There are occasional perques to working with radio stations — station crap, CDs, movie premieres, and most importantly concert tickets. I saw Barenaked Ladies in Syracuse, Tim McGraw in Pittsburg, I passed on seeing Hootie and the Blowfish in Akron last month (because I didn’t give a Hootie — God, I love that joke), and tonight I came thisclose to making the guest list for the nearby Robert Cray show and they felt so bad about not being able to hook me up that they lined up a VIP ticket for me for tonight’s farther-away Journey/Styx/REO Speedwagon show.

I’m kind of bummed about Robert Cray, since I’ve always wanted to see him. Almost did once, in fact — had tickets to see Cray and Clapton in 1986 and my girlfriend made us late for the opening act. We got there just in time to see Cray take his bow. I was sort of hoping I could complete the circle with the show tonight, but alas it is not to be.

So I’m kind of happy about the Journey/Styx/Speedwagon thing because these are bands from my high school days and I never did get to see Journey. I’ve been following this tour around the country all summer and keep missing it by thismuch, and I just happened to make a casual joke about it tonight and the Promotions Director said “Really? They’re here. The show’s tonight. Let me see what I can do!” So, cool, I’m finally going to catch the Dinosaur Rock show!

Only … not so much. They have a part-timer here who comes in at 5:00 who I have to show how to do a few things in the software before I can leave. It’s going to take me about half an hour to train her (if she’s smart — definitely NOT a given in this case), the show is just over an hour away, it’s 5:55 at this very moment, and she’s not here yet.

Don’t look like no circles gonna be closin’ tonight.