Next time bring pizzas
When we got inside, I looked at the stage and saw the green drum kit for REO Speedwagon - YES! Styx plays last! When I was walking past earlier, I had heard the sound check for REO, and I should have put it together that if REO was doing a sound check that late, that they would be playing first, but I didn't. Not that it matters all that much who plays when, but it's nice to have Styx close the show!
We went to our seats, and until show time, Edith hung out with us where Karen's crew and I were sitting. We were further over to the left than it had looked like on the seating chart, past the edge of the stage, but third row on the aisle, and not too bad of an angle. Karen went to ask if we'd be able to go up to the stage once the show started, to take pictures or just to stand, and the staff people said no, BUT - if we wanted to go alllllll the way down our aisle, across the back and back up the aisle on the other side of the stage, we could go across the front, as long as we kept moving. Now that's the weirdest rule I ever heard. I've certainly seen people walk in front of the front row before, and if you're seated in the front row, it's seriously annoying, but at least people are pretending they're just passing by on their way somewhere. Here they let people go around over and over, knowing you were up there to take pictures or be up closer than your seat allowed. How you're supposed to take pictures and keep moving is another question. At least cameras were no problem - they made an announcement that still photos were perfectly fine.
While we waited, we did some people-watching. There were some hammocks strung up under the stage, and there was black material hanging around the bottom of the stage, so we could see people in the hammocks having a grand time swinging wildly back and forth, but we couldn't tell who anyone was. There was also a gap in the fence in front of us so that if you put yourself right in line with it, you could watch what was going on backstage. We saw Bruce Hall pass by several times, saw Kevin Cronin and Dave Amato walking around chatting, and saw Keith Marks, Styx's production manager, going in and out of a trailer. Karen's husband was getting the biggest kick out of us peeking through the gap, but we were having so much fun we barely noticed him making fun of us! A little before show time, a guy came up the aisle with a stack of pizza boxes and went back through the gate to the backstage area. Why didn't we think of that? Next show, bring pizzas!
We also went over to the next section and met Carrie and Mike, who were there celebrating their anniversary. It's cool meeting other people, from Styxworld and not - we also chatted with the people behind us, who hadn't seen Styx in twenty years and were very excited to be seeing them again!