Pomona
When I found out that Joan Jett was playing the LA County Fair in 2018, I couldn’t wait to go—not only was it a two-for-one ticket price to get into the fair all day and get to see the concert, but Cheap Trick was opening for Joan Jett, which made it all the more exciting. The day of the show, my husband Jim and I made our way from East LA to Pomona, California, where the fairgrounds are located, listening to the LA public radio station KCRW for our hour-long drive. I was sitting comfortably in the passenger seat as Jim drove, staring out the window, when the radio host took a break in playing music to make an announcement that the station was giving away two free tickets to an upcoming Arcade Fire show at the Greek Theater. The tickets were free to the first person to email the station. Phone in hand, I started typing the email address, taking one extra second to write a subject line, “free tickets please!”, and within minutes, I received a response that I had won. I didn’t think the day could get any better after winning tickets to see one of my favorite bands for the first time—until it did.
We arrived at the fairground by noon and spent the day enjoying greasy food and carnival rides before dusk settled in and the concert started. Cheap Trick played a good set, sticking to their most well-known songs, before Joan Jett took the stage and, with no acknowledgment to the audience, started right into her first song. The energy in the small grandstand shot up, and the crowd, including Jim and me, got to our feet. Once she finished her opening number, Joan Jett addressed her adoring fans by leaning into the microphone while pointing her finger toward the back of the stage and off to the left, where a bus was driving away in the distance heading toward the highway, and she said, “I guess Cheap Trick didn’t have time to stick around and watch me play. That’s their bus driving away.” And then she started right into her next song. We didn’t think the day could get better, and then Joan Jett made fun of Cheap Trick to a stadium full of people, and from then on, and to this day, she is still the coolest performer that I have ever seen take the stage.
LA County Fair, 2018
