Cinematic Titanic LIVE! - Royal
Oak Music Theatre
Royal Oak, MI 2/19/2010
Well I suppose it had to happen some day, but I can hardly express how excited I was to learn that the fine folks at Cinematic Titanic were coming to Michigan. Not only to my home state, but to my home town of Royal Oak to play the venerable Royal Oak Music Theatre. In my youth I attended many a purple haze shrouded concert there. George Clinton, Elvis Costello, The Romantics and The Pretenders...I can't say I remember each specific concert, but I have ticket stubs so I'm assuming I was there. And now the Titans themselves were coming to town.
Here is the poster that was printed for the event. This was a fairly rare item to add to my memorabilia collection, but a kind person at the venue made it available to me. A sincere thank you to you.
I attended the shows with my nephew Rick and his wife Melissa, both of whom have watched MST3K from way back. This was Melissa's first live show, but Rick went to the Cleveland show with me last year.As can be seen from this hand out listing performers coming to the theatre there was barely enough time to clean up the blood and entrails after the Snoop Dogg concert before Cinematic Titanic hit the stage. CT was performing a rare double feature this evening. At 7PM we were treated to War of the Insects (aka Genocide) followed at 11PM by Samson and the 7 Miracles of the World. Overture. Curtain, lights. This is it. The night of nights.
There were some technical difficulties during War of the Insects. The sound started off sort of muddy and at one point the projector stopped completely (Thanks Christie Digital). I have to admit, at least for me, it was sort of fun hearing the gang ad lib for a while until the movie came back on. Then, after a second or two, Joel said "page 32" and they were off and running as if nothing had happened.
The second show was less eventful from a technological point of view, but was equally hilarious to watch. You just gotta love Sword and Sandal movies with a dose of CT commentary thrown in.The second show ended after midnight, making it 2/20/2010 so we all got to be the first to sing Happy Birthday to Joel on this 50th.
As always the meet and greet in the lobby was a pleasure. The fact that some of them actually remember me now is very gratifying and I appreciate having the opportunity to thank them in person every chance I get for the years of entertainment and laughter they have provided.I thought I would create something that would be unique to this evening for them to sign. Here is a little of the local color from Royal Oak, MI.
Clockwise from the upper right: the front of the Royal Oak Music Theatre (Cinematic Titanic is on the marquee), the Woodward Avenue Dream Cruise (an annual event down the local strip with literally tens of thousands of classic cars - BTW this is the only picture I didn't take myself), a tiger, water tower and lion from the Detroit Zoo (the zoo is actually in the city of Royal Oak), the Shrine of the Little Flower, and the sign as you enter Royal Oak as you drive north on Woodward from Detroit.Another highlight of the evening was a chance to meet up with some other MST3K/CT fans.
Here I am with the lovely Kaylene, her lovelier husband Dan and the loveliest of all Stephanie, who had all attended the CT Live shows in Chicago last fall with me. There were also a bunch of other Dan's, Tony's and Robert's plus others from Traverse City, Dayton and other points around the Midwest that drove in for the shows.
After a long evening we left with sore butts (from folding chairs) and sore stomachs (from constant laughing), but I'm sure we are all looking forward to the next time we get to see the Cinematic Titanic group perform live once again.