Night Ranger "Sister Christian"

A group of us boarded a Frontier Airlines flight to Denver to celebrate the waning days of my friend Doug's bachelorhood. Doug wanted to keep his bachelor party simple: instead of the usual bachelor party antics, he wanted to see the band Wilco during Labor Day weekend in 2007 (hence why we landed in Denver). Aside from seeing Wilco, the hotel staff suggested we check out Denver's annual Taste of Colorado festival which was happening just across the street. We happily obliged and spent the majority of our day sampling the Taste.

As morning turned to afternoon, the '80s rock group Night Ranger took the stage at Taste of Colorado and performed...much to the delight of my group. By the fourth song that we did not know, our group (which was slightly to mildly inebriated) grew restless and demanded Night Ranger sing their signature tune, "Sister Christian". We decided if they didn't play it, we would leave. Of course, the band didn't budge from their set list for five drunken rubes from Chicago, so we decided to escape the sunshine and heat of the September day and wound up at a nearby art museum (yes, I know...what kind of bachelor party includes a Night Ranger concert AND an art museum in the same day?!?). Once inside the air conditioned museum, our group quickly sobered up. At one point, I walked past one of Doug's friends (who I didn't know prior to this trip). He stood in front of some topless medieval art exhibit and said, I expected to see boobs on this bachelor party, but not these kind of boobs." The two of us immediately bonded.

Styx "Love at First Sight"

After a weekend bachelor party in Las Vegas, I noticed a familiar face on our flight home: former-Styx lead singer Dennis DeYoung. How do we say "hello" to a guy who clearly didn't want to talk with my hungover group of twenty-something bachelor party-goers? My friend Pat came up with an idea that we all felt was brilliant. It was 2005 and ringtones had just become a thing for cell phones, so Pat downloaded the song "Mr. Roboto" onto his phone and we kept playing the song/ringtone...much to DeYoung's dismay. Since this didn't elicit a response, we decided to communicate using Styx song titles. "Um, babe, could you show me the way to my seat? An aisle seat?!? That's like love at first sight..." Needless to say, DeYoung did not find any of this amusing and refused to acknowledge us.