Oakdale Theatre - Who's On First?
This was the first day of a two-day road
trip for me - back to back shows! For this show, my seat was in the 11th row,
on Lawrence's and Glen's side. I know I am spoiled when 11th row seems
terribly far away from the stage!
Styx played first at this show. It was a little strange for me since I had never seen Styx perform and not close the show. On the dates they've been sharing with REO Speedwagon on this tour, the bands have been trading off as far as who plays first, but I had always seen Styx either alone or closing the show. They were amazing though, as usual! Their energy was just as high and they still gave one hundred percent to the show. The guys were really on, and the sound was really good!
The crowd was a little different than the ones I've gotten used to. So many people were sitting down! There was one section in front of Tommy where there were some standers, and people would stand for a few seconds sometimes then sit back down - I know in the 11th row there were a lot of times when I saw maybe three or four people standing and a handful more doing the seat dancing thing. People were having a good time, though.
Security, at least on my side, was very strict about keeping people where they belonged - I was on the aisle and the guy in front of me was about seventeen feet tall, so when we did stand, I'd just take a step out into the aisle. Several times I got warned back in! They were just trying to make sure there were no problems, and they weren't being unreasonable - the guy at the front of the aisle I was on definitely saw me with my camera, and didn't say anything; he did kind of keep an eye on me to be sure I wasn't disturbing anyone! Of course I never would - I didn't use a flash and didn't get in anyone's way. I did stand during some songs, but not to take pictures - just to stand and dance and get into the music!