PLUS passes to the theater release of “Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones.” Oh yeah! 1:20pm, Tuesday through Friday after Labor Day!!

“Now, you can keep on rolling with the Stones… but only if you get doubles. The legendary rock band have announced their version of the classic board game Monopoly. In Rolling Stones Monopoly, the famous streets and avenues of the original edition are replaced with Stones releases. Baltic Avenue becomes Sticky Fingers and Park Place turns into A Bigger Bang.

But it’s not just the street spaces – the entire game has been given a Stones makeover. Chance and Community Chest cards have become Lyrics and Licks, the four railroads are now different Stones tours and instead of paying a Luxury Tax, players will now have to purchase concert tickets. There are no houses or hotels, but gold and platinum records to add to your properties. Plus, while you play the game, you won’t be guiding a racecar or a thimble around the board, but a tour bus, a drum set or a bunch of wild horses.

Of course, the game’s famous rules are still the same – you just might get exiled from Main Street, end up shattered and have to go directly to jail. Hey, it’s only rock and roll.

Monopoly: The Rolling Stones Collector’s Edition will be available in stores in time for the holiday season. It’s not the first rocking version of the game. A Beatles edition was released in 2008.”

You can already order it via Amazon.  It’s around $32.00 plus shipping.

My folks came to visit on Thursday and stayed thru Saturday and I missed the show. It was one show I was looking forward to. They were planning on visiting the previous week, but plans don’t always work out they way you want.

I’ve seen Bob Dylan several times and he’s one of those guys that Forrest Gump would say was “like a box of chocolates”, you never know what you’re going to get!

But Mellencamp is special. The last time he was in Portland was 1987 and it was a great show. I’m really sorry I missed him.

But, I was really happy my folks came to visit. They hadn’t been here in five years, and that’s a long time. And my boys were happy to see their grandparents.

We visited the Washington Park Rose Garden (I’d forgotten just how beautiful that place is) and toured the Pittock Mansion. Had breakfast at Fat City, took in the Portland Farmers Market and the Saturday Market and spent a large part of the time catching up and telling stories, a great time had by all!

Living in Portland, I think a lot of us take the beauty of our city for granted…and Portland is a Beautiful City!

Rock and Roll is forever, time spent with loved ones is so fleeting…..

At least my rack looks decent. As Shan said, You see chins, I see houses and guys will see boobies.

So, Chris comes to Eugene for her grad program, and gets a job at the same station where I was doing mornings, and we became instant soul sisters in music.  We saw Bruce Springsteen together at the Portland Paramount in 1975 and went backstage together to meet him at the Portland Memorial Coliseum in 1980.  I think she still has that signed poster.  I had him sign my business card…PROOF I had actually met the man.  I also still have the picture my friend Diane took from the front row at the 1980 concert, because Front Row Lorenzo stayed in line for a day or so and got the tickets for us.  That’s the kind of thing we used to make our interns do for us.  He could tell stories for days about the things we asked of him.  He’s still working in music, so we didn’t ruin him…or maybe we did.  I think he’s forgiven us.

Anyway, when I first heard of the Dylan Mellencamp show, I emailed Chris, who lives in Seattle, and we made plans to go to the show.  Then I looked at the schedule for the week and almost passed out just thinking of what was going on.  Monday-Nugent, Tuesday-Chicago, Thursday-Crowded House, Friday-Doobies or ZZ Top, Saturday and Sunday-Dylan and Mellencamp.  REALLY???  I made the decision to pick 3…so I went for the Edgefield shows.

Then the unthinkable happened, my weird medical shit started acting up and I had to miss Chicago….AGAIN!  I did however enjoy Amy’s rant at the people who do not know concert etiquitte.  I feel like I was there vicariously.  Yeah, I was sidelined by a little “office surgery” on Tuesday afternoon and did NOT feel like sitting on the lawn or anywhere else other than my own home.  Oh well.  I made a quick recovery and was ready for the weekend.  Damn bugs won’t get me down.

We headed to Edgefield on Friday afternoon and while it was a typical slow moving eastern trip on 84 between I-5 and 205, it wasn’t the HELL that I-5 south to the Fair was.  Yes!  We got to the venue and had VIP passes, but having been in that section before, I thought the food was basically finger food and drinks…so we went to eat at the Power Station on the grounds.   Their burgers are amazing, and I highly recommend the sweet potato fries!  I must stop this mad eating frenzy…after Labor Day, and Concert Dave’s “Meatfest.”  When we arrived at the VIP tent, SURPRISE….they had burgers and sausages!  News to me. Oh well, they didn’t serve the sweet potato fries, so I felt okay about the meal beforehand.  Our Sales Manager, Joel was there early (good boy) and we sat and talked with him.  Radio people love stories.  Hope we didn’t bore you, Joel!

The Doobies were wonderful as usual!  They started the set with one of my faves, “Take Me In Your Arms” which I had played earlier in the day on Connect the Classics.  I’m sure they did that just for me.  It is a “soaring” song!  Their harmonies were as lovely as they were last year when they came to the area 3 times.  I just can’t get enough Doobies!  This is the band who did the song “Ukiah” and I lived in that little Northern California town for half of my first grade school year.  They will always have my heart because of that alone.  Wonderful set, cool venue, beautiful evening, and my friend Chris, with me seeing her first Edgefield show.  The whole evening rocked. 

Day TWO!  We were going to head to Bi-Mart to buy the cool sand chairs that we saw people sitting in at the Doobies show, and Marty informed us that our KGON Sand Chairs were in our attic.  Since I have been up there only once, I have no idea what lurks above my head in my house.  It’s not that I’m scared of spiders or clutter, I hate going up the ladder in the garage to get to that space.  Marty got the chairs down, the problem was solved.  We brought beach towels, sand chairs, layers of clothing, and books.  We were ready for the show at Edgefield. 

It was all GA seating, which means that the minute they open the doors, you head for the “real estate” that you want.  We just made sure we were just about on the hill where it flattens out a bit.  I guess we could have gone for the bowl, but I wasn’t up for standing for the whole show, and that is what the bowl is about.  Notice to people who want to stand for the whole show: find others of your kind and go there.

The posse arrived.  Amy the KGON’sider,  Concert Dave, and Taper Jeff joined us. There was an opening duo.  Yeah, I was sort of shocked too.  In fact, I was a little miffed later thinking about it, because I could have used more MELLENCAMP!  If the duo had not gone on, JM could have done R.O.C.K in the U.S.A., Jack and Diane, Play Gutiar, I Need a Lover, Justice and Independence ‘85, and Get a Leg Up.  Of course I’m not complaining, because the set was wonderful.  Here’s John Mellencamp’s setlist courtesy of Taper Jeff:

“Little Pink Houses”
“Paper in Fire”
“No Better Than This”
“Check It Out”
“Save Some Time To Dream”
“Cherry Bomb” (acoustic)
“Don’t Need This Body”
“Small Town” (sing along)
“Rain on the Scarecrow”
“Troubled Land”
”If I Die Sudden”
“Crumblin’ Down”
“Authority Song”
 

Then Bob Dylan and his band took the stage.  When he was at the Coliseum in October, it was a wonderful show, (Click here and find my earlier concert review of that show) and you could tell Bob was happy to get Charlie Sexton back in the band.  At this show, he did a very similar set, but the band was rockin’ it HARD!  Once you get past the fact that his voice has changed (the man does around 100 shows a year for the last 50 or so years…do the math) and just groove into the fact that this IS THE LEGENDARY POET OF OUR GENERATION, the musical experience is very good.  Chris started dancing with wild abandon and all was well with the world.  I was happy because he did “Ballad of a Thin Man” again which is just one of those songs that gets to me!  Here’s Dylan’s setlist:

“Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”
“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues”
“Just Like a Woman”
“Beyond Here Lies Nothin’”
“Tangled Up in Blue”
“The Levee’s Gonna Break”
“Simple Twist of Fate”
“Highway 61 Revisited”
“Workingman’s Blues #2”
“Thunder on the Mountain”
“Ballad of a Thin Man”
“Jolene”
“Like a Rolling Stone”

On the way back to my house, Chris mentioned how fun it was to dance at the Dylan show.  So, I thought that we needed to make one more stop on the way home.  Dub DeBrie would be playing at the C.I. in Tualatin, and maybe we could make the last set.  Walked in, and it was the last song before their break.  Chris again danced with wild abandon.  Great stuff!  It was cool to see other musicians, Gary Ferraro, Melody Guy, and Doug Rowell enjoying the music and the company of friends.  I love this town!

I tossed around the idea of returning to Edgefield for the second night of Mellencamp and Dylan, but ideas and reality didn’t match.  I called Amy, who had been in line since 9am (she’s HARD CORE!) and told her to give my tickets to someone else to enjoy the evening.  It was a weekend to remember, that’s for sure. 

It also made me incredibly grateful for so many things:  For a friend that I’ve known for 35 years who I’ve never had a fight with and who understands the rock and roll passion in spades.  For a career at my favorite station in the world and affords me the chance to experience so many incredible nights of music.  For co-workers and friends who are like-minded and so cool to hang with on a beautiful evening at Edgefield.  For being a medical miracle and healing well enough after Tuesday to make it a pleasant weekend.  For having a husband that just totally understands my need to rock out with my friends.  To have the blessing of incredible local musicians playing close when I wasn’t ready for the party to end!

Rock on!

Amy OUT!

Oh, and some guy just shouted that I look like Edie Falco which I think sounds kinda hot so I shout back hey thanks- got any pills? As I assume he is speaking of the Nurse Jackie Edie Falco and not the Carmela version. He said no, fresh out of pills. Bummer.

Amy OUT!

Round two john mellencamp and bob dylan begins tonight when doors open at 5pm.

Yeah, I know I just said that about Scorpions, and probably The Nuge too, but let me lay it out quickly: John Mellencamp made me cry, I bought a tshirt at a concert for the first time since 1989, and I am already planning my attack for the show tomorrow, which includes getting back to Edgefield tomorrow morning before 9am, packing brunch and munchies as I wait for doors to open at 5pm, most important in that munchies bag is champagne and beer, I am packing my book and a second battery for my blackberry so I last all day and night, my laptop, a blanket and some Advil. I can’t WAIT!

John Mellencamp is the quintessential grass roots middle America small town rock and roll boy, and I grew up listening to his hits, ala the Farm Aid/We Are The World late eighties anthems. He represents my childhood and later adolescent formative musical years as much as John Denver, Jefferson Airplane  and Kris Kristofferson. I love all his hits, big and small. And what I loved about tonight is that he kicked off his set with Little Pink Houses, right out of the gate, the big song that I love love love. But also that the new songs he did sound great and could easily be hits, were it 1989.

More after I get some sleep and catch the second show, but what I didn’t hear today and hope I might tomorrow is Hurts So Good and I Need a Lover- GREAT SONG! Can you believe he didn’t do Jack and Diane?  

As far as Dylan? Loved him.He was better than last year when I saw him at the coliseum. Can’t share any video of Dylan, his label doesn’t like that. It’s really fun getting a cease and desist from his attorneys.

I smell like campfire.

I am charging every gadget I own for tomorrow.

I will be camped out in the front of the line by 9am.

I will be front and center for the Sunday show.

I am probably not making any sense now so until tomorrow…

Ooooh, ooooh, he just started Paper and Fire! I’m so happy I could weep! I bet tomorrow’s set list is different than tonight’s. I’ll let you know!

And someone told me they added a third show on Monday but my guess is that person has no clue what they’re talkin about. If I’m wrong, by all means, drop a line!