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August 4, 2012

Music just part of Thunder in the City fun

By Lisa Byers Meadville Tribune

MEADVILLE — There was still about an hour to go before his band was scheduled to hit the stage, but Maurice (Mo) Troop was already getting a few butterflies.

“I’m a former athlete,” he said. “And I get the same way before I get ready to go out and perform as I did then. As it gets a little closer I get a little nervous.”

Troop and his group The Breeze Band were standing alongside Chestnut Street listening to fellow band Necessary Experience prior to taking the stage themselves at the fourth annual Thunder in the City Classic Car and Bike Show.

The concert stage was one of the biggest attractions on the event’s opening night Friday as dozens of people stood by to enjoy the local performers. And that crowd grew even larger as the night progressed.

“We’ve been to a number of events like this,” Troop said. “And it’s the small towns that actually seem to draw the most people, because they don’t get to do this every day.”

While several people were gravitating toward the concert stage Friday night many more were out visiting vendors along Chestnut Street and in Diamond Park, where a number of crafters and artisans were set up. Of course, plenty more were down visiting the Lang Motors Cruise In at the car dealership at the corners of Park Avenue and North Street where there were a couple of extra special vehicles on display.

One of those was the PinkVette, a pink 1984 Chevrolet Corvette that is making rounds to help raise money for the Yolanda G. Barco Oncology Institute. Another was a 1932 Plymouth Series New Finer Model PB — a two-door, four-passenger vehicle painted red with and detailed with fire.

The vehicle was originally purchased from Lang Motors — then Yost and Lang — in 1932. Waterford resident Jim Shilling said he just purchased the vehicle about three years ago and thought the Lang Motors Cruise In — back for the first time in several years — was an appropriate place to show off the vehicle.

“We were at another cruise-in at Applebee’s and saw the flier,” Shilling said. “I thought, ‘We can’t miss this one.’”

The Plymouth was one of many cars on hand. Other classic cars will be on hand today beginning at 7 a.m. at Diamond Park. The Corvette parade gathers at Applebee’s at 9:30 a.m. and should make its way through downtown Meadville at 10. A number of bands are also set to perform throughout the day, and the second annual Rusty Hanaway Memorial Bike Parade is at 1:30 p.m.

The event concludes with a movie — “Happy Feet 2” — at Diamond Park, free of charge, tonight.

Crowd estimates were not given, but hundreds of people were milling around the city streets on Friday.

“It has come a long ways since the first year,” said Kathleen Bishop, president and CEO of Meadville-Western Crawford County Chamber of Commerce, host of Thunder in the City.



Lisa Byers can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at lbyers@meadvilletribune.com.

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