Three Reviews At Half Price

Gina and I have seen three concerts each weekend for the last three weeks. Now we're on a bit of a concert-going break until August, to accomodate her work schedule and to take a trip or two. For your enjoyment, here's a quick review of the three shows:

1. Dave Matthews Band, June 24 @ Nissan. Seeing a Dave show during the summer is as much a staple for me as baseball games, swimming pools, and cookouts are for others - but you knew that already, right? Ben and Amanda joined us this time around. This year's tour is as good as or better than any in recent memory, thanks in no small part to a quality batch of new tunes. We heard a few of those at our show, along with a solid all-around set. I didn't hear "JTR" or "Best Of What's Around," though, so I guess I have to keep going to shows until I do. We managed to get under the pavilion and out of the rain halfway through the opener's set... so we stayed dry. Score. Parking lot departure time? 1:45 AM. Ouch. I hate Nissan for that.

2. Tim McGraw / Faith Hill, June 30 @ Verizon Center. Brian and Sarah joined us. This was the second night of a two-night stand for Tim & Faith, which was added by popular demand. It amazes me just how many country music fans there are up here in the DC area. I guess a lot of them come from the surrounding areas, which are certainly more rural, but I bet there are more than a few youngsters out there with a couple of cowboy hats in their wardrobe. Not that wearing a cowboy hat automatically makes you "country," but I digress. Unfortunately, the main aspect of this show can be summed up in one word: bronchitis. Faith played her set and was just fine, but Tim was losing his voice and was visibly uncomfortable with a sore throat during his part of the night. This is a shame, because he's usually entertaining during one of his normal sets, even though he's not my favorite artist ever. It's also a shame because we paid a pretty penny for our fourth-tier seats. He did his best to keep the show moving, letting the audience or other bandmembers sing vocals, but they had to cut most of the duet finale out, and they didn't sing many of the songs Gina wanted to hear. Boo. I hear they're planning a refund event for ticketholders at the end of their current tour, so if they do, kudos to them.

3. Brad Paisley / Sara Evans / Josh Turner, July 8 @ Nissan. The group was Katie, Gerritt, Mel, Mel's roommate Rachel, and Rachel's sister Bekah (sp). Continuing the country kick, we got ourselves into Nissan a lot earlier this time around, and we had a MUCH better experience. Timing is everything at Nissan, where they try to empty 26,000 people out of ONE exit. I made some Emergency Sandwiches for the parking lot after the show, and we made sure to fill ourselves before heading into the venue. We had lawn seats for this show. I hadn't sat in the lawn in a long time, so I was a little nervous, knowing that lawn neighbors can ruin a show for you. We were lucky, though. Everyone at this show - people of all ages - were there to have a good time and, for the most part, actually listen and sing along to the music. I realized that's one thing I do end up liking about country music: that many people of all stripes can relate to it, and you can usually end up singing along to a tune after just hearing the first verse. Sometimes simplicity is the best songwriting virtue, and as all three of these perfomers showed, that doesn't mean that the simple songs have to be meaningless.

I was duly impressed by the up-and-coming talent of Josh Turner, and Sara Evans has a great voice and some really catchy tunes (and she's hot). And then, of course, I've been waiting to see West Virginia's native son Brad Paisley for a while. I respect him for the songwriting and the guitar playing and the sense of humor, and for singing with William Shatner. He puts on a good show, that's for sure. He and his band played one of the jammier sets I've seen at a country show, which suits me just fine. He also demonstrated some of his animation creations on the big screens, some of which can be found at his website. You can tell that he's having a good time on the stage, and I'd definitely pay to watch the fun again. Nissan parking lot departure time: 12:30ish.