What a day! It all started around 9am with a house full of Cyberfunkers. We were blessed with the company of John and Deb, JR and Pam, Dick Drott and Lotta, and Andy Heglas who were all getting pumped for the Lansing show. We had a huge breakfast. Thanks John for the excellent French toast! What this man can do with a little vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon, whew! It sure was a pleasure to get to know Dick and Lotta a little better. Such sweet people! Dick was pretty excited about the show and hoping that the third time would be the charm and there would be no cancellation. Luckily for all of us, he got his wish.

After eating as much as possible of fresh fruit, grilled sausage links and of course French toast, we headed for Lansing on a quest to find Tom Kelly's house. Sure I had a map and detailed email directions...at work on my desk (DOH!). So we cruised the general vicinity until we found a place with Red, White and Blue balloons on the mailbox and a funker standing in the driveway. Yep, it was Tom. JR, Pam, Dick and Lotta headed for the venue while we were "seeing the sites" around Tom's house, so Andy, Nancy, John, Deb and I hung out with Tom. He had the classic rock station on (WMMQ 94.9) who just happened to have a live feed from the concert grounds. They did an excellent promo, talking about Max's voice and the energy these guys were putting into the sound check, and you could hear them practicing in the background. They mentioned all 5 of the members, so anyone in the area who listens to this station knew the score ahead of time.

Shortly after the promo, 2 more cyberfunkers arrived: Steve and Kim Antkowiak from Pittsburgh. They were pretty excited to see GFR again after having seen them in Cleveland earlier this Spring. It sure is nice to meet new friends and funk family members and I'm always pleasantly surprised that they are all such nice people. Time passed and it was time to head downtown. Tom's neighbor Buzz joined us as we took two vehicles towards the venue. A big THANK YOU goes out to Bro Kelly for opening his house and yard to a bunch of strangers and giving us some much needed shade to sit in and talk the Funk. Oh yeah and thanks for scouting out that great parking spot (even if it did take us a couple of times around the block to get there (but I won't mention that, ok?)).

Once inside the "park" which was really a couple of city blocks on each side of the Grand River cordoned off, we needed food. On a tip from Tom, we had some tasty chicken rollups that were delicious but I would suggest a whole can of Altoids next time to counter the garlic. Wow! I didn't feel good about talking face to face to anyone that night. ;-0 We set up some chairs about 30 feet from the stage on the grass and took off to investigate the park. It was really a nice place with all kinds of things set up for kids like a climbing wall, those inflatable houses that you jump up and down in (which they wouldn't let us in btw!), jousting with inflatable thingamajigs, a race car oval track with remote cars which we watched for a while. There were multiple stages in the park with Tejano (?) music at one, country music at another and of course rock and roll at the main one.

The opening act was The Fabulous Thunderbirds. These guys can jam! The guitarist, SRV's brother (I think) was fun to watch as his facial expressions changed with every chord. Of course they played the two crowd faves, "Wrap it Up" and "Tuff Enuff", a couple of great songs, imho. During the T-birds, we were blessed with "All Access" passes, so we ended up back stage milling about and watching them from the back. The band was roaming about watching them perform, talking to family and friends. It's would be interesting to know what goes on inside their heads as they prepare for a show. They seem pretty calm for the energy they are about to put forth (and receive this night). The T-birds finish and we give them a round of applause as they exit the stage. DJ and his crew go about doing the wonders they do to prepare the stage for another unbelievable concert...

More to come...

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DJ had finished perfecting the stage. The familiar intro starts and chills run down the spine. The crowd is on their feet, all 15000 of them. I don't know what happened to all the chairs they were sitting on during the T-Birds, but they were gone.

Grand Funk Railroad was on! I know Ralph already said this but it bears repeating, every time you see them, they are better than the last (and they kicked my a$$ the last time!).

Mel made sounds come out of his bass that I hadn't heard or felt before. (Thanks Mel and Tim, the sound guy). I was told that Mel was a little under the weather...good thing for us, cause had he been at 100%, downtown Lansing may have collapsed!

Bruce was definitely feeding off the crowd. Every time he had a lead, hands went up into the air cheering him on. He was surely a crowd favorite. The Star Spangled Banner waved brightly under Bruce's fingers. He was crankin' and ILO was unbelievable. I'm not sure but I think he may be out to show people, "Hey you, I'm Bruce Kulick and I'm gonna kick your butt with my guitar!" He's adding his own touch to these songs and let me tell you, IT'S A GOOD THING!

Max was styling in his headband for the second half of the show. His voice was terrific and his stage presence just continues to shine. I love Heartbreaker with Max and Bruce sharing some guitar licks. This may be my favorite song right now. I especially love the way the song "ends", then they kick it into 3rd gear! The crowd just goes nuts. It's great!

Tim was great on keys, bringing new life to I'm Your Captain and Shinin' On. Every song sounded terrific and fresh. He is such a great addition to this band!

What can I say about Don, he was AWESOME! The crowd just got off during the solo, which runs right into Drum Thing. I sure wish they could record this but it really needs to be a performance piece (sounds like a DVD to me). When I saw this piece in Traverse, I was hooked and they continue to build upon it and Max keeps it fresh by adding "location specific" lyrics which are always crowd pleasers.

Sky High was a hit. I don't think I can do justice in trying to describe this song, so all I can say is go hear it for yourself. For only practicing this live, it's awesome. If they can find time to nail it down in a studio, WATCH OUT!

This had to be the best crowd I've been a part of yet. They knew every song and wanted more. I was impressed with the amount of GFR shirts I saw in the crowd. I must say, the encore was a big hit. Max was especially entertaining here when they stop abruptly and he and Don look at each other like, "What do you think? Should we give them some more?". Then Max holds his hand to his ear trying to hear the audience's response. We just about knocked him over at this point. You could tell they all were feeding off this crowd. This was GFR at it's best. I don't know how they can ever perform to this level again, but I would suggest you go see them just in case they do!

Thank you to JR for your efforts in getting us passes and especially to Dena and GFR for allowing us entry into your backstage life and giving us the ability to roam free and promote GFR at every step. We love you guys/gals. Hope to see/hear you in Louisville!

Craig good Clingan, good playin'

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I wanted to mention a couple of other things that I had left off from my review:

They had a nice big video screen off to Bruce's left (is that stage left or right? ;-( ) . There were a couple of cameramen roaming the stage so there were lots of close-ups on the screen. It was fun to see Bruce's fingers work. In fact they had close-ups of all the members. It was a nice added bonus. I tried some photos from the screen but the resolution is weird, but I think I still posted a couple of them.

Another observation...during one of the songs (ILO I think), Max takes a minute and introduces Bruce, Don, Tim and finally Mel. Previously, they had left it at that (oops). Saturday, Don introduced Max and he definitely received a well-deserved rousing ovation. He's giving it his all out there and the people know it. I had mentioned earlier to some CyberFunkers that they had been missing Max's introduction, so maybe it got to the right people's ears. Who knows?

Craig good Clingan, good playin'