An eye opening experience

During a spontaneous moment Tuesday night friends of ours decided to go online and see what kind of seats were available for the Doobie Brothers / Bad Co. concert at the amphitheater the following evening. When he discovered he could still get some great seats, he bought four tickets. Then they called Bob and me to see if we wanted to go with them. "Sure, why not?" we said. I have listened to country music for so long now, I really wasn't sure what to expect. I knew they (the band members) would be old, but damn, did they have to LOOK so old?

A couple of the old farts still had long hair - and I mean L-O-N-G hair. And not only long, but grey long. Not attractive at all. The sax player at least groomed his a bit so that helped ... some. Guitar man's (notice I have no clue what these guy's names are) hair was so long the ends were hidden behind his guitar - and it was stringy, not groomed. Do they really think this looks good? I mean, this is the 21st century. We've all (mostly) grown up, at least a bit. I guess some of us have just gotten older and not really grown up. Hopefully though, we've learned to take care of ourselves, somewhat anyway, and try to present our best side to the public. Let me tell you, if these were their best sides, it wasn't pretty. Oh and the other guitar man ... wow. It was hard to take my eyes off of him to even look at the others. His smile was, how do I say this - well, unbelievable - even from a distance. His TEETH! They looked like they were way too big for his mouth. It appeared he had mistakenly grabbed his grandpa's teeth (and grandpa's mouth must be a bit bigger than his own) instead of his set.

Sorry, I digress - but these are the things that jumped out at me immediately. The music? The music was great - if you like the Doobie Brothers. There were quite a few songs I remembered from my teenage years, and have heard here and there on the radio since then. There were quite a few songs I couldn't get into though. Bob (husband) had informed me prior to the show that the Doobie Brothers were a soft rock band and that I would like them. Hate to tell you, but if that's how Bob defines soft rock we must read different dictionaries. I did have a good time though. Yes, you would've seen me up on my feet clapping and singing at different times. And yes I did the "Wanda" dance too - not much to it but it's my dance.

Sitting in front of us was a couple that proved to be quite entertaining during the concert as well. The guy sort of spoke to us when we first sat down, so he was friendly - we discovered during the show just how friendly he could be ... especially to the woman he was with. I have to tell you about his hat. Apparently, I wasn't very observant in the beginning because this didn't jump out at me until a bit later. But the material this hat was made out of had beautiful butterflies and flowers all over it - in beautiful blues, purples, yellows, etc. Damn if it doesn't take a hell of a man to wear a hat like that proudly. I leaned over and told Bob I was going to get my friend, Fran (she's an awesome seamstress) to make him one like that for special occasions. :) He just smiled and thought, "Yeah, right." Little does he know ...

Now for my observations about Bad Co. The first thing that struck me was, yes they're old too, but it appeared they had accepted their aging a bit more gracefully than some of the members of the Doobie Brothers. A couple of them weren't sporting grey hair - it was snow white! Hey, at least they still had hair. During some of their songs it really looked ironic to see these really old men playing the kind of music they were playing. You think of grandpas sitting and listening to more of the "Lawrence Welk" type of music. This was definitely not "Lawrence Welky." I didn't recognize as many of their songs as I did from the Doobie Brothers, but all in all I enjoyed most of it. I was very surpised that Bad Co was more mellow than the Doobies. Even the songs I didn't know, I liked. Don't get me wrong - I'm not rushing to iTunes to download these guys to put on my iPod. I'm still a country girl at heart ... but I can return to my childhood once in a while - on the radio.

Bad Co must bring out the beast (not best) in some people. Butterfly man, in front of us, became quite the entertainer during this set. He was singing his heart out to his love, and there was no doubt how he felt about her. Moving suggestively and rubbing his hands all over her body (and yes, I mean ALL OVER) were, apparently, necessary. When they sang "Feel Like Making Love" I was afraid he was going to seriously show us what the song meant right there in front of us, God and everyone else. At another point during a different song, he was "combing" his hand through her hair. Still not sure what that was about. It looked like he was checking her for ticks (Brad Paisley fans will know where this comes from). Quite the show within the show.

In addition to "Butterfly Man," "Feel Like Making Love" brought the best (or should I say worst) out of "Drunk Guy" sitting beside us - correction, standing beside us. He managed to contain himself until that song. He was singing for all he was worth and gesturing and whooping and hollering - really getting into the songs. Keep in mind that during a song here and there we would enjoy standing to get a better view and "move" a bit. Well, that simply wasn't good enough for him. He leaned over (with his almost full beer sloshing all over the place) and asked why we weren't up on our feet. Rick was sitting closest to him so he got the brunt of this. Rick just smiled and nodded and remained seated. Well hells bells, the guy just wouldn't leave us alone! So eventually, we all (yes, even Bob) stood just to appease the guy. Then that wasn't enough - he was having some kind of conversation with Rick and every once in a while he'd look over at the rest of us. At this point, I tugged on Bob's arm to switch places with him putting me one space further away from "Drunk Guy." We continued to stand (he wouldn't let us sit in peace!) and he continued try and include Rick (and now Bob because Regina had done the switch move with him too) in conversation. Conversation. You know he has to be drunk because no one can have a freakin' conversation during most any kind of concert, much less a Bad Co concert!

At some point I looked over and Rick was gone - nowhere to be found (and he never came back)! I asked where he went and was told, "to the bathroom." Uh huh. Yeah right. He freakin' escaped!! That left Bob next to "Drunk Guy." ROTFLOL. Bob leaned over to tell Regina something and the next thing I know she is laughing so hard she's got tears rolling down her face. I didn't find out until after the show what the hell was so funny. At least the guy was a nice drunk and not a mean one.

Walking out to the car Bob filled us in on a few things. "Drunk Guy" was on vacation from up-state New York and was headed back home "in the morning." Good luck on that drive buddy - hope your wife wasn't as snockered as you were. The boy wasn't feelin' any pain last night but I can guarantee you he did today! The little tidbit that made Regina laugh til she cried was "Drunk Guy" asked Bob if I was his daughter! Wow! I'm not even going there ...

Tonight I'll be much more at home ... I'll be back at the amphitheater for the Kenny party!

And Happy Birthday (Tuesday) to my nephew, Brian!!