Saturday we rode the motorcycle over to St Petersburg to Vinoy Park for the annual Ribfest concert weekend. It was a long day thanks to the promotor trying to get people there early for old time rockers 38 Special, and then to stay late for more greatness from America, and Three Dog Night.
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| 38 Special |
Thirty Eight Special was the first band we saw and it was great. We strolled right up from and were a few rows from the stage and plopped our chairs down for a rock show. It was worth it to get their early for this band. But I can't say the same for the afternoon filler cover bands.
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| China Grove |
The cover band first came out singing Doobie Brothers songs (and there were doobies in the crowd, thats right), and they did fine. After an hour of the Doobies we decided to walk around and get something to eat. We figured that the next band Supernatural who was a tribute to Santana wouldn't be that rocking. But they sounded good even in the back of the 100,000 people crowd. When we got back to our chairs in the front we realized in one glance that the Santana band was the same guys as the China Grove band. The dudes simply changed shirts, wigs, sunglasses and hats to become a new band. The people in the back would have no clue, but a lot of people right in front next to us didn't realize it was the same guys!
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| Supernatural |
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| America |
America played all their rock and even jammed some, starting with their first album songs from 1971. They started a half hour late due to technical difficulty so we decided we would just skip Three Dog Night because of the long drive home.
Its been cool lately with lows in the mid 60's so it was a pleasant and safe ride home on the bike. I sure hope they don't try that stunt with tribute bands next year, or splitting the good rock n roll for first and last. I'm getting old and a 9 or 10 hour event is just too long to enjoy.
