THE BONE BASH - FORT WORTH, TEXAS

Liz and I flew out of Newark on Friday the 13th (yes, we have no fear) into DFW. Rob picked us up at the airport and off to the hotel in Ft. Worth. We all crashed at Bennigans for about 8 hours into Friday evening and a reunion was brewing.....Me and Liz, Rob and Laura, Stan, Tia & Brenda, Ralph & Wanda, Donna and Allen, JR and a new addition...Osman from Switzerland (yes, Switzerland)....he was here to see the funk and he was wondering what was to come during the next few days.....well, was he in for a treat!!! On Sat., the rest of the gang arrived....Joe, Luann and Carie, Shock, George C. and Joyce, John and Jana, and Bill P. On Saturday, we hit the streets (the very hot humid streets). The band and crew started to arrive....it was great to see Sunny again, and Dena.

In the afternoon, the bands started...this was the line up: Roadside Couch, Back in black, Broken Toyz, Blue Oyster Cult, then Grand Funk Railroad (at 9:15 PM). Liz and I and Ralph and Wanda waited until about 8 PM to go to the venue.....we worked our way up through the crowd to stage right, but there was too many people packed liked sardines, and my 4ft. 11-1/2 inch wife was engulfed with the mass.....so we retreated to the rear, about a block away, and watched the show from there. It was an interesting mix of people....young, old, bikers, assholes, cops, cops, and more cops........people were being carried out all night...some on stretchers, some in handcuffs, some physically....there were a few brawls.....there were seven rather large cops, with large letters on their jackets "POLICE GANG", walking around with a video camera taking footage of certain people.....need I say more. There were about 15,000 people or so in a 2-3 block area.

It was interesting watching the show from the back....the crowd reaction...which was great. People walking by mouthing the words to the songs. The set list was as before. It's my understanding Heartbreaker has been permanently dropped. The sound way in the back was a bit booming, but, the speaker rigs and mixing is geared to provide the best sound up front and in the center...not a block back.

Afterwards, about 40 of us, including the entire band and crew, commandeered a section in Bennigan's where we stayed until after 2 AM. Osman got to meet all the band, take pictures and chat with all of them....he was grinning from ear to ear....thanks to Rob and Laura for making this happen. On Sunday, it was time to say so long, and that's always hard......what can I say, this is like family.

Jimmy G. and Liz G.