The Genuine Article

Saturday was the perfect day for a concert in the park.  The crowd was a record breaker. Early reports are saying over 60,000 Upstaters had converged on the 2008 Tulip Festival in Washington Park for fair food, crafts and live entertainment just on Saturday.  In prior years it's been hot, muggy and impossible to escape the sun.  This year was certainly an exception.  Temperatures in the 60's and overcast skies ended up being the perfect combination for a comfortable afternoon.

Mr. Val and I parked on our usual, out-of-the-way side street.  We didn't arrive early enough to eat anything deep-fried pre-concert so we wandered around to find a good place to watch the show.  We wended our way around, through and over the mob of people and found ourselves standing right next to the stage.  Center stage along the gates was already packed, so we were happy to stand at the side.  We didn't have a great view of the front of the stage, but we got to watch Mark (bass) and Aaron (drums) really clearly which was just fine with us!

Too many people got up to read thank you's before they brought out the Spin Doctors.  A dude from Toyota bragged about planting trees and a nearby woman screamed "trees are good!!".  (I think I've just found a new blog title.)  The sad thing about a show like this is that the idiot who introduces them has no idea who they are, he's just a guy who probably donated a bunch of money to the festival.  He stupidly announces how they're working on a *new* album called Nice Talking to Me.  Silly rich man, that record is three years old.  We could see the docs hanging out back stage laughing about this.  Chris (singer) later announces that one of the songs he's about to sing is off their new record that they just released that morning.  Not sure how many in the crowd caught on, but being the snob that I am, I thought it was funny.  :-)

The good Doctors were finally brought out on stage at 4:30 so what the hell other song would they open with but What Time is It?  I had pen and paper but was having too much fun to write down all the song titles.  Later, Mr. Val and I tried to recreate a set list (that man has a killer memory), but we never could agree on the order.  They mostly did stuff off of Pocketful of Kryptonite and Nice Talking to Me.  I've been listening to Nice Talking to Me a lot lately so was really happy to hear my favorites from that: Sugar (best song on the album), Genuine (Eric's awesome rocker), Can't Kick the Habit (the one I can't get enough of) and Margarita (so damn catchy).  Of course they did their big hits, Jimmy Olsen's Blues, Little Miss Can't Be Wrong and Two Princes.  They also did Big Fat Funky Booty, How Could You Want Him and Off My Line.  The encore started off with Refrigerator Car and ended with Yo Mama's a Pajama (probably in honor of Mother's Day! Haha!).  Some

of this stuff was melded together in a long jam that started with Booty and ended with Genuine. That was really cool. I think that's probably a pretty close set list (again, not in order and only from memory).

The band was so *on*.  They played together with a level of comfort that can only come with maturity.  They were incredibly tight and in tune with each other in every sense of the word.  It was an electrifying show and just plain fun.  Aaron (drums), Mark (bass) and Eric (guitar) were phenomenal, they're really amazing musicians.  Chris (vocals) was the master who linked the audience and the band.  His pipes sounded terrific and he seemed to love playing with the crowd.

I really hope they are working on a new album, it would be great fun to see them on the road again, supporting new music.  They are really great on the stage, I'm so happy I finally had the opportunity to experience it firsthand.

Following the tunes we decided to enjoy fair food.  Sadly, many vendors were already shutting down for the day(!) so our choices were becoming limited by the minute.  We trudged through the crowd looking for something that wouldn't cause buttpee and after some arguing with Captain Indecision we opted to hit up our favorite pizza place on the way to the car.  (JG's on Lark, best pizza in Albany, don't miss it!)

After tons of walking and dancing this girl was a tired bear and went to bed very early on a Saturday night.  But lucky for you folks you get the 5 AM review!  :-)  Happy Sunday people.

You can see more of my pics by clicking here, but here are a few of my favorites: