A Gleeful Keith in Cleveland

I hung around downtown Columbus until I thought the morning rush hour would be over, then moseyed towards Cleveland, stopping here and there. My Cleveland Hotel was an unusual Holiday Inn Express housed in a picturesque old bank downtown building, just a block away from Cleveland’s architecturally famous “Arcade”. Unfortunately the heat wave had Cleveland feeling like a humid oven, so I wasn’t tempted by the outdoor seating of the many restaurants on the nearby pedestrian mall.

I decided to try my luck again at another of Samsung/A,T & T’s contests at a local store the day of the show. Well, it wasn’t too local - it was way out in the burbs. I drove around a good part of Cleveland and its surrounding communities during the day and I’d have to say that the Cleveland metro area has THE worst roads of all the many cities I have visited!! Even the interstates running through town often felt like washboards! I fear that Cleveland may be going the way of downtown Detroit...

When I arrived at the A,T & T store there was a bigger crowd than the previous 2 contests I had attended (25-30 rather than 8-10). Most were sitting on the floor in a corner of the store while I wandered and looked at the various phones. At 2:00 a cab pulled up and out jumped one of Keith’s male staffers. It was at that point that one gal in the crowd said pointedly to me “You know there is a line here.” No - I didn’t realize there was a line rather than a mass of fans (I should have known that but it wasn’t obvious) - guess I shouldn’t have shopped around the store! So I joined the tail end of the mass that she pointed to. The staffer just kind of went down the line, handing out envelopes, so it looked like the end of the line would definitely be out of luck. At least one of the envelopes containing BSE passes seemed randomly distributed to a gal not far from me. The guy asked her if she was alone (and she was) - I immediately piped up that I was alone as well, in case he wanted to make us a pair, But she said she knew someone who would use the other pass. (The other BSE passes I think may have gone to the first person in line). At this contest the staffer was clever enough to ask “ If any of you who won tickets don’t actually need them, would you please give them back.” And many who had gotten envelopes did just that - and he re-distributed these envelopes to folks further down the line - including an envelope for me. So I actually won my third pair of tickets from Samsung!! - but immediately returned them to him, saying I had only been there for the chance to win a BSE and didn't need tickets.

My face must have stuck in his mind because a few minutes later when I resignedly went out to my car, he came after me and asked “Are you the person who won a BSE?” I said “Sadly no.” As he turned back to the store to find the correct person, I called out one last question “Do you have any more of those magic BSE letters?” “Sadly no” he said. “Sorry.”

So I didn’t win a BSE but I did ‘win’ with my lunch choice. During my travels I have been using the website and book called “Roadfood” to find interesting places to eat. For Cleveland one of the spots they suggested was Slyman’s for corned beef sandwichs. Growing up in a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago I developed quite a fondness for a good corned beef sandwich on Jewish rye with new pickles. When I arrived there I was surprised to see about 8 grown men literally running to the Slyman’s door. “What in the heck is going on?” I thought. It turns out that Slyman’s closes after lunch and all these guys were dreading the idea that they might miss out on their corned beef sandwich! I made it into the establishment just in the nick of time - they locked the door after me so no more people could enter and made me take my sandwich to go, rather than eating it there. But it was definitely the biggest, leanest corned beef sandwich I have ever had - nicely wrapped with an extra slice of rye. Why? Because the sandwich is so big that one can easily take out some of the corned beef and make a whole extra bulging half a sandwich and still have trouble getting your mouth around the original sandwich! (I saved a good part of my sandwich for after the concert!)

That evening I walked over to the arena trying not to sweat in the steamy weather : ). It is always a hot time at the concerts (for more than 1 reason!), but no sense working up a sweat early!

The Put You in a Song opening has changed! Keith no longer sings the mysterious sounding solo a cappella line before the band breaks into the full song. In Cleveland all the guys (except Chris of course) lined up on the front of the stage and immediately broke into the guitar intro to the rollicking PYIAS opening number. After that Keith went straight over to the right side platform for You’re Gonna Fly (no I Told You So tonight). There was a bit of right side drama: although I was in the opposite risers I noticed right away that Keith almost looked like he was going to jump off that platform into the audience! I thought to myself “Wow - is he going to sing this song from the risers like You Look Good in My Shirt??” But no, the reason he was sorely tempted to leave his platform was because he was quite upset with the security guard that was preventing the fans in the right risers from running down the steps to the foot of the platform. He shouted 2 loud “No!”’s at the security guy, but wasn’t catching his attention, so then Keith grabbed his microphone stand by its base and extended it out to “tap” the security guy on the back, yelling “Let them through brother!” All this was happening while he and the band were trying to continue to playing the song. When Keith was yelling at security, Brian scrambled to fill in the line of lyrics that Keith was not singing.

What Keith does so his fans have fun!

After Only You Can Love Me This Way, when Keith began his first hellos with a “Sounds mighty good tonight Cleveland!” and “Man, its good to be back again!” He commented that 14 years ago they played in Cleveland at Wilbert’s. “A short 14 years later and here we are! Do you remember Wilbert’s Jerry? Crazy, awesome!” He went on to tell the audience that it was their night and all about them, he acknowledged the previous interaction with “Well I think we’ve gotten all the security problems solved now. Its not rocket science - just let these people go where they want to go and have a good time!”

When Keith strolled out strumming his acoustic guitar before Silly Love Song, he improvised a bit of song:

“ Hey hey - feels good up here tonight!

Just something about playing in Cleveland

I believe!”

and then went into his little McCartney cover and Making Memories.

Tonight I had a great seat up front in line with Keith's microphone, so had to rely on the big screen to see the small stage songs. Here is a bit of You'll Think of Me on the big screen.

Sometime during Keith’s return from the small stage he received a rose from a fan and he climbed back on the mainstage with that rose clenched in his teeth : )

The guitar solos were as hot as the Cleveland weather. Here is Til Summer Comes Around. and Stupid Boy.

During the Kiss a Girl Singoff Keith once again got an ‘uninvited’ volunteer - the blond girl simply climbed up on stage behind the guy. I think Keith already had his eye on a tiny little girl, so he brought her up as a 4th contestant. She actually had a little giftbag with her for Keith. She of course was the darling of the night, winning the thunderous applause of the audience.

For the encore Keith donned a Cleveland jersey for Tonight I Wanna Cry and looked so cute. How does he manage to look so beautifully boyish after a stenuous and hot night of playing?

Postscript: O'Hare Airport in Chicago and the airline nearly did me in again! My flight home (Cleveland-Philadelphia-Chicago-Iowa) (bet you didn't know Philadelphia was in between Cleveland and Chicago!!) I arrived in Chicago late because the airport essentially shut down because of a massive thunderstorm. My Iowa flight was canceled for the same reason and I was told I would have to stay in Chicago until THE NEXT NIGHT before they could get me on a flight, or maybe 3:30 the next day on stand-by. Oh no!! I didn't accept their verdict however. I went to the gate and added my name to the standby list for that evening (#38 on the list!) and sat there commisurating with other delayed travelers. I don't know how or why but, when they were letting a few standbys join the flight, somehow they called my name fifth (not 38th). "BINGO!!!" I shouted and boarded the plane, getting home just several hours late instead of a whole day later.