Dateline, June 30, 2004

Full Moon on the horizon. PUMP and PYROMANIA rendezvous at Los Angeles International Airport 3:30 PM. Scheduled departure time, 5:35 PM. Is everyone here? Robin (unofficial photographer and trip recorder) Neal, Brian, Karim, Jon, Aaron and Bob. Dino and Shawn are on the way. Check-in, everyone has a ticket, bags are loaded.

Through Security we go. Bob makes it through and has a “rock star” sighting of Roger Taylor. Bob shakes hands and meets the very famous Queen drummer who appears to be flattered. Thunderbob is humbled to be in the presence of the legendary drummer. 4:30 PM cocktails in the airport terminal lounge, countdown to departure begins. Clock-watching begins. 4:45 PM moving from the airport lounge into the boarding area, flight number 984 beings boarding. 5:00 PM arriving in the nick of time, Shawn and Dino are finally at the airport.

After doing their best “OJ Simpson” run through the airport, they stop for a quick cocktail (gone in 60 seconds!). Final boarding call for flight 984, all band members board the aircraft headed for Summerfest 2004. Up, up and away into the clear blue sky. Wow, there are lots of people on this flight going to Summerfest in Wisconsin for various reasons, but now they’ve got two more, to see PUMP and PYROMANIA! The boys in the bands have made new friends who want to see them ROCK Milwaukee. Robin sits next to Dino and makes a prediction that Summerfest is going to be PUMP’s “Cal Jam”. For those of us who can remember, Cal Jam 1 & 2 were outdoor concert festivals back in the early days of Aerosmith. 11:00 PM fly by of Summerfest 2004 under the night sky. With a bright moon Lake Michigan is lit up along with the festival grounds. From the sky it looked like a bunch of twinkling stars. 12:30 AM hotel check-in and bedtime (for some of us, others went to see what was nearby). Which was a Dennys, where we experienced the sounds tastes and flavors of Milwaukee, just a little different than LA. Neal plays musical rooms but finally gets settled in for the night.

Dateline, July 01, 2004

3:30 PM – Transportation to Summerfest arrives. Gear is loaded, everyone is here, let’s roll! Wow, is that Lake Michigan? It’s not a lake, it looks as big as the pacific ocean! Blue, blue, blue. “Mario Andretti” behind the wheel of the shuttle gives his best taxi driver impression but gets all the gear and the guys in both bands safely to the Miller-Oasis backstage area. “No Quarter”, a Led Zeppelin cover band is onstage pounding out hit after hit. The mid-afternoon crowd is feeling good and dare I say, PUMPed! Aaron meets the guitar player during a set break and what? he is from L.A. and lives around the corner from Aaron! Small world is getting smaller. Time to eat and relax a little before show time.

5:30 PM – Act 1: PUMP starts gearing up for the show. The crowd is growing larger, anticipation is building. Down in the photo pit I’m checking the camera to make sure it’s ready to go. Sound check begins. The crowd hears Dino from backstage (aka Steven Tyler) checking his microphone, he gives his best Steven Tyler growl (used for lack of a better word). I chuckle a little to myself when his voice comes booming out of the speakers from backstage again saying hello to the crowd. Within earshot I could hear "that sounds exactly like Steven" and I hear girls behind me giggling co-mingled with cheers from the crowd. I could feel the electricity building from where I was standing. I can't imagine what anyone else was feeling on stage but down in front, the anticipation was incredible. Yippee, Laila arrives (Robin’s friend who lives in Milwaukee).

6:30 PM as the sun begins to set, PUMP takes control of their audience and whips them into a fist pumping, girl screaming, head-banging frenzy. From the opening notes to the closing of the set, these boys could do no wrong. Simply put, the crowd loved them. The set was a good mix of both older hits and newer ones. The crowd came to be entertained and entertained they were. Neal and Karim let their guitar’s do the talkin’ through their blistering solos and to John’s thumping bass rhythms (thumped so hard he broke a string) to Shawn’s hard hitting beats they pounded out hit after hit. It was Dino, however that pulled out all the stops. Dino commanded the audience and had them eating out of the palm of his hand from his onstage invocation of Steven Tyler. He teased them with his best Steven Tyler onstage moves. He pleased them singing an a cappella version and crowd sing-a-long of “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” and give them a performance of a lifetime, even dancing on stage with a lucky local female celebrating her birthday. It was a dance she’ll never forget and for the record, neither will I, wink-wink. After two hours of PUMP the boys took their bow and were met with a standing ovation from the very appreciative Milwaukee crowd. (8,000 to 10,000 people) PUMP is greeted with fans who want autographs and pictures after the set.

8:30 PM PUMP leaves the stage to cheers and applause and a PUMPED up crowd for Act 2 - PYROMANIA. Night falls, PUMP gear out, PYROMANIA gear in. That is how it started, and this is how it ended:

9:45 PM PYROMANIA is ready to go. Robin is down in the photo pit checking the camera making sure everything is right. Eager fans wait patiently. Tension and anticipation hit a feverish pitch. Someone yells out “Steel Dragon” (for those of you saw the movie “Rock Star” you know why). Robin laughs and takes a picture of the guy. The crowd swells to standing room only (a capacity crowd). Robin stands on her tiptoes to see if she can see the back of the Miller-Oasis pavilion and well, she can’t! All she sees is a sea of people. People everywhere. She thinks to herself (has PYROMANIA seen all these people here?).

10:00 PM With the full moon behind them, the opening sound byte from “Dirty Harry” pours out through the P.A. speakers on each side of the stage, PYROMANIA comes out with a bang! From “Rock-Rock” to “Rock of Ages” – PYROMANIA grabbed their Milwaukee audience by the balls and didn’t let go until the last note was played on the encore “Wasted”. The crowd was on its feet from beginning to end. Singing along with all their favorites the sound of applause and cheers after each Def Leppard tune was performed grew louder. Brian and with Neal once again on guitar ripped through the set list with their crunchy guitar sounds and solo’s and well what can I say about Dino playing on bass guitar? I’ll let the photos tell the story but for a quick word, Dino stepped right in to fill in as “Rick Savage” as if he never stepped out of PYROMANIA. By the time, Aaron kicked everyone off and built the crowd up for “Pour Some Sugar On Me” before the opening lyrics came out of the bands mouth the crowd was buzzing. All PYROMANIA and I could hear at the end of the song was a deafening roar.

What can I say about Bob, (aka Thunderbob) that hasn’t all ready been said? He is the driving force that thunders the PYROMANIA sound into what it is. With thousands of screaming Def Leppard fans cheering on PYROMANIA, I just stood there watching everyone up on their seats, jumping up and down, fists pumping in their air, SCREAMING for more. Some little girls, some big girls, some small boys some bad boys, one blind guy down in front, banging his walking stick against the rail. The guys in the sound and lighting tent just rockin' out as if they were watching Def Leppard... oh my god. It was just in a word, incredible.

11:45 PM PYROMANIA takes their bow to a thunderous standing only, capacity crowd of what the stage manager says was (8,000 – 10,000 people).

12:00 AM – July 02, 2004 - PYROMANIA meets and greets with fans three rows deep, for autographs and photo-ops.

1:00 AM After show, PUMP and PYROMANIA pack-up their gear and wait for shuttle transportation back to their hotel. Still in a little bit of shock at the entire event a happy, a little tired and hungry bunch of guys from L.A. and Orange County head back to their hotel and over to the nearest eatery for a late night, celebratory meal.

2:30 AM After show meal at Denny’s. Ooops, the waitress tries to avoid a collision with a patron and dumps the entire tray in her hands to the floor. Luckily no one is hurt. While some of the guys wait for their meals to be prepared again, the waitress delivers the other tray. All Shawn ordered was a hot fudge sundae and he waited for almost an hour to get it (ya have to laugh!) Woo-Hoo a discount on the check.

3:30 AM – Sleep time.

12:30 PM – Robin and Bob go to the Harley-Davidson factory where friend Laila works for a tour. Very cool!

3:30 PM – Shuttle transportation back to airport. Everyone is here? YES! Let’s roll.

4:00 PM – late lunch in airport terminal. Recap Summerfest 2004.

5:45 PM - 6:05 PM - boarding and departure of flight 985 to Los Angeles International Airport. Engines on the runway have a hard time turning over, echoes of “the gerbil in the wheel is having a hard time” from Aaron to “I think I can, I think I can” from John break the tension with laughter. Up, Up and away over Lake Michigan and Summerfest 2004. Photos from the airplane are taken of the Miller-Oasis stage from an aerial view.

7:00 PM – Dino wakes up from a quick nap and rings for the coach Stewardess. Robin rings it again when she doesn’t answer the call. The first-class stewardess comes to Dino’s rescue, where he orders his dinner and beverage of choice. She brings it back within minutes and asks Robin, so what’s the deal? why does he have on (pointing to Bob) a PYROMANIA T-Shirt and why does he have (pointing to Aaron) have a Hysteria CD, are they in a band or something? Robin says yes, and then the guys take over. Miss Stewardess tell us to hold on, she’ll be right back and comes back with photos of her in her younger days with members of Def Leppard including the late Steve Clark and Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, having been the one-time girlfriend of Phil Collen (back in the day). After introductions are made all around, story sharing ensued between the boys in the bands and her of her “glory days”. Information is exchanged and at the end of flight, she lets her hair down and photos are taken with both PUMP and PYROMANIA. I think we’ll be seeing Lupe again, real soon.

8:11 PM – Good-Bye’s all around.

How do I end this trip diary of sorts? How about if I say that 9 musician’s will probably never be the same after this experience. The trip started out by a close encounter with Roger Taylor followed by a musician’s dream coming true playing to capacity crowds, having fans come away with their new tribute band hero’s autographs, photos and anything else they could get their hands on to ending it by seeing 20 year old candid photos of members of Def Leppard and Steven Tyler from an airline stewardess, who holds these photos close in her possession after all these years and flights that take her all around the United States.

It was an incredible experience that none of us will ever forget.

My personal thanks to Neal for without you none of us would have been there. To all the guys in the band – getting to know you all so much better was just peachy (it’s just fluff!)

And one more thing, if I’ve jumped from first person into third person when writing this diary or if my english and grammar are off or if I repeat myself– it’s because I’m tired today as I write. I was so tired when I got off the airplane last night that I said to Shawn “you know your in L.A. when you see the Capitol Records building (thanks Shawn for telling me it was the Control Tower) and of course my close encounter in the airport men’s room that I walked right into and quickly right out of! My apologies to the man that I walked in on – egads!

Robin, PUMP & PYROMANIA’s unofficial Summerfest Photographer
(and Thunderbob’s #1 Fan)