For those that are observant, my last Summer Concert Series was Part 4. “Where did Parts 5 and 6 go?” you may be asking. Well, I embedded the ELO and Journey/Def Leppard concerts into my Labor Day weekend post, so I skipped the numbering and just went straight for lucky #7.

I get to post this because I had an opportunity once again to head up to Ridgefield, WA to attend a concert at the RV Inn Style Resorts Ampitheater. It really is a great venue for watching concerts because of its quick on/off from Hwy 5, the venue itself and all of its amenities, the food isn’t bad, prices are not astronomical (though I have gotten used to not paying sales tax in Oregon, so when in WA it still catches me off guard a little) and it gets a great set of bands coming through.

I was excited tonight not only because of the band playing, but also because this was going to be about the best seat I was going to have all Summer. Now that I have a feel for the various venues I will be making some adjustments for future concerts. In reality though all of the venues in the area have seats with good site lines, it just matters how far away from the stage you want to be. On this particular night I started laughing when one of the Security guards (pictured) started handing out ear plugs. The people and I around me were like, “Um, we’re in the third row for a reason” ….

The concert on this night had Yacht Rock Revue as the opener. They are one of those bands you might see on a cruise ship and apparently they have a following because there were a number of folks dressed up in sailor suits. It’s a kitchy shtick that was fun to pass the first 30 minutes while waiting for the iconic REO Speedwagon to start their set.

At 7pm one of the several Rock and Roll bands from my teenage years that I continue to love, REO Speedwagon, roared onto the stage and proceeded to jam for about the next 90 minutes. At 73 (next month), he’s still a rocker.

I found this article about their show a couple days prior at the Shoreline in the Bay Area, and it pretty much describes this night perfectly as well.

After about what seemed like 15-17 songs over about 90 minutes there was a 30-minute intermission, where for the first time I got to go relax in the Ilani VIP club. This week was during the hot spell we were oddly experiencing all over the West Coast, so the large fan with misters attached went well with my vodka tonics. Getting VIP access also affords a private air-conditioned bathroom, a close parking lot with a private entrance into the venue and a very quick exit after the concert, so if you have the chance, it’s totally worth it and their food is actually pretty good (Saving a shot of that for my next post).

I’ve never particularly been a fan of Train. It’s not that I don’t like them as I do like most of their songs, I just never knew it was Train that was singing the songs (I had the same experience with ELO). But on this night I was familiar with most of what they sang and even the ones I hadn’t heard I still liked them as I liked the energy with which they were sung.

At one point they had REO’s lead singer Kevin Cronin back onstage to sing the Steve Miller song “The Joker” (just like in the article, so must be a consistent thing). It’s pretty obvious that there is some real chemistry between the two bands, and they all appear to genuinely like each other (which can be quite rare amongst bands these days it appears and here).

During one of the first couple of songs people started throwing their cell phones up and Pat catches them and takes a selfie. You don’t see that too often, but the crowd interaction with Train was off the charts. These huge bouncy balls also get thrown out into the crowd and at 3:18 into the video I get smacked upside the head with it nearly knocking the camera out of my hand…. good times.

Overall, a super fun evening as Summer Concert season starts to wind down. Stay tuned for my next post where I come back to the Ampitheater the very next night to see Robert Cray and The Doobie Brothers. (It’s taking a little longer to get these posted because I’m trying to up my game a little and have been pre-processing the videos and embedding them into the post vs having multiple links out to Google Photos. Much better experience, but it takes hours to get it right) …