| Collingswood Hoagie Wars Great Big Sea - April 13,2007 |
| Alan Doyle may have singlehandedly contributed to the riff between North Jersey and South Jersey. (We Pennsylvanians drop the ‘New’, just using ‘Jersey’ when we talk about the Garden State.) An innocent comment from a Newfoundlander set the beginnings of the Italian Hoagie War in motion (click the link to read about hoagies and Philly foods). For those gentle readers who don’t live in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware area, a hoagie is LIKE a sub sandwich, but NOT. The main difference being the kind of roll the sandwich is on, as well as some key ingredients. Can’t beat an Amoroso roll for hoagies! But more about that later.
Two weeks ago I had taken my lovely sister-in-law, Janet, to her very first concert. I couldn’t believe she’d never been to a show before. We went to see Béolach, a band from Cape Breton which does mostly instrumental Cape Breton music. Janet loved them and so I asked her to accompany me to see GBS in Collingswood. My loving hubby picked her up and dropped her off at my school so we could leave together with my other concert buddy, Terry Ann, a teacher at my school. I had lent her the Courage & Patience & Grit DVD and she was rarin’ to see them live. Janet had consented to go based on the photo of Alan on the Sea of No Cares CD. LOL! I did lend her the CD so she’d have some idea of what was coming. But I took great joy in knowing that neither one of them could truly imagine what they would see tonight. Columbine and Helen had traveled up to Boston on Wednesday after the Harrisburg show and had gone to the Boston show last night. They were picking Steph up in Connecticut and coming back down to Collingswood, where we would meet up. It took about 16 emails to get that established, too! Three o’clock finally arrived and we were able to leave school and get on the road. We dropped Terry Ann’s car off on City Line Avenue for easy access when she returned after the show. The neighborhood where my school is located would not have been a good place to leave the car. Right over the bridge and a few miles later we were saying hello to Nancy who had invited us over her house at the Harrisburg show. I hadn’t seen her in quite a while before the that show and it was a pleasure getting reacquainted. Her hubby Brian walked in shortly after we arrived with their little daughter, who was shy for all of 45 seconds and proceeded to tell us everything that happened at day care and on Easter. We had a lovely visit and left after an hour to meet the rest at the Grog and Grill. Nancy and Brian would come later to the venue. Helen, Columbine and Steph waited for us at the pub and we had a light supper. More GBS fans arrived and sat next to and behind us for a bit. |
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| Poor Steph was suffereing from a raging sinus infection & Columbine's Fuzzy Pirate drink must've fuzzied her face! Diane and Shannon also had Fuzzy Pirates. I don't know how my camera sensed this! |
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| I think Janet may have been a bit overwhelmed by the network of GBS fans there. That's Helen looking over Diane's shoulder, below. She's Fuzzy too, but Janet's not! We were soon joined by two more groups of GBS fans, one group to the rear of us and the other to the side. |
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| I had to leave early to get extra batteries for my camera, which I wasn’t sure they’d allow. Janet, Terry Ann and I eventually made it to the Scottish Rite Auditorium, which was not called by that name on the sign outside. Luckily, someone on the OKP (GBS’s message board) had warned us of the name change and we were prepared. I got parking real close thanks to my Handicapped Parking Tag and we went in to find what looked like the entire Collingswood police force inside the theatre. “We aren’t the stage rushing type,” I informed the officer at the second doorway.
“That’s what I thought! You look pretty tame,” he replied. “Go right in.” He didn’t even check for my camera! I was wearing it in full view around my neck. You can’t miss the honkin’ big thing! Even though the website said NO CAMERAS, I’d brought it anyway just in case. I was prepared to put it back in the car. We entered to find our seats were quite good! Helen had been worried we’d be too far back but we had the whole second row on Murray’s side of the stage taken up. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house it seemed to us. The seats were arranged in a semi-circular fashion with folding chairs set up inside the semi-circle on the floor. The rest of the seats were raised and there’d be no problem seeing the stage from anywhere in the theatre. The theatre was impressive from the inside. Geez! I remember we weren’t allowed to enter a Scottish Rite Temple when I was young. How times change! From my seat I caught sight of Cheryl and Howard and Lynda across the great divide. Nancy and Brian got FRONT ROW SEATS in the semi-circle-folding-chair section. Nice! Both Howard and I thought it was exceedingly funny that he had Stage Bob seats and I, Stage Murray – it’s usually the opposite! They began, as they have for the past tour, with Murray and Bob backlit with the blue light on a dark stage. I really like those irridescent drapes in the back. That’s my favorite backdrop for them. Well, that and the Great Big Fish on the Sea of No Cares Tour! This set is minimalist but nice. I can do without the fog though!! We had barely time to sit down when the lights dimmed and Murray and Bob strode out to the darkened stage to transport us to another dimension with their bass and whistle. And you thought it required time machines or rockets? Pshaw! |
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