My review in a word? WOW!
But, one word will not do this justice, so I will attempt to color a picture of the fantastic night I had with JT. Well, with Lee, but you get the idea.
I bought myself two tickets for the Tulsa show back in May, for Mother's Day. Because dammit, I deserved it. Then I just had to wait six months for show time. By now, I'm totally wishing I had sprung for the lower level seats because dammit, I deserved them. But, alas, I got the mid-price tickets and got stuck in the upper deck where for most of the night JT appeared to be about six inches tall. But, you know what? It really didn't matter because I still enjoyed every single minute of the show. Now, for the Top Ten recap:
1. That dude has some energy with a capital E. Three solid hours of singing, dancing and chatting up the crowd with only a ten-minute break. For real, he played over 30 songs! Definitely got my money's worth and then some.
2. I loved the Tennessee Kids, his (very big) jazz band, being on stage the whole night! I mean, who has their own jazz band? Maybe it's just the band geek in me, but it was so fun and added so much. I'd much rather hear the horns than an auto tune synthesizer any day.
3. Tons of dancers and backup singers. Lots to look at and take in. And, it wasn't half-naked trashy girls dancing. It was fun to watch.
4. I was relieved to see that the average age at the show was probably in the 33-35 area. We saw very few kids and teenagers. Lee's observation: "This place is full of (expletive) middle-aged women!" However, I did overhear some 30ish dudes dressed in black suits and ties talking, "Let's see how many numbers we can get tonight!" Lame.
5. I generally don't do well with heights and our seats would have normally made my skin crawl. But, again, just darn happy to be there. At one point, part of the stage lifted up in the air and moved over the top of the floor seats and all the way down to the opposite end of the arena. Much closer to us! We could see him (and the dancers) really good for about five songs, then it moved back up to the stage. Very cool move, though, so that everyone got a good view at least for a while.
6. Not directly related to the show, but I wore my Ariat cowboy boots from Country Outfitter for a total of 10 hours that night and my feet never hurt. AT. ALL. I freaking love those boots.
7. Favorite performance of the night: What Goes Around Comes Around. He played an acoustic guitar and did the song much, much slower than the normal version. There were no backup singers, dancers or any special effects; and no high falsetto. Just pure, raw singing talent. He blew it up.
8. Runner-up performance of the night: Cry Me a River. This was the last song of the first set, before his break. I don't think I can even describe how fantastic it was. I didn't want it to end.
9. The "He's Not Too Old to Dance" performance of the night: A cover of BBD's Poison from the 90s! He let the backup singers take the lead on most of the song so he could dance. I mean, really dance! Again, no words to describe the awesomeness.
10. He opened with Pusher Love Girl and ended with Mirrors. I included this because it's what I like to know when someone else goes to a concert that I don't.
My hubby is a trooper for hanging with me, although I'm sure he was ready to leave after about an hour. I, on the other hand, could have stayed three more hours! The show was over at midnight. It took us about 30 minutes to find where we'd parked the van and get going (brrr...it was only 33 degrees with snow flurries). I crawled in bed at 3:00am and woke to my alarm at 6:00 for an early morning work event.
As some of you know, I'm totally spoiled on concerts. This was the first ticket I've actually paid for in probably close to 15 years because of working in radio and still having lots of connections to help me out. It was hard to fork out the money, but I would do it again...and pay double for the floor seats! It was my first show at the BOK Center in Tulsa (nice place) and my first big arena show in a long time. I forgot how fun it is to dance and sing with about 20,000 other people.
Sounds like you had an AWESOME night! Isn't it interesting how the demographic for acts we've loved for years just keeps getting older? It's almost like we should be getting older too! :)
ReplyDeleteI hear he puts on an amazing show. And, I love that he is becoming a timeless musician. He is truly talented. Glad you got away and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI hear he puts on an amazing show. And, I love that he is becoming a timeless musician. He is truly talented. Glad you got away and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteSux having to buy tickets though--right?
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