Ravinia, Highland Park IL, 9.6.16

So….show #2 for me and unlike for the Red Rocks show in Colorado, THIS time the weather was NOT looking good. 🙁 I had heard both on the radio and also from my friend from work Debbie, who was going with me to the show, that there was a prediction of rain but by late morning of the show I decided to get into the hourly forecast. Sadly, it was already raining (had been for a couple hours) and it showed a break around 4pm but then starting up again at 6 and by the 7pm hour thru 10 it was showing 70% and 80% showers and thunderstorms. UGH! 🙁 BUT, Debbie and I are Ravinia pros (the name of the outdoor venue that the show was taking place) so when she arrived at my house, we both had rain ponchos, she had a water protected blanket and I had a wick like ground protector and towels plus we talked about possibly paying to upgrade our tickets so…we were set! 😉

Speaking of tickets, let me expain Ravinia as it’s definately NOT your “typical” outdoor venue. Most consist of a covered pavilion and then a lawn that goes directly behind it and if you stand up, you can see the band. Not Ravinia. The stage is downward slanted so if you stand up at any part of the lawn, you can’t see the band. If you are close enough and straight in line with the pavilion, I think you can see the big screen on either side but that’s it. Also, the lawn isn’t just straight back, it weaves around too…in a few directions. It’s HUGE! And it’s lovely. There’s various statues, flower gardens, a nice indoor restaurant, cutely lit up outdoor food stands etc. It’s very, er, plush I guess you could say and in an affluent town so aside from the venue itself being elaborate and special, the spreads many people bring are also. Some people go all out with the white table cloths, candles, cheese and wine plates etc. They’ll literally bring in a couple wagon fulls of stuff! 😯 Debbie and I on the other hand…a quick stop at a sandwich shop and a small cooler sees what we need LOL. But it’s great fun to walk around and see what’s out there! The BAD thing about Ravinia is that there are “donors” and these “donors” get to have special ticket buying rights…as in they get to buy tickets before the shows go on sale to the public. Sometimes it’s not a HUGE deal but sometimes, as in the case of Sting a few years back, ALL the tickets sell out before public sale! 😯 🙁 (Full capacity of the pavilion is 3,400 and the lawn…well according to a listing in 2008, it said up to 15,000 can fit but wiki just said it’s 36 acres or 150,000 square meters so….BIG!) That part stinks so by the time this particular show went on sale, the pavilion was more than half sold out. Second half of pavilion was still more than double the cost of a lawn seat so since lawn tickets don’t have to STAY in the lawn (as in you can’t get ito the pavilion but you can come up and along the two sides and/or the back and thus get fairly close) and where the closest ticket available was literally no closer than what Debbie and I could get with our ‘usual spot’ (though obviously under a cover incase it rained and more center but actually in line or even slightly FURTHER than where we stood) we decided to get lawn (hence our worry of it raining).

OK, so now you know the situation and the location. We headed off and as we drove to the place (it’s a good hours drive, then we park at a free lot and take a free shuttle to the actual venue so the whole travel experience ends up being about 1.5 hours each way) the sky started getting lighter so we got excited! 🙂 Another OMD buddy, Nicky, was also coming and meeting us there a little later (though lucky him, he had a great ticket! He was able to get some via the village and was nice enough to offer me the second of his pair as his wife couldn’t make the show but since he couldn’t get three and I didn’t want to exclude Debbie, it didn’t work out but he was happily surprised when his row 3 ended up being row 2. Dang and yay! 😯 😀 ) and as we all ate our sandwhiches, we all said how we were hoping it’d stay just the way it was!

The running times were the same as at Red Rocks which meant Howard Jones would be on at 6:30. Since Debbie and I wanted to make sure we could nab our spot, we headed up about 6:05 (the pavilion isn’t opened for people to come in until 30 minutes prior to the show so no one really gets too close until then anyways). We said our goodbyes to Nicky and staked our area, then were just looking around when I saw a familiar face…Merve! 😯 🙂 (he’s drum and bass man for those who don’t know). I waved and he saw me and started coming over so I met him, little hug and we started chatting. I introduced him to Debbie who was still kind of holding our area by the side rail and after a few minutes I heard her in the background go “Lori” but I was still chatting with Merve so didn’t answer. But shortly after I heard “um…LORI” so I started to wonder what was up and was about to turn to look when I saw someone out of the corner of my left eye coming up. Turned to find Mr. M. standing there. 😯 YAY! 😀 Hugs and hellos and I had forgot that Debbie had met him last time they played Chicago back in fall of 2011 so introduced her again (Mr. M. being gracious and saying hello as he shook her hand and she saying yes, they’d met before. Dummie me but that seems SO long ago now!). We started chatting for a bit but after a few minutes, fans started coming up asking for pics and/or autographs and then I figured he’d probably want to go so Debbie and I jokingly said goodbye and to go NOW while there was a lull lol 😉 (though he was also gracious to those who came up 😉 ). A little bit more chatting with Merve and then I figured he probably wanted to go too so I said “we should let you go” so he asked if I was doing any other gigs and then we said goodbye. What luck and a nice little surprise bonus! 😀 😀

When Howard Jones came on, like at RR, there was no intro and Debbie was really surprised by that. I had expected him to open with Like To Get to Know You Well as he had on Sunday but we were treated to Pearl in the Shell instead! 😯 Awesome! 😀 Sadly, we were having a hard time understanding all that he said and Debbie was like “didn’t we have this issue last year?” Couldn’t remember for sure but it made it hard for us to hear some of what seemed some joking on his part. The pavilion wasn’t too full at this point and I felt bad for him. 🙁 Not too many people standing either and it took a bit longer for him to get them going vs. RR but he did. New Song especially seemed to get a lot of people dancing and I heard a number of people singing along. For Things Can Only Get Better, it took a couple attempts but he finally got a nice sounding echo that seemed to really please him so, though a little bit more laid back crowd vs. RR, it ended up still being pretty good considering he’s the first band and it’s a work night so getting to Ravinia by 6:30 isn’t the easist thing to do (Debbie and I planned things to get off 30 minutes earlier each so we could head down and we both work early shifts already but for the typical 8-5 worker, it’s harder! 🙁 ) and also, Ravinia sometimes has a, er, more laid back and er, how do I put this….dignified/proper attitude. As I mentioned earlier, it’s in a bit of a ritzy/affluent area so many see it kind of like going to the opera. NOT like going to the opera but not really like going out on the town to a concert either….if that makes sense. Perfect example (may as well mention it now to show the difference), at RR, once BNL came on, EVERYONE got up and pretty much STAYED up. At Ravinia…up for a couple songs, then sat for a bunch until Brian Wilson came on and then up again. I looked at the pavilion thinking “wow, it’s the headliner!” Though, that being said, USUALLY at least most of the pavilion stands for the headliner but they DO sit at times…RR…no sitting down LOL). So, that being said, it also explains why HoJo didn’t have quite the same reaction as RR but tbh, that’s part of what is fun about seeing shows at different venues/cities…no two are ever alike! 😉

Well, a quick toilet break as usual and then we got ready for OMD! Sadly, since I wanted to get as close as I could, I didn’t think that it may have been better to move up/back along the rail a bit and by the time it hit me that I was going to have a pole in front of me for part of the stage, it was too late to move. LUCKILY, I got in just the right spot to have the pole be BETWEEN Mr. C. and Stuart LOL. 😉 As in RR, they too came out without an intro but people started cheering pretty quicly and Mr. M. made his announcement of no artsy stuff tonight, just hits and then Enola Gay. (no set list changes that I noticed for them but no worries 😉 ) When it was over, Mr. M. said “who out there is eating chicken?”….a few cheers. Then he said “who out there is drinking beer?”…more cheers LOL so he said “I’m going out THERE”. 😆 He then said “this song was in a movie but not the movie YOU’RE thinking of…this was in Weird Science” and Tesla Girls got going. By this time some people in the pavilion were standing (I was bouncing around of course) and Debbie and others around me were dancing plus a bit of singing (but wait, it gets better! 😉 ). When Mr. H. got ready to sing Secret, I grabbed my camera and recorded. I wanted to get 2 songs this gig and figured I’d get one of each guy singing…plus I know many overseas love to hear/see Secret so…there ya go 😉 AND, this was the start of what would be a great singing crowd! 😉 😀 (better than RR). I heard quite a bit of singing to this one which was great!

Well, Mr. M. was still not satisfied with the amount of people standing so he made a point of saying his bass was going down and that meant the ” bad dancing” and this time he called “EVERYONE” to join him. Of course I did and I saw some others but not as many as RR and throughout the song, he kept waving his hands to get people up. I guess it was his night to be the star bouncer then LOL 😉 But as if to make up for the lack of bouncers, when he announced that they were NOW going to do “the hollywood moment” and launced into IYL, the crowd went crazy and what an awesome sing along! I kept wondering how many people were there that night in total and how well it sounded to the guys because from where I was standing, it was VERY impressive! 😯 😀 😀 When it was done, the whole band seemed chuffed as you UKers would say and lots of smiles all around. Mr. M. joked that they had us warmed up now and then welcomed Mr. H. down to the front. Again, lots of singing to FLaD and Mr. H. had a ball.

MoO was next and as the first few chords started, someone must have yelled or did something loudly because Mr. M. said “oh good, SOMEONE knows what this song is. Do you want to come on stage and dance it for me too? I need a dance double.” But no surprise they didn’t LOL. 😆 Quite impressive to watch and it was cute because I noticed Mr. H. doing a few little air drum rolls in the very beginning…not seen him do that really so had to smile! 😀 Since the crowd was quite vocal, there was a huge “Noooooooo” to Mr. M. asking if we were tired to which he said “you’re going to regret that” and started bouncing to SiL. I’m not sure who he was singing to during that particular bit in SiL that he usually picks someone but we did see him pointing…there just wasn’t the same camera coverage as in RR but someone was a lucky girl I’m sure LOL. 😆 . But before that (and I didn’t see this either due to the darn pole…just saw him lean over), Mr. M. shook Nicky’s hand! Debbie told me as she saw it. Awww, yay! 😀

I gotta say, 45 minutes goes fast and it was Locomotion time again, though I don’t remember any major goofying around on this one. BUT, got a wave and such LOL 😯 . I had seen Mr. M. look our direction a couple times but didn’t want to wave because I didn’t want to assume he was looking at me/us. There’s a lot of fans so….but all of a sudden he looked over again, I thought “not waving” but then he kept looking and started waving. 😯 I then thought “OK, he’s waving to you, go ahead and wave back now, it’s safe” so I did LOL. 😳 So then, still looking, he says “you doing OK?” so I start bopping around, cheer and hold up both thumbs high in the air and I think he might have said “good” but tbh, can’t say for sure as others around me started cheering and the girl behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said “OMG, I think that was all directed to YOU personally!” and the girl in front of me said “well, she WAS bouncing and such so…” I laughed and told them we had met him earlier and said hi so….as I didn’t know what else to say. But again, a nice and fun surprise…. the night was full of them since, as they finished with “the oldest and the fastest song we have. We’re still able to do it, SO CAN YOU! Come ON!”, we finished the final bouncing song with NO RAIN! 😀 😀 😀

Once OMD were done and BNL started, I waited a few songs and then asked Debbie how she was doing. She said she was ready to go but I mentioned HoJo returning and suggested we wait 2 more songs. She agreed and as it turned out, literally after 2 more songs, he came out LOL. As mentioned earlier in this blog, the crowd was more mellow even for BNL but OMG, did we blow RR out of the park for the sing along of No One Is To Blame! 😯 As Debbie said “that’s gotta make him feel great hearing us like this!” and I’m sure it did as it sounded like a whole block full of people were singing along! I’m sure even those SITTING waaaaaaay back were belting it out! Nice way to end the night for us as we turned to leave once it was done (and Nicky had left right after OMD to catch his train so….that was that for all of us LOL). Funny thing…we managed to get on a shuttle bus rather quickly, got to our car and were about 1/4 way home when it started lightening and about 10 minutes more found us in pretty heavy rain so…just made it! (though by this time it was after 10pm and we were far enough away that I’m sure even those who stayed for all of BNL were OK for the rest of the performance…maybe just a little wet if they dilly dallied to leave. 😉 )

So…highlight of the night…well, I think I have two really. One of course is getting to say hello to Mr. M. and Merve. 😯 😀 😀 And the other is hearing and being a part of such great sing alongs (oh, forgot to say there was a lot for Dreaming too). It’s always nice when your home town shows bands some love and considering the dancing and such wasn’t up to par with RR, at least the singing was! It’s a great way to feel connected and united…belting out the lyrics to songs that everyone knows, grew up with and loves and we had a few really great moments so…that was great fun! 😀