Cherry Pie Journal

Thursday, January 8, 2004
Guitar Center
Grand Opening
17135 W Bluemound Rd
(262) 797-6448
Brookfield, WI

Sound: Just Sound
Operated by Brian Ingwell
Assisted by John Wright
Stage Tech: Dan Olsen

SET 1:
You Give Love a Bad Name - Bon Jovi
Unskinny Bop - Poison
Lay It Down - Ratt
I Can't Explain - Who/Scorpions
Home Sweet Home - Motley Crue
Talk Dirty to Me - Poison
Working for the Weekend - Loverboy
Rock of Ages - Def Leppard
Jump - Van Halen
Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne

PHOTOS:

SET 2:
Turn Up the Radio - Autograph
I Can't Drive 55 - Sammy Hagar
Runaway - Bon Jovi
We're Not Gonna Take It - T. Sister
Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
Cult of Personality - Living Colour
Breaking the Chains - Dokken

BRRRRR!

The Event

Faces in
the Crowd

A Word from Josh:
You know, there are some things in life that are so obvious, it doesn't seem necessary to say them out loud -- such as "The sky is blue", "Don't put salt in your eyes" and "Hemlock is poison". Oh, and here's another one... "Having a band play outside in Wisconsin in January is not a good idea." In fact, allow me to go out on a limb for a moment and say that it is, in fact, a bad idea... very BAD idea! Actually, the show was in a small tent set up in the parking lot of the new Guitar Center store. This was their grand opening. There are over 120 Guitar Center stores nationwide, but this is the first one in Wisconsin. Anyway, with temperatures down around 20 degrees, you'd think that getting some heat in the tent would be a high priority, but... well, I think you know where I'm headed with this. Two propane heaters were set up with air hoses leading into the tent, but they were not working when we arrived. We set up all of our equipment, except for the guitars, in sub-freezing conditions. Finally, about an hour before showtime, the propane heaters were turned on, but they turned out to be terribly inadequate. With showtime approaching and a crowd gathering (apparently a tough Lambeau Field type of crowd) we had to take a stand and say that we would not bring out our guitars unless we got some more heat. Two tower heaters were brought in and that helped enough to get through a sound check. By this time things were running very late so we just decided to start our first set, still wearing the clothes, coats and hats that we had arrived in. It was the first time Cherry Pie ever played a gig in our street clothes. Normally a band that prides itself in flamboyant even silly 80s garb, for this show we looked like five normal guys -- only much sexier! :-P The tent was packed at this point and that helped with the temperature even more making the first set downright tolerable. As you might imagine, we were not in a good mood up until showtime, but something about that 80s rock can always put a smile on our faces, especially with the support of such a great crowd. In fact, the crowd really came through for us in another way when we played "Working for the Weekend". A technical problem caused John's microphone to stop working during the first verse, but the crowd filled in admirably, singing every word audibly and consistently over the rest of the band. It was pretty cool. After the first set, some Guitar Center guys in suits took the stage and gave away a ton of stuff to people in the crowd ranging from T-shirts & hats to CDs & videos to DVD players & TV sets. The stuff just kept coming. When we went on to start our second set we realized that the temperature on stage had fallen. We found out that local police had ordered the tower heaters be turned off because they posed a fire hazard. With our breath getting more visible with each song we knew that we didn't want to continue much longer. After the always crowd-pleasing "Wanted Dead or Alive" John picked out two of our more hard-hitting tunes to finish the show with. In sports terms, the gig was "called on account of cold". Still, everybody seemed pretty satisfied with the overall outcome. Calling it a night we quickly stashed our most sensitive equipment into our warm vehicles. After packing everything up, several of us warmed our innards with some Mexican food over at the nearby Pedro's, thus continuing the theme of the day... making the best of a bad situation. --Josh

VOICES FROM THE CROWD:
Were you at this show?
Would you like to comment on it?
jerrilynn tzakis:
"i thought you guys sounded great! it was fricken cold out there in that little tent, but you guys just put your smiles on and kept playing..lov ya!!! just missed the spandex!"

Teri:
"I love cherry pie hot,I love cherry pie cold! I want to give A big thank you for playing in this weather.Going to Pedro's after for drinks did help to warm a person or shall I say person's up! Till next time stay warm go Packers go!"

Jodi and Amber:
"You guys were awesome! we loved your show and thanks for putting our pictures on here!"

Dwight Snake:
"It was just like the Queen video for 'we will rock you'. Cold, snow, freezing musicians... the perfect setting for more ass-kicking rock. Cherry Pie - 110% !!"

Greg Godina:
"I liked the show, but I know that everybody would agree with me that the powers that be somehow dropped the ball here. They should have had provided some kind of heat source in the tent that the fire department would have approved. Maybe the concert should have been held inside the Guitar Center or inside an empty unoccupied storefront. Till I see your show again, KEEP ON ROCKING!!!!"

Jewelz:
"Had we known it was outside show...but we won't go there since Josh stated it perfectly....no more outside shows in WI in Jan!! But we were troopers and braved the cold to see you guys toes frozen and all!!"

Tom:
"I walked back to my car from our tent with feet so cold it hurt to walk on them! I had to walk flat footed instead of heal toe. But it was worth it, it was very different and I had a good time. Thanks Cherry Pie."

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