Scrapbook Saturday – September 2023
Katie 
Trip to Hershey, 98*, Sweeney Todd, PEZ Factory and joining the Bananas KClub
September 2024
Andy Grammer Greater Than One Man Show
Thursday night, Andy Grammer took to the Ridgefield Playhouse stage for the second night in a row for his “Greater Than” one man show. The show was billed as an ‘intimate set of songs, storytelling and poetry’, I am not sure I put much thought into that before we went and wasn’t able to find a setlist from anyone else before either, so I went in not sure what to expect. When we entered the theater we were given a pen and a card. On the card were 3 prompts. Once I started reading I said ‘Oh no, what have we gotten ourselves into?!’ The first prompt was: Write the name of someone you deeply loved and who meant a lot to you who has passed away. Followed by Write an act of service you have done for someone else. And finally, Write the name of someone who has saved your life – physically, mentally or spiritually.
As the show began, Andy’s creative director came out and talked to us a bit about the cards and said we didn’t need to participate if we were not comfortable doing so and the more you write the better experience you will get out of it. I decided to opt out of participating. He also warned that there has no been a night of the show yet where he hadn’t cried.
Andy came out – and most of his talking to the audience about his life were actually a series of poems. The idea of the evening was that he had heard that if you did acts of kindness for others, in the name of your loved one who had passed, it is like sending them a gift to wherever they are. After his Mom passed he wasn’t sure what to do with himself and he ended up offering to write songs for others and was getting all these stories about people going in for surgery or in comas and he quickly would send them a song video and realized that this all could be bigger than him. He also had a few weird coincidence stories that were absolutely wild but it does make you think there may be some other force going on.
As he told his story, he also discussed what things were greater than others, for a bunch of objects that he had on the stage. Each of those items were also connected to one of his songs that he ended up singing for us.
He went through the cards – first the who saved my life and had the people come up to a phone and talk to him a bit about the person and why. For the acts of service, he said if you do it and record it to broadcast it, it loses its appeal, so to keep things anonymous he just quickly read through several of the cards. The one that didn’t remain anonymous? “I didn’t kill my daughter when she stole the BMW” That Dad proudly raised his hand.
At closer to the end of the show he had the people come up to discuss someone they loved who passed and asked them a series of questions that he wanted them to answer as if they were talking to their loved on. When they think of them, what they’d thank them for, etc. He also sort of explained the concept of the phones as part of the show because a man in Japan lost a loved one and set up a phone in his garden to call his loved one and have one sided conversations. A year later there was a tsunami, and people who lost loved ones would come to his garden to use his phone. Then the lights went dim and he moved the phone that was on the stage to the center and called his Mom and answered all the questions he had asked the audience to answer about her.
After the show we got to say hey to Andy and get hugs and photos! He is always so sweet, with his family there (we met his wife too!) We weren’t sure if he’d come out so we were very happy when he did!
Festival Preview: Soundside Music Festival Bridgeport CT
For 2024, the Sound on Sound Festival has rebranded as Soundside Music Festival. The lineup is pretty stacked, but unfortunately I won’t be making it this year. But I figured I’d preview some of the artists I have seen before. I was very happy to see that several of the more main acts each day will have an American Sign Language Interpreted set – if you remember last year I had some issues with figuring out how accessible they would be (although there still seems to be no accessible markings on this years map) I am happy that they are stepping up for those who may be hard of hearing and need the interpreter. (I also find them really fun to watch!)
Saturday September 28
Rijah
Madi Diaz
Lisa Loeb & Nine Stories
Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
Thee Sacred Souls
Grace Potter
Boyz II Men
Fleet Foxes
Goo Goo Dolls
Noah Kahan
Sunday September 29
Darren Kiely
Hurray for the Riff Raff
The War and Treaty
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors
Gregory Alan Isakov
Norah Jones
Teddy Swims
Bleachers
Foo Fighters
On Night 1, I have only seen Boyz II Men (6x) and Goo Goo Dolls (1x). Boyz II Men are always a lot of fun and put on a great show and have some great harmonies! For some reason I thought I’ve seen Goo Goo Dolls more than just once, but while they aren’t my favorite they put on a good show. Lisa Loeb, Grace Potter and Noah Kahan are all artists I’d have enjoyed checking out, Noah is a New England guy and his show at the Amp in Bridgeport last year seemed like a good time – most of the videos I saw the crowd was singing even louder than he was and were really into it. Since he’s headlining, I’d expect a lot of those fans to try and come out again.
Night 2 features one act I have seen before – friend of the blog – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. They just released Strangers No More Volume 2 quite recently and while I haven’t had a chance to take it all in yet, if it’s anything like Volume 1, I’m going to love it. For Sunday’s set I’d have liked to see Norah Jones, Teddy Swims and Foo Fighters. Bleachers were a last minute addition when Queens of the Stone Age needed to back out, and while I haven’t seen them specifically, I have seen Jack Antonoff in one of his previous bands, Steel Train, when they opened for Hanson back in ’09. A lot of people are complaining that they aren’t a good replacement, but I think many will be happy with the addition.
For those of you who may be fans of some of the other acts I am not familiar with – what can you tell me about Rijah, Madi Diaz, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Thee Sacred Souls, Fleet Foxes, Darren Kiely, Hurray for the Riff Raff, The War and Treaty, and Gregory Alan Isakov? Any songs of theirs I may know and not realize it? Who should be on my radar?
Anyone going to the festival – who are you most excited to see?
Battle of the Badges 3
Thursday I made the trek to Citi Field for the first time since 2020 to check out the Battle of the Badges, hosted by David Wright. When it was announced, I curiously looked up where the ADA seats were and was pleasantly surprised that they were right on the field and all tickets were only $20. When we arrived we found out we had access to the Delta club and free food, drinks, snacks, etc. Unfortunately, no ice cream.
When we got to our seats, David was near the 3rd base dugout doing promo. He then did some on field stuff and ended up coming right through the door next to us to leave the field, unfortunately paying more attention to the people behind us so all I was able to get was a selfie of half my face and his back.
The game was a lot of fun though, not a lot of people and the crowd, seemingly made up of mostly NYPD and FDNY members and their families, were really rowdy and into the trash talking. The FDNY scored first, NYPD later scored a run and for a while the game was tied, but then the FDNY ended up breaking things open and winning 5-1.
David spent some time in each of the dug outs during the game.
I hope that the event raised a lot of money for the FDNY Foundation and NYCPA Widows & Children’s Fund. It was nice to honor NYs Bravest and Finest.
Hanson at TN Valley Fair
One day I had decided I was going to really focus and get all of my work done early. And then I realized that a new Hanson show was announced at the TN Valley Fair in Knoxville, TN and then I realized that I had just spent $700+ on 6 front row seats before asking any of my friends if they were even interested. Turns out most of them were in, and plans commenced.
I flew in to Nashville Thursday afternoon, which when I got to the airport it had no gate listed, but eventually some staff members came and realized the mistake and the screens were corrected and the flight was otherwise uneventful. My friend picked me up at the airport, we got lunch and then went back to her place to decide what to do in the evening and opted to check out a nearby resort and ended up seeing a Halloween light show, having dinner and riding a boat ride that doubled as a silent disco. It was my first time doing a silent disco and it was a lot of fun and definitely something I’d consider doing again. Later in the evening the rest of our crew arrived, we made a rough plan for the next day and went to bed.
Friday we headed from Nashville to Knoxville with a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch and of course Buc-ees to load up on snacks. We then made our way to the fairgrounds, which apparently was built on nothing but hills and they had no accessible parking spots anyway. When we kept asking, every lot near where we wanted to be was for vendors. Finally we found a lot that said the giant concrete hill was “accessible” because it was concrete and not grass. I think they missed the part of ADA where the parking spots are supposed to be flat? We slowly made our way to the stage, finally finding a first aid golf cart that was willing to give me a ride the last bit of the way there. We ended up bumping into Taylor and chatting for a bit and getting a photo and then headed inside to our seats. Apparently none of the ushers/security there knew how to count… but after some drama turns out, we were right and knew better than they did what seats were sold.
Before the show we had made a mock setlist and we were pretty close, but they did end up throwing in a few surprises – Look at You, Can’t Stop and Hey that we weren’t expecting. The show was a lot of fun, the crowd had a ton of energy and all the ridiculousness we had to go through to get there was forgotten. After the show we waited over by the van, but it was straight up teeniebopper land with people screaming for ‘Zachary’ – when he came over he quickly did some photos and I was able to snag him for one – but he didn’t stick around for very long. I’m not sure if anyone else came out as they were closing the building we needed to exit through so we got told to leave – but we did manage to get someone to track down the first aid golf cart again and get us back to the car. I wanted to take a picture of how ridiculous the “accessible” parking was, but I had forgotten.
Sunday night I ended up returning the rental car, “stealing” a car with a staff member, getting dropped off at the terminal, grabbing a wheelchair and heading to the gate. But not before my Buc-ees snacks needed an extra inspection… Upon arrival at the gate I was told that the plane held 175 people but would only have 23 on board and that we’d all get our own row (and then some) and we had to make sure to spread out for weight and balances.
Hanson at The Big Dam Party
When I was doing some Hanson concert math, I realized that if I added in this one off show in Tulsa, my 300th show would be Zac’s birthday on tour, provided they didn’t add any other shows in between. Then they did end up adding a show in between and well, at that point I had already booked this trip and while I could have backed out – once you’ve given yourself a Hanson concert, can you really take it away from yourself?
I had hoped to fly Southwest both ways, but they didn’t have any flights to get me home so I did a Southwest/American split. I took an afternoon flight to Chicago, which had an hour and 20 minutes for a layover. Except no wheelchairs came and by the time they did show up, I had 30 minutes to get to the other gate and then I was left up at the top of the jet bridge and by the time a pusher actually came, she said ‘oh girl, you don’t have much time’, I mean… I know but is there anything I can do about it when I’m at the mercy of other people and there’s no one nearby to even flag down to call someone to help me? We got to the gate for the connecting flight to Tulsa with *9* minutes to spare and no chance to stop for food or the bathroom. For the most part, the flight was otherwise uneventful but we did have to wait for lightning to pass once we landed because the ground crew had taken cover. Uber wanted $50 to get me to the hotel and Lyft wanted only $20, so for the weekend my allegiance was with Lyft. I also ordered door dash to show up shortly after I thought I’d be checked in and settled and they didn’t bring half of my order so that was fun. (We have the worst luck with DoorDash/UberEats in Tulsa!)
Saturday morning I was pretty lazy, but ended up heading outside to hit up Ida Red for some Hanson merch and Antoinette’s for some snacks and to also see just how hot it was and how long I’d want to sit in it at the park before the show. I also ordered some lunch and timed it out perfectly to do it all in one trip. I ended up deciding to try and get to The Gathering Place around 4. I was hoping I could convince my Lyft driver to break the rules and drop me off in a closer parking lot than the designated drop off, and he agreed! As soon as we spotted the largest rubber duck he went into the lot and I told them I was just hopping out and no one had a problem with that. I found the stage and realized it was down a giant hill so I parked myself at the top because I wasn’t sure I could make it down on my own, and once I found out it might start raining I didn’t want to end up stuck down there if I had to run for cover.
At 5, Joleen Brown took the stage. She had won The Big Show Off that happened earlier this year and Zac Hanson was a judge. She did a 30 minute set and I think the weather was really messing with her – the sun was bright and shining right at the stage, but she powered through!
It then started drizzling and I debated if I should go find a tent or stay where I was, and once I committed to the poncho it started coming down a lot harder and I was mildly regretting my decisions but had to stick it out at that point. I also somehow didn’t put the poncho on right and my left leg was getting soaked but my right was fine? I think it was because I tried to hide my arms inside as well. Fortunately my new shorts that I was hoping would dry quickly, did. At 7 when it was still raining (and some thunder and lightning too) we were told that the show was going to still happen but would be delayed. The rain seemed to let up a little bit after 8 and the stage started to get set up for Hanson. I took my poncho off, but it ended up starting to rain again and the radar was showing until 11 so I kept it on – but was hoping I’d have enough breaks in the weather to get some photos! (Which I did, but haven’t gotten them off the camera yet) I also found out that having a cosmic brownie in the middle of a Hanson concert takes it to a whole other level, thanks to my friend Keena and her daughters who decided to share a snack with me.
The setlist was a bit of what I was expecting for a festival show with a couple of hometown covers thrown in – Livin’ on Tulsa Time and Never Been to Spain. I do think some of the set got cut short due to the delay, but I unfortunately haven’t seen a setlist from the stage to know what was missing. I thought that they might have finished with If Only – and was a bit surprised it was Get the Girl Back (unless it was a last minute change due to a wet stage?)
After the show I met up with my friends Jon and Adam, got to see the giant duck from the front and they walked me to the parking lot which was FOREVER away, so I am glad that I got my Lyft driver to break the rules! Jon ended up driving me back to the hotel because the spot to wait for ride share was very dark!
Sunday I woke up, ate the rest of my snacks, packed, and then grabbed a Lyft to the airport. As soon as I entered the airport, I got an alert that my flight was delayed by about 15 minutes. I had a decent layover in Charlotte, so I figured if it stayed that way, I should be fine. At the gate they told us it was a small plane and all roller bags would need to be tagged and if you had less than 30 minutes of a layover, they would check it to your final destination as waiting for the bags would hold them up and the bags would move to the plane much faster than the passengers would. The gate agent also thought we’d be able to make the 10 minutes the flight was late up in the air.
I was optimistic until we were getting ready to land and were told that Charlotte airport had instituted a ground stop and we were unable to land there and they wanted us to circle until 6:45pm. The captain said we didn’t have enough fuel to do that so we were going to circle for 10 minutes and see if we could land then or we would have to divert to Columbia, SC. After the 10 minutes we were told the ground stop was until 7:30pm and we’d need to divert to refuel. They had us stay on the plane for a bit, and told anyone if they got off they were terminating their trip and would have to find their own way back. A few people opted to try and get rental cars to get back to Charlotte. My 8pm flight to Hartford got pushed to 9:30 so I figured I’d still be ok and would wait it out. They then told us the ground stop was extended to 8:30pm and let us get off the plane. Of course my walker was nowhere to be found so they got me a wheelchair to get inside. I was able to see some fireworks while we waited. There were several other diverted planes, one of which got canceled until the next morning, but eventually we were told we would be boarding again. Of course, there was no one around to push the wheelchair so I had to steady myself with my suitcase and slowly make my way back out to the plane. It took a bit for us to finally take off, but in that time my flight got pushed to 10pm and then 11pm. I got to Charlotte around 10pm and by then, my flight was going to take off at midnight and get me back to CT at 2am. Most of the food places were starting to close, but my wheelchair pusher told me what ones were open 24 hours so I could get some dinner. (or lunch? I don’t even know)
The gate agent ended up giving me an upgrade to the extra leg room seats and I ended up having the row all to myself. The captain thought we’d land earlier than 2am and make up some time in the air, but even though he did get us on the ground at about 1:45am, the grounds crew was not ready for us so we had to wait. I got the valet shuttle to my car and got home around 3am – with a stop for McDonalds… for… dinner?
Fortunately I had Monday off due to the Labor Day holiday and was able to sleep in (I don’t think I actually fell asleep until around 5am) and not have to worry about doing much of anything. It’s always an adventure… and now I am trying to wrap this up and get it posted before I head out for my next trip…