I'm Sailing Away

About ten minutes down the road from the Weirs Boardwalk is a giant outdoor concert stadium called Meadowbrook that tends to book a lot of 70s and 80s acts, like the Moody Blues, Pat Benatar, and Lenyrd Skynerd (I don’t really care whether I spelled that right). Anyway, more than ten years ago it was just a spot in the middle of a field where you could set up your own lawn chair and enjoy some surprisingly well-known country acts. I saw Johnny and June Carter Cash there in 1997, with my dad and Elizabeth Hatmaker. We sat on the lawn on a warm August night and sang “Ring of Fire” while the sun set. For “Rock Island Line” the production involved sound and light effects that made it seem as though a train were coming into the station, and June even took the stage for a while and told stories about her upbringing in between songs, like the Loretta Lynn character in Nashville, but less crazy. It was a great night. I even bought Scott a shirt from that concert, which he still has.

I have been back twice since, once when I bought my mom tickets to see Linda Ronstadt and another time with Scott when we gave both sets of parents tickets to see Prairie Home Companion a couple of years ago. Meadowbrook had become a concrete and steel behemoth, and I was really missing that “concert in the middle of farmland” feel, and also missing Johnny Cash.

Just for the heck of it, I looked up the concert schedule for this summer and was delighted to find that Styx is playing their "Don't Stop Rocking" Tour at Meadowbrook (that's really what they are calling it) with Reo Speedwagon and 38 Special the night of our wedding! Maybe that means that on the boat they'll have "The Styx Experience" play? I hope so! There would be something weird and cool about a tribute band playing 10 minutes away from the actual band, but I'm not all that sure Styx has a tribute band.

Not that I have really listened to Styx regularly since the age of 12, and I run screaming from the room when Scott blasts “Mr. Roboto,” but perhaps the somehow perfect use of it in the Freaks and Geeks pilot (both “Sailing” and “Renegade”) has endeared them to me. There’s also the story Scott has told me of going to Springfield, Illinois to visit the Quackenbushes when he experienced the “greatest Rock and Roll moment ever” when the band came on the stage, screeched “We are Malachai!” and jumped right into “Oh Mama/I’m in fear for my life/From the long arm of the law.” Only in Springfield!

After the wedding ship docks, at 10:00, we have reserved several booths at the back of Patrick’s Pub in Gilford. They have assured me that we can still order food if we’re hungry from the bar menu (their food is good). It’s a ten-minute drive from the Weirs normally, though Patrick’s is next door to Meadowbrook, so we may be fighting the Meadowbrook traffic coming the other way. I wonder if Styx will go to Patrick’s after the concert? Well, one thing is for sure: there will be a lot of Styx fans around, in case you are wondering what the people willing to shell out $80-$100 to see them look like.

So when you are on the Mount Washington on June 27, head up to the top deck at about 9 PM and listen really hard. You just might hear Styx, rocking out over the water.