Tag / Courtney

by admin

Concert Flashback: Stone Temple Pilots

97stpWith about a month to go before graduation, I headed to the Elliott Hall of Music to take in a performance from Stone Temple Pilots with opening act Cheap Trick.  I don’t even remember who I went with, though I have to imagine that either Tracie or Courtney had to have been involved.  Cheap Trick were between their late 80s comeback and their soon to come That 70s Show renaissance.  My memory tells me that they skipped their 80s hits and instead focused on their 70s anthems along with a few tunes from whatever CD they were trying to push at the time.

My main memory of the Stone Temple Pilots portion of the show is them breaking everything down for a short acoustical set in the middle of the show, including a giant wooden rocking chair from which Scott Weiland would sing.  The show must have rocked at least somewhat since the band had to fork over $8500 in damages after inciting the crowd to head towards the stage.  Everything seemed to be repaired by the next time I was in the building, which would have either been for a final or for graduation less than a month after the show.

by admin

Concert Flashback: Bon Jovi II

93bonjovi-2Less than 5 months since their last Chicago appearance, Bon Jovi returned to the area, this time at the World Music Theatre in beautiful Tinley Park.  This time they had Extreme on board as their opening act.  If I had to guess, I would say the guest list for this show included my sister, Scott, Tracie, Courtney, and, probably, Mike.  It was either this show or the next one where Mike managed to fall asleep between the openers and the main performers, while a Metallica song was blasting over the speakers.

Extreme opened up the show with a 12 song set, apparently, which were 10 more songs than anyone was looking to hear.  The strange thing was that they didn’t close out their set with their two hits, but rather wrapped them around a bunch of other songs nobody cares about to this day.  Eventually, the boys from New Jersey came out and, according to the Interwebs, played mostly the same set as their March appearance, although with 2 fewer songs, despite the additional $.25 in the ticket price.

Nothing particularly interesting sticks out about the show, other than the possible sleeping incident.  After seeing Bon Jovi twice in under 5 months, I haven’t seen them again in the 20 years since.

by jim

Concert Flashback: Too Legit World Tour

92hammerDuring the spring of 1992, my friends and I were big fans on the R&B group Boyz II Men.  When we found out that they were coming to town, as one of the opening acts for the former MC Hammer’s Too Legit world tour, we decided to make this our first concert experience.  A little more than a week before high school graduation, a small group of us, which included at least myself, Scott, Tracie, Courtney, headed north to the Rosemont Horizon to see the show.

The scheduled performers for the evening were, in reverse order, Hammer, Boyz II Men, and Oaktown 357.  who I didn’t even realize were a female rap group until I just looked them up now on Wikipedia.  For reasons I don’t remember, the girls of Oaktown 357 did not perform that night, and instead were replaced by a little group called Jodeci.  While I hadn’t heard of them at the time, they would come to have a few hits that I would enjoy over the years.

Boyz II Men, who were the stars of the show as far as our small group was concerned, played the middle set.  They only had the one album out at the time, and hadn’t really hit it big yet.  Of course, later that year, their hit from the Boomerang soundtrack, End of the Road, would make them the biggest stars in music.  I don’t remember how many songs they ended up singing, but it couldn’t have been much more than 5 or 6.

Eventually, Hammer came out and, no matter what you think of his music, put on one hell of a show.  He was a few years removed from his U Can’t Touch This heyday and the follow-up, 2 Legit 2 Quit, did not have the success of its predecessor.  You wouldn’t know it from the show, as Hammer poured 100% effort to dance and rap, in that order, for the full house that had come out to see him.

It was definitely an experience.  From our perspective, we were the only white folks in attendance, which doesn’t seem likely today.  From the ticket stub, it doesn’t appear that we had great seats, but, being our first concert, we certainly didn’t know any better.  This was my last hip-hop show, and while something in the rock genre would probably have made more sense for my first show, it does make a funny story all these years later.

by admin

30 Day Music Challenge Day 05 – A Song That Reminds You Of Someone

It was the summer of 1991/2, and we had set out for a night of cruising around town.  For reasons that made sense at the time, we decided to see where Harlem Avenue had its southern most ending.  We ended up in Kankakee and were getting ready to start heading back home when Walking In Memphis came on the radio.  We were on 57 heading north when Courtney said “Mike, are you crying?”  His grandpa had died somewhat recently (or not at all) and the song brought something up.  Which, looking back, is somewhat touching.  At the time, in a car filled with high schoolers, it was brought up frequently and not in a good way.