somehow and I have this inside-track thing going. You know, “I’m-With-The-Band.” I was ecstatic when I shook Tommy’s hand and he said “Hi, Steve” very slowly after looking up over my shoulder where, coincidentally, someone happened to be holding a large poster board with the word “STEVE” in thick magic marker with an arrow pointing down to my head. What were the chances of another guy named Steve being there? I laughed to myself.
Poor guy.
We took some digitals and shook hands with everyone and prepared to be kicked out the door with our Polaroid. My friend Dan was in goo-goo land. He was still shaking hands with the band, the handlers, the security guys, the maintenance man over in the corner, us, the other guests, everyone. We dangled the Polaroid near the door. Dan took the bait and we found our way back to our seats and, for the next couple of hours, we enjoyed an outstanding show.
I normally do very little endorsing, with the exception of products that make you regular again, but I thought about doing a music review. It turns out that it ıs pretty hard to do. Music reporters have deep lyrical descriptions for the songs and can describe the flow of the music in a way that you can understand and almost hear — opposed to my interpretation which is in the neighborhood of: “Wow! That guy played the (%#$@) out of that guitar. On the next song that guy played the “($@#^) out of the drums!”
Some of the Styx-guys are 50+ like me. That makes me happy. We’re still kicking it! They jump around all over the stage although I suspect they do Pilates just before going on.
I’m a fan. The music quality was dead-on sharp and the sound system was outstanding and they sang into the microphone instead of those fancy things that you duct-tape to your head.
Dan got excited, ran down to the stage, and pulled his shirt off until someone told him that doesn’t do anything for anyone. He put it back on and started shaking hands with the security guards as they shooed him back to his seat. It was a fun time.
The Styx-guys are class “A.” Every song was just dead-on target and the whole evening was a lot of fun. If you liked them then youıll like them more now with a new CD called “Big Bang Theory.”
If you like Styx, you’ll love the new CD.
The Fred is a great venue for music and everyone is very helpful and courteous. We even got a ride back to our car from a guy in a golf cart. Dan shook his hand as we got into our car to start the 17-hour ride back to Ball Ground.
On the way back Detective Sandy commented on how nice the Styx-guys were to meet and how much she enjoyed the music.
Dan’s wife, Tina, commented on how nice the Fred amphitheater was.
I said “Man those guys play the (%#$*&) out of those guitars and drums donıt they??!!”
Thanks to Alliance Artists (Julie and Phyllis) and to the Styx-guys for not grabbing their crotches during the show.
“I am the walrus!”
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Joe from Fayetteville
May 27, 2005 1:09 PM | Link to this
Steve Rose is becoming ajc.com’s answer to Dave Barry. The column on the Styx concert was hilarious! As a neighbor of Peachtree City, I can simply say that everything he said is so true.
By phyllis McLay
May 27, 2005 2:36 PM | Link to this
Steve, YOU ROCK!!!
By craig
May 29, 2005 4:41 AM | Link to this
September 16th, Chastain. 30 years in 3 hours.
By XD
June 7, 2005 1:34 PM | Link to this
Just because you like rock doesn’t mean you should put down hip hop’s musicianship. Keep in mind Hiphop is the only form of music that has brought people of all races (though younger, which is a good thing) together. Go to a country or rock show, you won’t get a cross section of the population. Go to a hip hop show and you will see every race represented. So maybe there is something to this hip hop thing….if you like rock, fine but don’t insult other forms of music to validate your tastes.
By George
June 8, 2005 4:50 PM | Link to this
“Keep in mind Hiphop is the only form of music that has brought people of all races (though younger, which is a good thing) together.” How inaccurate. You are obviously too young to remember Motown, Blues, as well as the early days of rock and roll. All of these forms of music brought all races together in their day. The problem with “hip Hop” is rarely is a real instrument utilized and there are no true vocalists. “Course, there are no true vocalists in rock either nowadays.