Roadie Blog: 2006-03-12

Queen + Paul Rodgers - Spectrum, Philadelphia

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I got invited to go see an evening with Queen + Paul Rodgers last night. Cab it out to the Spectrum with Jim, Brad, and Scott. We pickup our tickets and head inside to meet up with Brian May's tech. He's busy, so we wait at FOH, where Jim knows one of the Clair Bros. Audio guys. Eventually, Brian's guy comes out and we go backstage to check out the gear. Brian May's tone is kind of a 'Holy Grail' to us geetar players, so we are surprised to see a rather sparse rig, just three Vox AC30's, although custom built ones. We also get to see Brian's homemade guitar that has been with him his entire career. I see a few friends on the crew as well.

We make our way to our seats at house left (off stage right). They open with 'Tie Your Mother Down', as expected. There is no opening band so they play an almost two and a half hour set, mixing in Bad Company and Free songs. Paul Rodgers does an admirable job with Freddie's material, but really shines on his own stuff.

Take the subway back to the hotel and I'm back in the room at 11, in time to catch the replay of Sunday's Sopranos premiere.

Philly Vacation

More cancelled shows. But at least we stayed in the same city, Philadelphia. My wife flew in on Friday morning, we walked around the city most of the day taking in the famous South Street shopping. It was a record high 76 degrees and sunny. Went to dinner with a friend of Paige's and her family. Paige hadn't seen her in 19 years!!

Saturday was tourist day, we took the Phlash trolley down top the Old City. We probably could have walked there faster. Saw the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross House, and shopped in a few trendy stores. Had dinner at the Marathon Grill a few blocks away. Delicious!!

Sunday, it's rainy and we go out for Starbucks in the morning and end up walking around for a few hours shopping here and there. Sunday afternoon our bass tech Jerry and his wife pick us up and take us to their house in Delaware. We go out for a nice Italian dinner.

Monday it's a beautiful day again.. We decide to drive an hour to the Delaware shore (beach) where we walk around and have lunch. Later we hit the outlets for shopping and cook dinner at Jerry's before he runs us back to the hotel in Philly.

Tuesday we're up early and take the train out to the airport to catch Paige's flight home.