Delivery!
After Bad Company's set, we spent a few minutes talking and catching up with other Styx fans we knew who had shown up. We were pretty much acquainted with the entire left half of the front row! I also got to meet Kerry, the idea man behind the Styx Was Here pages that I maintain, and his little boy. Good to meet new people and see some familiar faces from past shows!
I had been looking over at Valerie and Donald during the show, and they were having a great time. They were amazed at how a show is different from the front row! We weren't allowed to go right up to the stage at this show since there were camera men shooting the stage for the video screen, but security was doing a great job keeping the front aisle clear so there was no one in front of us. Donald said, "It's like the whole show is just for you!" Like I always say - location, location, location!
Kelly and I were also watching for our chance to get the banner to one of the crew. We were hoping to see Keith, George, or Jimmy earlier in the evening (neither of us really know Gary's face well enough to be sure we could pick him out of a crowd), because we knew once they got to work on the Styx stage they would be really busy, but we didn't see them earlier. When they started the stage change, I saw Jimmy over at the far side of the stage, and Kelly said "go for it," so over I went. The security people had all seen our huge orange banner so they didn't give me any trouble as I was going up to the stage like a maniac yelling "JIMMY!" at the poor guy while he was trying to work! I had the banner folded up and told him it was for the crew, but he was busy and said he was sorry and couldn't take it - he was very nice about it though. So I said okay and came back over to my seat.
A few minutes later, Keith came out and was working right in front of us, and we figured well why not - so up I went again to the edge of the stage - "KEITH!" I held the banner out to him and told him it was for the crew and he took it - to make me go away, I'm sure, but he took it! So, mission kind of accomplished, as he took it over to the side of the stage and put it down. We figured eventually someone would open it up to see what it said!
After 10 minutes or so, the security guy who was sitting in front of Kelly and me (the one with the button!) came up to us and said, "They've got your banner back there." What? We jumped up and he let us go up to the edge of the stage and peek way back to the back. Some of the crew - no one whose face we knew, just a bunch of guys, which is who the banner was MADE for - were standing around holding up the banner, reading people's dedications, laughing and I think even taking pictures of it! One of them came out and saw Kelly and me watching them - we waved and he gave us the thumbs up! It made us feel good that they got the banner and liked it - we appreciate everything they do!