Styx - NYS Fair by Auburnxc

What a difference a day can make.  I headed out to see Styx, an 8:00pm show, at 6:15.  I was on the 690 West on ramp by the Mall at 6:20.  I pulled into the State Fair parking lot at 7:45pm.  Now, I thought the lot I was in yesterday was bad.  Today’s spot was 6 sections further away on the same level.  With 15 minutes ’till show time, I literally broke into a jog to make it to Chevy Court.

Arrival was 7:55 … Of course, I looked like I was about to have a stroke and I arrived to see “the largest” crowd I have ever seen at Chevy Court.  There was nothing on the grass, let alone seats.  In fact, the crowd swelled on the sides from the court to the buildings.  The later is where I chose to be (other than a quick dash to the seating area for the encore).

Styx was awesome.  They came out with “Rockin’ in Paradise” and worked through a great collection of older tunes:  “Blue Collar Man”, “Lorelei”, “Suite Madame Blue”, “Lady” and “Crystal Ball”.  Original bassist Chuck Panozza joined in on “Fooling Yourself” and “Come Sail Away”, the original sounded great with the entire crowd adding vocals.  It also served as the closer.   Tommy Shaw came out and ripped out a great solo and closed the show with “Renegade”.  In the later part of the set, we got a little Damn Yankess, “Can You Take Me Higher”.  Had it not been for the overall volume of the show being too low, I would have rated this 9 out of 10.  However, the inability to hear the vocals was annoying me a little — pushes my score to 7.  |YNN Styx Video Clip|

Sand Sculpture - Day #2

I made a quick dash to the Horiculture building to get Shannon some maple candle and snapped a couple shots of the progress on the sand sculpture (center of progress) and the 911 memorial (just outside the building).

9/11 Memorial

The ride home was much worse than the ride in.  I was back to the car around 10:15 and arrived home at 11:45.  Just getting out the parking lot was a chore and a half.  Of course, a chosen few felt as though they didn’t need to wait in line and tried cutting across the grass to get out.  This resulted a huge backup.  At several points I was sure there were going to be fights breaking out. 

A great show, but ….. I have no intention of dealing with any more weekend traffic on Sunday.  Sorry Blues Traveler, I’ll have to catch you next time.  Besides, if I eat any more junk food, I’m going to burst.  I will most likely brave the crowds on Monday to check out 30 Seconds to Mars.

What a beautiful day to be outside enjoying the fair. I think the majority of people whom might be reading this blog have probably been to the New York State Fair at one point or another, so I’m just going to highlight a few points from the day.

This is the second year that I used the EZ-Pass for parking. I like the whole “not needing cash” to park concept. It speeds up the line and leaves me enough cash in my wallet to order an extra gyro. What I didn’t enjoy was where they were putting the EZ-Pass vehicles … Section 15 in the upper lot. At one point, I thought I was close enough to see my parents’ house from the Trailblazer.

Blue Oyster Cult - Richard P Mossotti

Time to make the fudge ...

After the show (a gyro, black raspberry ice cream, pizza and a sausage sandwhich) it was onto the Center of Progress building (nothing new to speak of there, although the picture above got me thinking about my wife) and the Arts & Horiculture building.  The potato line was out of control, so I skipped that.  Below is what was accomplished on the Beatle themed sand sculpture.

Sandsculpture - Day 2

I also stopped by the veterans memorial.  I know that my aunts had a brick placed her for my grandfather (Edward Czaja) but I wasn’t able to locate it.  I’ll have to try again on another visit.  The memorial is very nice and I was happy to see that it was respected and well cared for.  The picture you see below is one of several in the same area — too many people to get a good overall picture of the area.

Veteran's Memorial

It was back to Chevy Court for Kansas.  I was really impressed with the entire Kansas set.  They sounded the best I’ve heard them in years.  Again your hits, “Dust in the Wind”, “Hold On”, “Point of No Return”, etc.  I enjoyed “The Wall” and even though there was some sort of issue with the band, it sounded great to me.  I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone thinking about checking them out.

Kansas - Niko Tzetzis - 2010 NYSFair

Wishing I had brought something heavier to wear after dark, I made my way back to the outer limits of the parking lot.  A great day of weather, food and music.