This week marks the five year anniversary of the coolest trip i ever took. So in the fall of 2004 a bunch of musiciams decided to do concerrts across the u.s.a The goal of the shows was to convince voters not to re elect George W Bush. The tour was called Vote For Change and musiciams such as John Mellencamp,Pearl Jam,Neil Young and others would be doing various shows. I noticed that Bruce Springsteen and R.E.M. and John Fogerty were teaming up for several shows including a stop in Cleveland. Now everyone knows I'm a huge Springsteen fan and i really like Fogerty and R.E.M as well. I jokingly said to Kath, "Cleveland isn't that far away we should go." To my surprise she said yes. I was floored. We both agreed this would be a once in a lifetime chance to see a show like this. So Kath found a descent hotel room and we drove to our destination. Even the trip was fun. It took about 5 hours, We stopped at a really cool all you can eat buffet in Erie that a friend of ours had raved about. It was so good. Ate a lot of pizza and desserts.
We arrived in Cleveland a couple of hours before the show and found the hotel room. It had a jacuzzi and everything! The jacuzzi was pretty sweet! We were so close to the auditorium we just walked over. Walked past some protesters with picket signs. Apparently not all Americans hated George Bush. Go figure. We found our seats. I really wasn't sure what to expect at the show. I knew there was gonna be a lot of support for John Kerry.
So the show started and out walked Bruce and Michael Stipe of R.E.M. They outlined what the show was going to be all about. THey introduced the opening band Bright Eyes. I had never heard of them at the time and was willing to give them a shot. Man they made my ears bleed. The lead singer screamed all of his lyrics. It was pretty bad. When they were done Bruce came out and announced that in addition to the issues of the night he was there because he had been a big fan of R.E.M. for years. With that R.E.M. came out and launched into The One I love. It was awesome. They did a lot of their hits like Losing My Religion and Imitation of Life. Near the end of the set Bruce came out to play lead guitar on Bad Day. Up next was the highlight of the night as far as i am concerned. Bruce dueted with Michael Stipe on the song Man in the Moon. Kath and i pretty much sat there with our mouths wide open. It was really an awesome moment. It sounded so beautiful as a duet.
Next up Bruce Springsteen and The E Street band took the stage. Bruce walked out with an electric guitar slung over his back while playing an acoustic guitar. We soon recognized he was playing an acoustic instrumental version of the star spangled banner. It was really evident he loved his country and was really pissed off at what George bush had done to run it into the ground. Kath teared up a little being american and all. That song went immediately into Born In THe U.S.A. He never let up for a minute and went right into Badlands followed by Lonesome Day and No Surrender. It was incredible. He played about 2 and a half hours and even had Michael Stipe sit in on Because the Night. John Fogerty came out in the middle of the set to play 4 songs. Now i should have mentioned that at the time Kath was pregnant with Diana and it was then we realized Diana wasn't going to become a John Fogerty fan.she kicked Kath all the way through his set and seriously ended when Bruce came back out. Kinda funny in a way. The night was capped off when all the performers of the night came out to sing "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" and an explosive closer of Patti Smith's "People Have the Power."
We left the concert on such a high and seriously if i was American i so would have voted for John Kerry. Alas as we all know Bush got a 2nd term.
The next day we stuck around Cleveland, After an amazing all you can eat breakfast, we headed to the Cleveland zoo. It was a really nice zoo. It seemed like it took forrever to get to a place that actually had some animals. The first animals we saw? Canadian geese! It made us laugh. Cleveland was pretty nice. If there had been more time i would have loved to have checked out the rock and roll hall of fame. On the way home we again stopped in erie and for the first only time in my life we got pumpkin pies from macdonalds! Anyhow it was an incredible trip. Thought i would bring it up to put me in a good mood. Hope everyone is doing fine. Talk to you all soon.
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