A to Z Challenge - 2020 - StyX

I'm using the letter of the day at the end of the word with StyX.  We've seen Styx twice, the first time in 2009 with REO Speedwagon at Shoreline.

We had relatively good seats, right of stage.  These concerts were scrapbooked a while ago so I don't have the before pictures.  I was using my old camera at that time too, so the quality isn't as good.

I see I did use some of the Rhapsody embellishments.  

The bottom picture is the confetti coming down.  I'd hate to clean the place after that!

The second time was a year later, this time with Foreigner, at Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord.  

Again, these were scrapbooked already.

It looks like I used one of my stencils for this one and some washi tape across the top to make it match the background paper on the next page.

I used the bubbles corner punch on the pictures, again to match the background paper.

Sometimes I get a shot of the screens behind the band to show what song they were singing.  This one is "Too Much Time on My Hands."

I had a watch embellishment so I used it here.  I think it adds a nice touch.

I think Styx was the headliner for both of these shows but in my opinion, both REO Speedwagon and Foreigner put on better shows.  Styx is good, but obviously not one of our top five if we've only seen them twice. 

I'm going to eXit now.  Two more days. 

April 2017 - #Atozchallenge - Quest for Q

Q is for "Quit Playing Games With My Heart" by the Backstreet Boys.

Of course my husband was not interested in seeing this group so my daughters and I took a road trip to Concord.  It was quite a warm day.  The car showed the temperature to be 103 degrees.    

Jesse McCartney was the opening act.  I had forgotten how many songs of his I liked.

Then came the Backstreet Boys.  I have always liked them better than NSYNC because I think their harmony is better.  They have a ton of energy on the stage and I love their choreographed dances.

I used another one of my templates on this page.

We had a great time and it was fun to share the concert with my girls.

Though the A to Z Challenge is officially over, I am still going to add my missing letters.


You can still head over to the A to Z Challenge page to see what other participants have come up with for this letter and read some of the reflection posts.  I know I am going to be revisiting to catch some posts I may have missed.  There are a lot of talented people out there!

A to Z Challenge - 2016

V is for Venue

We are very fortunate to live in an area with quite a few different venues at which to see our favorite performers.

A bit to the northeast of us is Concord Pavillion.  We have only gone to a few concerts there since we have to drive and it can take an hour or more to get there.  It was, however, the venue at which that first concert was when I won the tickets.  That story is here under R for Radio.  As is usual with venues these days, Sleep Train bought naming rights so they sometimes call it Sleep Train Arena.

Just across the San Francisco Bay is Oracle Arena, home of the Warriors basketball team.  We live close enough to the BART terminal so that we can hop on a BART train and leave the driving to them.  It is just a short walk from the station to the Arena and by doing that we don't have to pay for parking or deal with the stress of traffic crossing the bridge.  A most exciting thing happened there when we met Journey guitarist Ross Valory while we were seeing Bob Seger.  He was in the Club area and he very graciously came over and talked to us and took a few pictures with my husband and I.  He even gave me his autograph.  What a thrill.  We have tickets to see the Who there next month.  That is the start of our season.

We also live close to the train station and we can hop on the train and get to AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants.  We have seen the Giants many times and have been to concerts there to see Sir Paul McCartney and most recently ACDC.  We were on the field for that concert and my husband was able to grab a handful of the outfield dirt where his favorite Giant, Hunter Pence, plays!  We will be seeing the San Francisco Fest there later this year with Journey, Santana and the Doobie Brothers, reminiscent of the old Day on the Green type concerts.  

 

In Hunter Pence territory

To the south of us are three more venues.  The first is Shoreline Amphitheater.  We have seen quite a few concerts there.  It has a large canopy like a circus tent under which are most of the seats, but they also have a lawn area where you can sit and have a picnic.  I prefer the closer seats.  We saw Heart there one year and just as they started to sing the song Reign O're Me, a Who cover, it started to rain!  It was magical.  This year we are seeing Def Leppard and REO Speedwagon there.

Rain falling during Reign O're Me

Next is SAP Center, home of the San Jose Sharks hockey team.  We have seen lots of shows there as well.  We will be seeing Sting and Peter Gabriel there for the Rock, Paper Scissors tour.  We've never seen either of them so it should be great!

Last but certainly not least is the Mountain Winery in Saratoga.  We first went to the Winery in 2007 and the next year they did a remodel of the concert area.  Since then we have seen two or three shows a year there at least and last year it was four, giving us the "Loyalty Club" benefits this year.  We managed to get front row seats last year to see Pat Benatar and my husband was able to bump fists with Neil Giraldo.  That was a real neat experience for him.  I tried to take a picture but he was standing right in front of me.  This year we will be seeing them again along with shows by Boston, Foreigner and Peter Frampton.

Fist bump with Neil Giraldo

And those are just the bigger venues.  We are also close to San Francisco and have gone to Cobb's Comedy Club to see Ben Bailey (The Cash Cab guy) and Roseanne Barr; to the Curran Theater to see Jersey Boys; the Orpheum to see Rain, the Beatles tribute and the Warfield to see Ron White.  

As I said, we are very lucky to be able to have such a wide variety of venues so close at hand.  I definitely have my work cut out for me with scrapbooking all of these special events!  

How about you?  Have any special venues close to you or do you have to travel to see shows?  Only 4 more letters to go!!!  Visit the A to Z Challenge center to see how other members are doing!