Naperville, IL 6-30-12
Well, I'll tell you what...if I hadn't bought the tickets months ago and if it hadn't been 3 hours away, we wouldn't have gone either. The heat was unbearable. Having never been to Ribfest, I didn't know what is was like, if there was shaded areas (no, not much), or how the stages would be set up.
We just got home after spending the night in Naperville. Boy, we were so glad we did that. The heat just wiped us out! It would have been miserable driving home in wet, sticky clothes. Being able to go to our hotel room and take a shower after being in 96 - 100 degree weather was wonderful!!!
We got to Naperville around 3:00 p.m. yesterday, checked into our room and drove to a remote parking area where we rode a shuttle bus to the festival. I immediately got one of those citrus shake up drinks that these festivals are so famous for, then we headed over to the stage where Joe would be playing 4 hours later to get a feel for where we would want to be. There was a band called 7th Heaven playing there at the time. There were metal barriers about 6-8 ft. from the stage and also metal barriers splitting the standing crowd in half, giving security and photographers an aisle to use. Behind the crowd of people standing there were rows and rows of people sitting in chairs they had brought with them. I immediately started looking for Austin, but since Joe wasn't coming on until 8:00 I didn't think he would be out there yet. The heat was oppressive. We decided to go find the ribs and on the way came across the Ty Pennington tent, where he was doing a meet and greet. We just watched for a few minutes and went to the 2012 winning barbeque and rib stand and got a barbeque sandwich, which was very delicious but messy.
By this time it was 5 o'clock and time to stake our place at the stage. 7th Heaven was just finishing up and people were acually leaving the area, so it was easy to get very close. We ended up being on the left hand side of the stage (as you're looking at it) and I was third person back along the aisle railing - so basically as center as you can get! I ended up seeing Joe from about 12 feet away! Another band came on at 6:00, and as they played I had to hold my festival program up to block the sun. It felt like we were in a frying pan, but we were drinking water so we just perservered.
Finally at 8:15 Joe and his band came on to a huge applause and he started with Welcome To The Club. I didn't take notes, but thankfully, someone has already posted the setlist here.
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/joe-wa...-1bdf711c.html
When Joe first came onstage and the rest of the band started playing, he stepped back from the mike and started to play but you couldn't hear him!
The band kept playing and someone immediately ran out and he and Joe kneeled down to try to find the problem. Fortunately, whatever it was it was fixed quickly.
It didn't take long for the heat to catch up to Joe, and he started sweating a lot! I felt so bad for him, but he is a professional and he never said one word about the heat. At one point he said, "Sorry, I had a rib burp.", which got a laugh. When he started to apologise to the younger crowd for "turning out weird because your parents played this with you in the room", I wondered what song he was going to play. Turned out that it was the intro to The Bomber.
Before Analog Man he said, "How many of you have heard Analog Man?", to which myself and others raised our hands and clapped. "Well, ya wanna hear it again?", to which we yelled our approval.
Hubby suggested before the show that I call our house during one of the songs and let the answering maching pick up so that we could hear it when we got home, so I did that to Walk Away, one of my favorites.
There was a tall guy standing right next to us who video recorded just about every song. After the show I asked him if he was going to put them on youtube and he said yes, so hopefully some of those turned out well. For now though, enjoy this video from the other side of the barrier (the right side), but about the same vantage point that we had from the left.
Oh, one last thing. Toward the end of the show Joe pointed out that the Fourth of July was coming up, and he wanted to thank all of the men and women serving our country, and that they're not taken for granted.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJua56RR_fw&list=UUFF16LjZZpcubDuseI3Kjiw& index=1&feature=plcp[/ame]
It's a shame that it had to be so hot on THIS DAY, but I'm so glad we went. I got to see Joe up close (and yes, I think I got brief eye contact) for $15!!! What a deal! I'm just bummed that others weren't able to go.
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...I don't think I would have made it...and omg poor Joe...that pic...what a trooper and a great guy!!! glad you had fun...and thanks for the review.
