I did send a note to Jack Bruce's manager, asking to extend our thanks to Jack
for his making the journey to play for John's Benefit.

I can imagine it was a kick in the pants for him, I heard he did not really
play at the After party at all, I know if it was me I would have the wind
knocked out of my sails................

He was rocking too wasn't he?

Mike

He was just amazing. I feel very fortunate I got to see him perform the little bit he did. What was the first song he played (the accoustic one)?

I have to say I enjoyed the entire show, although some parts more than others. Friday night was great. Really impressed by Geoffrey Castle and Randy Hansen. Tom Bowes did great on vocals. Dave Mason was really tight. On Saturday, emerging artists were all decent. Arrogance rocked as always. I've seen much better from the Connells (Doug's yammering about ECU grew old fast). I enjoyed all of the legends, but I thought Dennis DeYoung had the best overall performance. Mark Hitt did an outstanding job playing along with all the performers! He is a true guitar god. Don't know what that first JB song was. He definitely needed to lose the acoustic guitar and move on to the bass.

My main gripe however was the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd. I've seen more energy at a funeral. This was a ROCK concert, not the symphony. Even if Pete & Roger were there, they probably took a look at the crowd and said "why bother?"

Do you think the reaction of the crowd had to do the fact that most were in the 50-60 year old range? Seriously... I mean - I'm 50 and was up singing and dancing, embarassing the hell out of my 17 year old son - but I didn't care... I know there were people there who hadn't been to a concert in 30 years - yikes!

Don't tell me we're too old to rock! I thought some of the performances just perhaps didn't appeal to everyone. I thought DDY had the crowd pretty energized.

My gripe is both with COC and the organizers.

When we got there Sat. night around 7:30 or so (GO PACK) I figured that JLT, BD, MF had already gone and I thought they were going to run late without them. Once JLT came on stage I knew they weren't going to be able to fit it all in. So their was a problem with the planning. Rick said they had a few technical issues and had to cut 2 songs from JLT, 2 from BD, 1 from Michele and 2 from MF along with 6 from JB and who knows how many from the tribute. That means at least 13 songs were cut from a show that ran until 11:45. The technical issues amounted to around an hour, correct? And that is without subtracting out the time it would have taken to switch equipment anyways. I just don't see how they expected to fit those songs in even when planning for a variance.

So, they got the variance at the last minute, which you have to give credit to Cary for providing, even if late in the game. But if the organizers started the show without knowing they would receive it, so they should have planned things to end by 11. To me it appears as if they setup the show to run past expecting Cary to yield. What if they hadn't? JB would have gotten in one song. So they planned for the event to run over and must not have discussed the possibility with SMG since, according to Rick, they were the ones to pull the plug. How does one plan an event to run over and not have talked with the venue about doing so?

SMG employees had to get there before and stay after the show. They have to respect their employees. So if what I think is true and they were being forced to keep people over without notice I understand why SMG cut it short. While I don't like it, I respect it.


Long story short, some of us cynics who people told us to wait and see were right about this not living up to the hype.

What I can't figure out is how they still ran long when one act completely canceled at the last minute!

I don't think I could have taken an additional song from Michelle Branch. The girl can play the sam hill out of a guitar, but singing is really not her forte.

I agree the math doesn't work - 1 hour lost to sound, 45 minutes found through variance. Just the songs for the JEF frontmen eat the 15 minute differential up before you even look at the songs cut from Jack Bruce & the "encore"

It would seem that the fundamental estimate was off or that the variance was anticipated & the sound problems killed it. The 45 minutes of killing time where (I presume) Moonalice was supposed to perform (4:15 - 5:00) would have been awfully handy to have back at the back end.

If Rick was willing to pay the fines (which would in theory cover the additional staffing/overtime) - and the town was waiving the noise ordinance - not sure why SMG wouldn't try to work something out.

You are dead-on 5th post! Dead-on!
It all goes back to what I said early on, "A failure to plan is a plan to fail"!

I'm glad I got my point across about the technical issues being the root cause of things not working out, so passing the buck to SMG can be negated.

1 hr switch over (soundboard) ==> should have been 15 = +45 minutes over
13 songs cut ==> couldn't have been less than an hour = -60 minutes saved
running 45 minutes past 11 pm = 45 minutes added
and they had to cut most of the tribute...

If they hadn't received the last minute variance, the show hypothetically would have ran ~60 minutes over (without the tribute). That means the planning was off and was the root of the problem.

So simply opening the gates and starting an hour or so earlier would have gotten the job done!

One point you guys are missing is that they did start almost an hour early! I was standing outside the gate before 12:00. By the time I got in, opened up my chair and grabbed a beer, the first band started. Couldn't have been more than 12:15 and it wasn't supposed to start until 1:00. Some of my friends got there at 1:30 and they only saw the tail end of the third band.

His name was Pete Hopkins and he was pretty good. Better voice than guitar playing in my opinion, but both were good. He/his band were pretty entertaining, though the drummer wasn't that great - couldn't stay on beat at all.