The Zombies Play the Crest Theatre in Sacramento

Elizabeth Weintraub enjoys the only thing she could get for dinner at KBar / Cafe Bernardo in Sacramento.

Dee from Reno was horrified to find herself in such a “bad part of town” in Sacramento. She and her husband were first in line last night for the meet-and-greet with The Zombies at the Crest Theatre on K Street. Why, there were hundreds of homeless people everywhere. Well, they were right here a minute ago, she exclaimed, glancing furtively. “Don’t worry,” I assured her, “as long as you don’t talk to them, they won’t stab you.” Actually, I was joking. Barbara Dow and I got a good laugh out of it anyway, and we explained that it’s perfectly OK to be standing on the sidewalk on K Street, but Dee wasn’t buying it.

We arrived at the allotted time of 4:45 and stood outside of the Crest until almost 6:00. It wasn’t a long line, maybe 25 people had come for the soundcheck and photo op with The Zombies. Barbara and I thought this would be a fun night out to see a band we haven’t thought of in 50 years, but everybody else in that line seemed to be die-hard fans, the type who go on cruises with The Moody Blues or Roger Daltry and were amazed that others onboard the ship did not recognize a celebrity when one of them sat down next to you and said, “Hello, I’m Roger and I play in a band.” Or at least that’s their story and they’re sticking to it.

The Zombies after soundcheck at the Crest Theatre with Barbara Dow and Elizabeth Weintraub

We had reservations at Morton’s. Visions of lobster drenched in butter and nestled next to a rare filet mignon danced in my head. I located a woman who seemed to work at The Crest and inquired if we could be first or last or whatever so we could make our reservations at Morton’s. She directed me to the Fan Club people. So, I asked the Zombies’ Fan Club President, Tess DeFlori, if we would have time for dinner and her eyes delivered the answer before her lips parted to speak. Her eyes flashed, how dare you think of going to dinner at a precious time like this, and her lips mouthed, No, of course not! She reminded us once again to like the official Zombies fan club page in Facebook.

After the meet and greet, though, the woman who worked at The Crest approached to say she would allow us to bring in food if we wanted to dash across the street to the KBar and order. It was 10 minutes to 7:00 and the show didn’t start until 7:30. That sounded like a good idea to us. The place wasn’t that packed, but rather than go into Cafe Bernardo, we seated ourselves at the bar. To keep things simple, I said I wanted whatever the person who was holding a giant playing card with 8 hearts ordered. Turned out that woman was sent to the bar to get a drink because Cafe Bernardo was backed up and she couldn’t get a server to wait on her.

The bartender leaned across the bar and we asked what could I order that would take under 30 minutes to get. There is only one thing, the bartender suggested: chips. Nothing else. Anything else could take an hour. I wasn’t sure what chips were and had imagined a plate full of French fries. I had already consumed a small cup of popcorn at the theater. It’s not lobster, but what the hey. Twenty-five minutes later, dinner arrived. It was indeed a plate of potato chips, as evidenced by the photo above. But I’m not complaining. I’ve got my Zombies t-shirt, autographed poster and album.

The Zombies play the Crest Theatre in Sacramento.