OK, so let's start this review off with a small little detail. You'll see why a little later in the story.

When tickets for this show went on sale in April, I decided to make a fun post on Buckcherry's message board titled: Petition to Hear Sunshine in Chi-Town

See, of all the songs on “15”, Sunshine and Brooklyn had either never or had hardly ever been played at any of the many shows (200+) they had been playing since the album was released. Certainly, not at any of the 4 shows I had seen during the new album tour. To me, Sunshine is a GREAT song and I just couldn't understand why it wasn't in their set.

Either way, a few others that were going to the Chicago show, and even those that weren't, replied to the “petition thread” in agreement…PLEASE PLAY SUNSHINE!!

Now fast forward to the day before the show. Good friend and fellow BC fan, Gup, mentioned that he sent an email and posted a comment on the BC myspace page asking for Sunshine for the Chicagoland area fans. Nothing like hittin' em up at all avenues!

Ok, so finally, the day of the show was here and I was SO excited to be seeing Buckcherry again, even though I just saw them May 19th, that I just couldn't stand it! I even told a couple friends that even though I've been to over 300 concerts, I STILL get excited to go see bands play live.

I left work at 1:30 and my friend Kim picked me up in the parking lot at 1:45. After a couple of scatter-brain moments, we started to drive out of the parking lot. I asked Kim if she had her ticket. She just looked at me, paused, and said NO. I was like, “WHAT?!!” She wasn't kidding! As we pulled out of the parking lot to head back to her house, I realized I forgot to change my shoes! We did a u-turn, stopped at my car again and then we were off. It didn't take too long to get back to her place. We were on our way to the venue at close to 3pm. I Shirley hoped our chances at the “left-side rail” were not diminished considering our afternoon wasn't off to a great start!

Of course, it didn't take long before we hit a wall of traffic. Kim mentioned that it shouldn't have been backed up at this point. Great, we were never going to make the gate time of 5:30pm. We crawled along, checking the traffic report every now and again for updates. We finally arrived at the parking garage for the venue around 4:30. Unlucky for us, the trolleys were not running yet so we had to make the mini-trek to the venue. Unfortunately, “these shoes were not made for walking”. Ack.

At 4:45 we finally got to the gate. I called Gup to see if he was there yet but found out he was just leaving his hotel. I gave him some quick directions since the road we all planned to take had been blocked off and he said he'd call when he got there. There were about 6 gates of people lined up so we looked for the shortest line. We ended up 17 people back. Not too bad really. A little after 5pm they announced drinking would require a wristband that you had to get out of line for. A lot of the crowd moaned. We silently cheered because 5 people in front of us left the line and we moved up to 12 th in line. :D

I always get nervous before they let us in for a GA show. Why? Because I never quite know if it's in the cards for me to get the spot I got in line early for. In this case, for Buckcherry, it's the left-side rail. Why? For one Keith Nelson, that's why! Not only does the man have AWESOME guitars, he is one amazing guitar player!! Needless to say, around 5:15 my heart was RACING and my hands were shaking. I told you, I get nervous!! haha I tried to read the crowd around me. Most were guys that I figured were going for the rail. There were groups of younger girls that I had no clue about and the group in front of us planned to hit up the bathroom. Good, less people for me to run over. HAHA just kidding.

At 5:25 they started letting people in but much to my surprise, no one was running. (good!) Kim had me go first since I knew the path to the stage. Ok here we go…I was patted down, ticket scanned and I was off. Well, not running, but quickly walking. I made it to the ticket check point and spotted the rail. There was a crowd already on the center and right rail but what was that? The left side was still open? I thought to myself, “Crap, do I have to run?” haha I didn't look back and just went for it. I didn't sprint, but it was more than a quick walk.

I made it to the exact spot I had wanted and Kim was right behind me.

WOOHOO!!!

I immediately called Gup. When he answered the phone I said, “I WIN!” Kim just laughed. (Gup and I had this thing going as to who would make it to the rail first. All in good fun of course.) Gup was busy trying to BS his way by the buses and said he'd look for us later. More people started to crowd around us. Kim and I were talking, trying to keep a good amount of room between us when all of a sudden someone cut in between us. Why, it was good ole Gup! We chatted about BC, he mentioned Rockford radio played Broken Glass and that Q101 played Lit Up when get got to town! He also complained about the Chicago traffic (heh heh). We were all facing forward when a girl attacked Gup from behind. What the… It was Lindz and CherryTree from the board. He introduced us all. They too had the joy of experiencing Chicago traffic. Yeah, I admit, it sucks. At 6pm I reminded Gup we only had 2-1/2 hours to wait before Buckcherry played. He hated that I reminded him! <insert evil laugh> At some point, Gup mentioned he heard that Criss Angel was supposed to be there with Godsmack. Interesting…

Finally, at 6:30pm on the dot, the local DJ's came out and welcomed us all to the Block Party. Yeah, yeah, let's get this thing started. First up were Finger Eleven. I never really cared for their older stuff but I really liked their new single. The singer mentioned in an interview it was about his fear of going to clubs. Odd. Especially since it was a song you could dance too.

Anyway, the band came out and much to my surprise, they were better than I thought they were going to be. At one point I told Gup, “I didn't know Eddie Munster's son was in a band.” He died. The guitar player totally looked the part. Later in the set he had this WAY cool guitar. It sounded like a mandolin/sitar, something, like that.

I never saw the bass player until later in the set because the lead singer was blocking him. They had a pretty good front man. He thanked the crowd for coming to the show early. The drummer also was pretty good. However, the entertainment for the night was the other guitar player.

I don't think his guitar was ever plugged in. He also appeared to be totally wasted and Im surprised he never fell down. Although there were a couple close calls. The guy kept changing out about four different guitars during their whole set. With each one his tech appeared to be looking for a problem. I still don't think there was a problem, other than not being plugged in. I mean the guy was barely even playing. He kept thrashing about, holding his guitar up in front of him, strap just hanging there. It was just crazy. For sure something Ive never seen before. They played for 30 mins.

The DJ's came out while the crew were tearing down, told us to give it up for Finger Eleven and said up next…Buckcherry. Our small group all looked at each and said, “WHAT!?” Well, they pushed out a set of black drums that didn't have the “15” album cover on it and a guy brought out a very skinny set of pedals. Umm, yeah, I don't think so. Taproot was next.

Kim and I saw Taproot at a different Q101 sponsored show a couple years ago and I didn't like them. I didn't have much hope for this show either. They came on sometime after 7:00 and played for about 40 minutes I think. Yeah, I still didn't like them. I was actually bored with their set and I just wanted them off the stage.

Every once in a while someone would throw these squishy, mini, White Sox baseballs onto the stage. The lead singer would sign them with a sharpie he had on stage and then throw them back into the crowd. He also kept mentioning for people to “get crazy”. That meant A PIT! Luckily it was far enough behind us that we never even felt the affects of it.

Considering I was totally not into their set, Gup and I had a good time making fun of the guitar player. I mentioned he reminded me of Peter Pan. He died. Every once in a while Gup would say to me, “Fly away, fly away” and make the hand motions. TOO FUNNY! The kid was good, but he just didn't fit the band. He looked like a Boy Scout. Later in the night Gup mentioned he looked like Clay Aiken's brother. BINGO!

Also during their set I spotted Sully side stage with a REALLY tall dude. At first I thought it was Josh but then I noticed he didn't have any tattoos. I leaned over the rail to get Kim's attention and I pointed to the right side of the stage. She said, “That's not him.” (I didn't know what she meant) With my hand I pretended to show a short person. She looked again and then got all excited!! She whipped out her camera and started taking pics. Eventually Sully and this REALLY tall person were on the left side of the stage. I still couldn't tell who it was. After Taproot's set Kim asked me, “Don't you think he's hotter than Nikki Sixx?” I asked, “Who?” She then told me the “tall guy” was Criss Angel! OOOHH!!!!! He so didn't look like what I remembered. Not only was his hair dyed to a light brown color he was wearing a bandana and a baseball cap. I guess I should have known by the *bling* he had around his neck. He was wearing a couple necklaces. One was a square shaped outline of a cross full of diamonds and the other was a handcuff necklace, also full of diamonds. Oh and no Kim, I don't think he's hotter than Nikki Sixx. HEHE

Gup and I were also commenting on the camera's the “official people” had during the first 3 songs of each band's set so far. I tell you, some of the lenses on the cameras were insane. One chic stood in front of me and I could literally see her arm shaking as she held it up. I had to crack up when Gup pointed out one guy who had this teeny tiny lens. I mean, compared to everyone else, it was kind of funny.

OK, back to Taproot, at the very beginning of their set, the lead singer jumped off the stage and went over the rail between Gup and Kim. He was out in the crowd for a while. All of a sudden, he was back on the stage. It was just like magic! hehe Maybe Criss Angel had something to do with it? ;) Later on in their set he went into the crowd again. Some guy behind me made the comment, “He must not be very popular because he keeps making it back to the stage.” HAHA Lead singer mentioned they hadn't toured in a while but were working on a new album and thanked us for being there. Eventually, their set was over.

FINALLY!!

Slowly but Shirley, the BC tattooed-girl panels were brought out, X's drums were unveiled and a younger kid (Gup said it was Keith's new tech) appeared to be struggling to carry Keith's massive board of pedals. Gup looked at me and said, “Got Pedals?” (nice quote from my 1-23-07 review). Gup also spotted the set list in Keith's guitar cabinet. We both started taking pics of it and zooming in on our cameras to try and read it but it was just too far way. We figured out that the first three songs were So Far, Broken Glass and Porno Star but that was about it. I kept telling him, “OMG! What if they play Sunshine? I will die if they play Sunshine!” He said something like, “I guess we'll just have to wait and see.” I think Gup also started rattling off songs based on recognizing Keith's guitars too. CRAZY!

I never noticed the snake on his drums before. Something new?