contemplativeWe wanted to take the girls to see fireworks. But most venues on the third or fourth will be mobbed. One of the advantages of living in the suburbs is that we have lots of fests and and celebrations to choose from.
A quick look on the internet showed that Lisle's Eyes To The Skies fest was doing fireworks Friday evening as well as Saturday and Sunday. And American English, a Beatles cover band, was playing on the main stage.
Katie spent much of the trip out bouncing in her seat, chanting "fireworks..fireworks..fireworks".
We got there about 4:30 and wandered around a bit. Katie and Julie enjoyed the bouncy castle and inflatable pirate ship in the Kids' Area. We staked out our seats on the hillside above the main stage and Roper went to collect dinner. (A superb grilled porkchop sandwich from Annabelle's BBQ for me, chicken fingers and fries for the girls and a polish and fries for himself.)And a bag of kettle corn at katie's request.
We somehow missed the evening balloon assent, but enjoyed the music.
The 6;00 act was Piano man, a Billy Joel and Elton John cover, um, tribute band. Their Joel was better than their John, but they were pretty good. Roper missed about half as Katie wanted to go bounce again. (Julie stayed with me.)
Then American English took the stage. We had seen them before, but their set had been truncated by rain. This time they did the whole show. Starting out in black suits and beatle cuts they played the garage band hits like She Loves You and I Wanna Hold Your Hand. "Paul" took the stage alone with lovely acoustic Yesterday while the rest changed into Sgt. Pepper outfits. A bunch of the psychedelic songs followed. (I'm not fond of that era, nor was Katie.)
Another quick costume change brought the we're-about-to-break-up-and-want-to-do-o
They ended with a rousing Hey Jude, encouraging everyone to join in.
The girls danced and bounced about. ate kettle corn and climbed on mommy and daddy. I think they had fun.
The evening was capped with a short but satisfying fireworks display.
Julie kept repeating "That's a big one. I like fireworks!"
All in all, a lovely evening.
But it got me thinking.
The bands we listened to were made up of really good musicians. But they were playing somebody else's music. In somebody else's style.
Do they ever get sad that they aren't doing their own music?
I wonder.
GHR