Tumbling at the Todd show

"Now it's time to hit the streets
Are you ready to rumble?
Are you just gonna grumble?
You might take a tumble."

"Strike" by Todd Rundgren

When Todd Rundgren sang the song "Strike" at last night's Clearwater concert, the lyrics quoted above were very reminiscent of my pre-show activities. I managed to both "take a tumble" and "hit the streets" as I walked from the parking lot to the concert. Due to mold problems in the theater where the concert was to have taken place, it was moved outside, to the middle of Cleveland Street in downtown Clearwater. I parked in the Stein Mart parking lot, just one block off the stage, and made my way to the street where the stage was set up. A security guard told me that I couldn't enter near the stage, and directed me "two blocks over and a block up" through the back alleys. I crossed the street, and looked ahead to determine which alley had the fewest homeless people asleep in it (really- downtown Clearwater is chock full of folks asleep in alleys). Instead, I should have been looking down at my feet, because I tripped right over a curb. I slammed down on an asphalt and gravel driveway, face first with my right eye and cheek taking the worst impact. I'm glad I had my (now destroyed) sunglasses on, because if my eye had taken the impact that the sunglasses did I'd have been in the emergency room for sure. As I stood up, I had just enough time to announce "dang, that really hurt!" before the same security guard ran over to reassure me that "I don't think that your nose is broken, if that makes you feel any better." I had asphalt stuck in my face and below my nose was bleeding like crazy, so he sent me into Stein Mart for some paper towels- the poor girl at the cosmetics counter was a little stunned when I asked for help with my dirty, bloody face. I got the bleeding stopped, weighed the need for stitches below my nose and finally decided that it wasn't necessary- 'cause I'd miss the concert! :) I cleaned up, then went in search of bandaids at a Walgreens five blocks away. I got them, but they wouldn't stick so I just went with the natural, swollen bloody look for the night. Here is a pic that John took when I got home last night:

Once I got used to the odd looks from random strangers, I met up with a few friends from other shows and we all tried to come up with a much more rock and roll worthy excuse for my injuries, other than "I tripped over a curb". We came up with some good ones, it was fun. The Todd Rundgren show was excellent, but honestly the only reason I go to his shows is to see his keyboard and guitar player Kasim Sulton. I got to talk to Kasim before the show and for quite a while afterwards, he's a doll. He was hugging me, and kissing the side of my face that wasn't covered in road rash scrapes, and introducing me to folks: "This is Sherrie, she's the best!" He was kind enough not to be too put off by my rapidly blackening eye. He even asked about John and why he wasn't at the show (he had to work), that made John feel good that he'd mentioned him. Today, below my eye is a kalaidescope of colors- purple/black/yellow, and every muscle in my body hurts. I'm not going to be nice to look at for a few days, but I had a great time at the show and I loved getting to see Kasim again. Here is a pic of him on stage, since it was an outside show at night it was hard to get good pics so this is about the best.
My next concert is Tuesday night (Colin Hay), I'll be much more careful of curbs for that one! :) Edit: Here is a much better photo of Kasim, taken by my friend Don W. who I've attended several shows with in the last few years.