If you know me, then you know that my favorite band in the world is... America. I have always loved their music ( except for that album I refer to as their unfortunate foray into the 80s disco-esque sound BLEH)
So when I got a chance to go and see the WORLD PREMIERE of a documentary, detailing their over 53 year career I jumped at it.
The plan was to meet up with my newly "adopted" sister, Sally and her sister , Lauren. Lauren is part of a photo that hangs on my living room wall in the background of the last photo we took of my MIL, Anna at an America concert in 2021. Anna passed away three days after the photo was taken. It is both a sweet and sad memory.
We met up at the Bear Flag Fish Company for dinner, drinks and lively conversation with a group of people from the Fan Base. What a treat to meet (finally) fellow fans Tom and Bonnie AND to see Mo again ( girl, it's been far too long!) The food and drink were good ( I may write a review on my Stuff you can Stomach blog) And soon we were heading down to the venue, the lovely Lido Theater. We stood at the very front of the waiting Queue for quite some time.
As cars pulled up to drop people off, excitement grew. Eventually the Beckley Family ( well Gerry and his sons Matt and Joe) got out of a car and they were greeted by the newly dubbed "Eclectics" from our front of the line position. Gerry graciously came over to talk to us ( he seemed really pleased to see Mo- aren't we all?) He took pictures with each of us. I spoke with Matt and told him I missed seeing him perform. He's doing more producing now and I am sad not to see him play anymore. He is truly one of the nice guys and I get it, but HEY MATT just a small gig somewhere??? lol.
We sat in the second row. It really is a nice theater, old time-y but not uncomfortably so. I paid FIVE DOLLARS for a small bag of M&Ms however so that was a bit excessive.
The documentary was wonderful. Interspersed with photos and footage from their 53 year lives on the road. I laughed and cried. Gerry said something about acquiring too many instruments and I nudged my bass-player husband, whose collection takes up a substantial corner of our living room. There are interviews with the group of fans Gerry calls "the Nine Fans" I cried when Mo said she can't get through "another Try" without getting emotional. I talked to her afterward about it. That song always makes ME cry, coming at a time when I was going trough something similar. We both wondered how Gerry had gotten in our heads- how he got that situation just right however he did it, thank you, Gerry. Knowing we are not alone helped me through that difficult time.
Music does that, doesn't it?
The guys and the team that put the documentary together did a Q&A that ran far longer than the venue intended. Most notable things that I will carry with me:
The woman who thanked them for being the soundtrack of her life and her bond with her mother who loved "You can do Magic" Gerry pointed out that since they were teens themselves, this music was also the soundtrack of their lives.
The eighteen year old young man sitting behind me, telling them that they were inspiring HIS dreams.
Like I said Music does that,
Too soon we were ushered out. Since this WAS a film festival, we were asked to vote on how well we liked the film. I snatched Mo's ballot out of her hand and tore the little corner off, marking it "excellent" I had already done the same for my ballot and Chris'.
I hope they win!
My only wish is that they had spent SOME time on some of the musicians that made up the rest of the band. I am hoping for .. oh.. 30 hours of bonus content in the DVD release.
There had BETTER be a DVD release!!!
Outside the theater, we met up with the very talented Campbell Family. I talked to Glynnis about her new book ( hurry up) and Brynna about her projects ( her book was 75% done but since it was about a pandemic- written before the mess, she is working on it) IF you haven't hear Brynna's music, well you SHOULD ( shameless plug )
https://www.brynnacampbell.com/product/1000-masks-2022-album-by-brynna-campbell/
She is super talented.
We kept them talking far too late and Rich had to be ready to fly out in the very early morning. I hope he got some sleep, he had a bit of a drive to get home.
The evening ended with an obligatory trip to Denny's ( just kidding it was really the only place open at midnight and the food at this one was better than some of them are)
We got home at 3:30. A.M. I'm STILL tired.
