I was surprised to see such a small crowd Sunday afternoon at the
Rockfest. A meager 2000 folks were milling around and setting up their
lawn chairs at 12:30pm when I arrived, and not many more than that had
arrived at 1:00 pm when the boys walked out. This was probably the
greatest stoke of luck for me, because it enabled me to have one of
those incredible concert experiences that come around far too rarely.
The Rockfest setup in Cadott has 22 rows of VIP reserved seats in front
of the stage with festival hillside seating behind this. Cut through
the middle of the VIP seating is a sunken walkway through which the
general admission folks can walk up front to take photos in front of the
stage. Well, luckily for yours truly, there was absolutely no one in
this walkway..so....away I go up front to snap a couple of quick photos
with my disposable Kodak. After talking to the security up front, I was
allowed to linger for quite a while upon the step leading upward to the
stage, where a short chain link fence kept you from joing the band on
stage. This is where things got interesting for me.
Dave and Roger were the first two on stage, and Dave starting checking
out his guitar tuning and Roger was getting setup behind his kit. I
yelled out to Dave first, who promptly turned around and gave me a great
photo pose and smile! Then I called out to Roger, who stood up from
behind his kit and gave me the old In The Mood For Something Rude pose
for a photo! I thought that was pretty cool by itself. But then Roger
picks up one of his sticks and tosses it 40 feet through the air to me!!
It was pretty beat up as though he had been using it the night before,
but you can still make out the Foghat logo and Roger Earl signature on
it. That really made my weekend!
The set was great, and the small crowd was energetic and appreciative
after the first couple of songs. Unfortunately, I did not write down
the exact order of the songs, but to the best of my recollection the
setlist included Louisiana Blues, Fool For the City, Sweet Home Chicago,
something off the new album, Nothin' But Trouble, Driving Wheel, Stone
Blue, IJWMLTY, and Slow Ride as the encore. There was a guy in the
front row of the VIP seating that had brought all of the Foghat vinyl
albums and even a Savoy Brown album. Dave made mention of this guy a
couple of times throughout the set, including a reference to people
being stuck in the 70's where he pointed towards Tony dressed in his
green Italian looking suit and dyed blonde hair!
If anyone out there attended the Rockfest and was there for Foghat,
I'd love to have you email me at jkriegel@fyiowa.infi.net. I was the
guy dancing on the walkway stairs wearing the black Zildjian baseball
cap! Keep on Slow Ridin' !
-----Jon Kriegel
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