Well, that was a wild ride, y'all. We got both sides of the proverbial Texas Weather coin there - freezing cold downpour and drizzle on Saturday, followed by maybe the prettiest day of Festival weather I have ever experienced.
Saturday kicked off with hearing the last track or two from Sam Barber, who I thought was great. Crowd was singing along, and that is such a magnificent sound. I then wandered over to hear a touch of Lee Ann Womack, who sounded strong even if I really don't know much of her music. Got snuggled in for Pat Green, and he was fantastic. Very obviously overserved before the show, but it made for a really fun show. My son's friend nailed it when he said Pat was feeling sassy. He had lots of little moves and expressions and whatnot that ruled. And while his voice is pretty rough and tumble these days, he was still able to handle his stuff just right. Very fun to see him again.
At this point, the teenagers with me needed the bathroom, and so we got to experience the absolute hell of the bathroom situation at this Festival. The first line we stood in was going no where, so we tried one a little more hidden off in the corner. They pretty much waited in line for the entirety of the Colter Wall show. So, I got to see it from nine miles away. He sounded great! My boy said he wasn't much for entertainment, just kind of played the songs and stood there.
It was at this point that the heavens opened up on our heads - fat ass raindrops falling hard, with a stiff and cold breeze. Pretty damn miserable. I had little ponchos for the girls but zero in hand for myself, so it was just time to get wet and push through. We went over to see Sammy Kershaw, but the festival had cancelled his show in order to just move the headliners up a few hours to beat the heavier part of the storms. Which also meant that Ryan Bingham got nixed, which freaking sucked. That was the guy I was most excited about for the whole dang day. Bummer. So, this went from Sammy to Martina McBride without any announcement at all (in part because there was zero cell service, which is SO aggravating).
After a few songs of Martina - she sounds good! and the crowd super loved singing along to her hits and filming themselves doing it - I had had enough. If no Bingham, I didn't really need to hear Cody Johnson, and was cold and wet anyway, so we just gave up and bounced. it felt amazing to get in the warm car and drive home!
Then, Sunday was just the absolute opposite. Perfect weather. Blue skies, light breeze, 65 degrees, just MONEY. The ground was a little waterlogged in places, but mostly it was all good. Sadly, the lines to get in were awful, so we missed the entire Wyatt Flores show while standing in line. That made me bummed out. This Fest really needs to get the entry thing in a better place - there were multiple metal detectors just blocked off and not being used, so they may need to hire more people to make that go more smoothly.
Music today was magical for me. Marc Chesnutt took a few songs to really get his voice warm, but that dude just has hit after hit that are all fun to sing along with. Sierra Ferrell sounded amazing - the guys I took over there to check her out were blown away. The only issue there? Some sort of weird tooth prosthetic thing so that she looks like she has a mouthful of rotten blueberries in there. I've seen other photos of her and she has pretty teeth, so I don't get it. 49 Winchester was excellent - southern rock and country-leaning blast. Charley Crockett was as good as ever - he just has a swagger about him that goes really well with his classic sound.
We missed out on John Anderson (who a friend told me was fantastic) but that was so we could be closer for Hank Jr. That dude crushed it. I was honestly shocked - he's 74 freaking years old - and yet he sounded top notch and was able to play and walk the stage and just have a whole presence about him. Great show. The crowd was very in to it and that made it even more fun.
Clint Black sounded great as usual, but my crowd I was with was too disjointed. I am such a creature of habit for concert festivals, where my goal is to travel light and get up in the best spot I can to see the tunes. But when you have like 10 people in a group, you're always waiting on someone - bathroom, food, drinks, whatever - and so we never made it close enough to see much other than the screens. Still fun though, his voice is still smooooooth.
By the time we got over to Turnpike (again, waiting on friends, who then needed the bathroom), we weren't going to be anywhere near the stage. So, we just posted up in the way back and watched the screens. Honestly, they freaking jammed. The lead singer doesn't have much charisma about him, but the rock and roll/country mash made for some really fun renditions of their songs. And like I've mentioned on some of these other ones - when the whole crowd is singing every word, it really is a lovely experience. I love that sound.
Excellent festival. Missed a few artists I had wanted to see, and the weather was psychotic, but the lasting memory will be the happiness of listening to Turnpike Troubadours crush a headlining spot.
No comments:
Post a Comment