In the belly of a black-winged bird…

 

July 18, 2022

 

In the belly of a black-winged bird…

I have traveled around the country to see my favorite band play. Many of my friends believe that I am slightly crazily obsessive about my love for Counting Crows. I have seen them in so many states and places since my first show back in 1994 it is hard to keep track. I do know that I flew up to Indianapolis to see what are my 106^th and 107^th show. 

I have seen a bunch of shows in Indianapolis because I can combine the trip with visiting friends and family and specifically this trip because the promotions promised two back to back shows with “completely different” setlists. Even though I suspected this was not going to be the case as the band hasn’t varied its setlists that much in years, I still really wanted to go, to be in Indianapolis to see friends and attend two shows at a venue that didn’t exist when I lived there.

Holiday Park has been a fixture in Indianapolis since 1916, it was a popular place to hang out when I was in high school and remains one of the beautiful old parks in the city. It had not been a regular concert venue until the folks at the Vogue Theater were looking for an outdoor venue during the covid pandemic and came up with a music series called Rock the Ruins at Holiday Park, The old ruins are a prominent feature of the park and the concert series proved to be a big success so they have continued it even though their theater is back operating at full capacity.

I stayed at my sister Michele’s house in Carmel and invited my friend Henk who I had just spent time with at his daughter’s wedding to drive over from Cincinnati to attend the show. Having the day to enjoy prior to his arrival, I decided to visit one of the top attractions in Indianapolis, The Children’s Museum. The museum is the largest museum dedicated to children in the United States but also has plenty of cool stuff to interest adults as well and I had not visited for a number of years.

I am so glad that I did, as it has expanded and is incredible. The first exhibit I went in was the Dinosphere and it is one of the best museum exhibits I have ever seen at any museum. Dinosphere features a sound and light experience that simulates a day in the late Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. The center of the exhibit space includes three themed fossil scenes. Visitors can perform fossil excavations in the Dig Site, touch a real T-Rex femur fossil in the Paleo Prep Lab, talk to real palentologists, enjoy family-friendly games and touch-screen learning activities, and view numerous real dinosaur fossils from the Cretaceous period on display.

 Dinosphere is one of the largest displays of juvenile and family dinosaur fossils in the U.S. The exhibit features several species of dinosaurs. And that is just one of the five floors of amazing exhibits which currently includes a Scooby Doo exhibit, one of the history of Barbie Dolls, a terrific exhibit about heroic children such as Anne Frank and Ryan White and much, much more. I was blown away by how outstanding the place is. After the museum, I was off to meet Henk at Twenty Tap and then head to Holiday Park.

I knew that a lot of friends that I know through my obsessive Counting Crows fandom would be in attendance including friends like Nicole, Liz, Don and Deb, who I have attended many shows with, but there were also a few that I have known on-line for more than 20 years but have never met in person like Andrea. It is always fun to actually meet fellow fans especially if I have communicated with them for years.

What I failed to anticipate is how many friends from Indianapolis I would run into at the show. I haven’t lived in Indiana for more than 30 years and while I still visit pretty frequently, it is still surprising to run across friends and acquaintances when I am there. A pleasant surprise to the show experience. The show itself was good, I loved the outdoor venue and the band followed opener Stephen Kellog to the stage and performed a decent, but fairly standard set. They opened with “Goodnight Elisabeth” that featured their now standard “Pale Blue Eyes” alt, and played a number of their hits in addition to the Butter Miracle suite.

https://www.hollidaypark.org/

https://www.childrensmuseum.org/