Night Ranger in Hanover Park, IL on September 2nd, 2000
and in Rockford, IL on September 3rd, 2000

By Mike O'Neill



I attended both the Hanover Park show on Saturday, 9/2 and the Rockford show on Sunday, 9/3. Rather than get into extensive reviews of each show, I'll stick to the basics:

Hanover Park - Saturday
- I took my 13 year-old son to his second rock concert...his first show was Firehouse earlier this summer.
- Absolutely beautiful weather!!!
- No cover charge...great as long as the band got fairly compensated!
- The band rocked...what's new?!
- The audienced rocked...something to think about..the audience is half of the show!!!
- Jeff seemed to have an overstock of pics as he was flicking them into the audience over and over and again!!!
- A jerk overpowered my 13 year-old son for a Brad pic in a struggle on the ground...and I really do think that Brad was trying to toss it to my son...oh well, maybe next time?!
- A very enjoyable evening!!!

Rockford - Sunday, 9/3
- I went solo
- Nice weather
- $12.00 cover charge...that bought you a pin-on button for admission into the festival.
- The band seemed ready to repeat the Hanover show!
- The audience...the other half the show...now here's the difference in the two evenings. Several idiots were body surfing (at least that's what I think they call it) and that diverted alot of attention from the show. I found myself looking back several times as the security personnel were alerted to prepare for an incident by standing on elevated steps of the security fence which separated the stage and the audience. The band would play through it but their enthusiasm seemed to dip as the morons were trying to steal some attention.
- The audience...yeah, there's more! At the point in the show when Kelly asks for audience participation to sing along with Sister Christian...many of these 'bad apples' started to sing the wrong words...the band looked at each other like they're were performing for a bunch of N'Stink fans?!
- The audience...sorry one more point that was a personal distraction for myself. A drunk fan behind me tapped me on the shoulder several times to tell me that I wasn't dancing to her intoxicated standards....well EXCUSE ME!
- Jeff wasn't flicking near as many pics as he did at Hanover from what I observed...MAYBE because many members of the audience didn't deserve one?!
- I remember Brad flicking only one pic...AND I GOT IT...MY SON NOW HAS A PIC! It was sorta funny because I held up my hand, caught it, closed my hand, and continued to cheer and applaud the band rather than identify myself as 'The Pic Holder'. After the show ended, I noticed that there were several people looking on the ground for it as I was walking away...I left them on their hunt for nothing hoping that most of the hunters were 'body surfers' and 'ignorant Sister Christian singers'!
- I'm glad I went but it could've been alot more enjoyable!!!

Both of these shows were performed at festivals and I realize that non-dedicated fans are going to be a majority of the audience at these type of events. Let there be more Hanover Parks and less Rockfords! For those of you that saw Hanover Park but missed Rockford, I feel you did miss another opportunity to see the band again but you definitely picked the better show of the two!