June 30, 2002 Greeley, Colorado
On Sunday, we hit the Greeley stampede at noon, and checked out the venue. A large outdoor type of stadium with floor level seating and stadium seating. The stage was out back, on wheels, and all the riggings, including amps and instruments and overhead lights were on it. Kind of like the shuttle craft....the stage was later pulled into the stadium with a tractor.
We hooked up with Phil Catalano about 1 PM. It was great to see Phil again. DJ and Tim were busy on stage...we walked back and chatted with them for a while....the band was due in at 6 PM. It was so friggin' hot (about 100) that about 4 PM, we (Liz, me and Phil) decided to go back to the Best Western hotel in Greeley and literally cool off. By the way, when Liz and I checked in, the keys (electronic card) to our room did not work, so we got new keys...only problem when we went in our room, there was someone already in there having a smoke and watching TV.....OOPS....Liz went back to the front desk and in a somewhat cocky New Jersey way...asked if we could have a room that wasn't already occupied....so friggin' funny.....
We went back about 6:30 PM and the stage was in the stadium and Don, Bruce Tim and Max were having kind of a sound check, so we walked back on stage to listen....they were playing some song I never heard before...Candy Apple Girl or red...I can't remember....but it sounded very funky and cool.
After the "sound check" we hung out by the backstage trailers and met up with Scottie and Gina, who drove up from the Arkansas. There was a reporter interviewing everyone, so we got in on that action...it was for the local Greeley paper....anyway, on Monday, there was a front page article, continued on the back, about the Funk....in big BOLD letters..."BEHIND THE FUNK"...the cool thing is that we (Me and Liz, Phil, Scottie and Gina, Scott and others) were all mentioned in the article. The reporter, Gloria Reyolds, was very cool. The interesting thing is that Styx was the "headliner" but the front page article was about GFR, with Styx mentioned at the end...hey, the only Styx I'm interested in is Don Brewers.
By the way, the Funk was limited to one hour, so they dropped
Heartbreaker, Who Took Down The Stars, Sky High, One More River
and no encore. They finished with CTH and WAAB. The band sounded
great as usual and the 7000 fans in the arena loved it. There
was a Styx fan in front of us who was continually asking me questions
about the Funk....at the end of the show she said the band was
awesome, and that she always thought "Kansas" sang Closer to Home.....talk
about giving me atchada.
Jimmy G.
Listed below are some pics and Newspaper articles of the event:
June 28, 2002 Greeley Tribune Article
Anticipating The Ground Rumbling from the God of Thunder
Me Explaining to Gloria the Reporter why Grand Funk Rules
Scottie, Gina and Family...Me in Middle
GFR makes the Front Page of the Greeley Tribune - 07/01/02
Scan 1 of Newspaper Article - Greeley Tribune - 07/01/02
