Am I in HEAVEN or WHAT?

At first glance, it looked an awful lot like Boise. I can barely contain my excitement -- two hours later!

My husband and I made the VERY long trek to Boise, Idaho, today to attend the Journey/Heart concert at the "Taco Bell Arena" at Boise State University. We arrived in town, located the venue and what do you know? We drove by the parking lot for the venue and saw the buses AND Ross Valory! What a welcome to town!!!

Later that evening, we arrived at the venue an hour or so early, located our seats, purchased our concert T's and watched the auditorium fill up. Heart was the "opening" band and Ann & Nancy Wilson were great! They have such a musical talent; being the somewhat "feminist" that I am I love to see female bands actually make it in our society.

After their performance, we watched the Journey crew set up the stage. What a presence! This year they had a screen print that covered most of the stage. It was the Scarab from their "Revelation" album. Adam and I were sitting directly above the right side of the stage; our seats weren't that great in terms of watching the production straight on, but our seats allowed access to watch what was happening behind the scenes and to watch what was going on with the band. I was SO EXCITED when I saw Neal Schon walk through the doors wearing his guitar!

The band absolutely ROCKED last night! They were on FIRE! To be honest, I can't even name the order of the songs or all the songs that they performed, but I do know that Deen Castronovo (the drummer) sang "Wild on the Run" and "Mother, Father" (which happens to be my FAVORITE song during a live performance). Neal's magical fingers were exciting to watch -- he is the best! Ross Valory was a ham on stage, like he usually is. I didn't really get to see Jonathan Cain very often from our vantage point, but he did a great job. Arnel Pineda has a stage presence and energy that brings a lot of 'youthfulness' to the show. He did GREAT!

After the concert, Adam and I sat in our seats until most of the people left the Mezzanine (I didn't want to get caught in the stairs with hundreds of sweaty people.) By the time we made it outside, the buses were still in the parking lot so we went over with about 50 people to watch for the band members. After about 10 minutes, Deen Castronovo walked over to our section and started signing autographs and taking pictures. (He signed my "Revelation" album!) A few minutes after that, Ross Valory and Jonathan Cain (who also signed my album) came over to the audience. The best part for me, though?!? NEAL SCHON!!! He actually came over to sign autographs for the fans! There were so many people crowding that I missed out on getting his autograph but I did get to meet him! I was so thrilled -- I can't even find the words to express my excitement!

My thoughts on Neal: He seemed very nice and he was very gracious. He looked really good, too. I don't know what he has done to himself -- a face lift or chemical peel -- but he looked youthful and vibrant (for a 50-something man).

I was even impressed that Jonathan let Adam take a picture of us; last time we met band members he was with his family and didn't take time out for the fans so we were excited to meet him this time around.

I am so glad that we decided to buy tickets for this show. If we had gone to the concert the night before in Reno I don't think we would have had this great opportunity!

Rock on, Boise!!!
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