Plans and schemes
Finally we split up and went back to our hotels to get ready for the show. Kelly and I met Karen back at our room (she had my bag of tacky souvenirs, in case you were worried), and then we went back over to the casino and down to the concert hall. After saying hello to Donna (we had to!) we hung out with a lot of the same crowd from last night. We discussed the plan for getting back up to the stage at tonight's show since last night the staff had said they were going to beef up security for tonight. Everyone had heard a different story; one person had heard that no one at all would be allowed to go up, that we had to stay at our seats; others had heard what we had been told, that they were going to let the first five rows go up; and someone else had been told that the venue usually didn't allow stage rushing but "whatever the band wants, the band gets." Well, we know this band loves people right up at the stage! The consensus finally was that we all had to hit the stage at the same time - that if one or two people at a time tried it we'd get sent back, but if we all went at once they couldn't stop us. So we decided that as soon as the lights went out and the first song was about to start, right after "School's Out," we were going. We had to have a plan to get up to the stage - there was no way we could stay at our seats. Some of us had tickets as far back as the (gasp) eighth row! Nosebleeds!!
I also had time to chat with Casey again before the show. Edith and I were chatting with him about various things - traveling, going to shows, some of the t-shirt designs that they had been selling over the summer, his previous jobs with other bands, recent world events, and just general conversation. He's such a cool guy!
We went into the venue shortly after Herb started his act. I think someone had a talk with Herb about staying onstage past his allotted time the night before! About 10 minutes into Herb's act, Keith walked over to the sound board which was on the side of the stage, got Herb's attention for a second and flashed him a big TEN - all ten fingers - ten more minutes buddy… and sure enough, ten minutes later, Herb wrapped up the bit he was doing and said good night, right on time!