I had plans to get together with my sister this weekend in scenic Galena, IL midway between our Iowa and Illinois homes. But at the last minute our date fell through and I was looking at a weekend home alone while hubby was in Tucson on business. Meanwhile I was really feeling concert deprived - over a month since my last Keith concert - so I went looking for what was available nearby. Success! Gary Allan was playing just a couple hours away in Mankato, MN. Could I find a decent ticket? Happily it is often possible to find isolated singles and Ticketmaster had one in the 8th row of the floor so I was set.
Saturday it was sunny and 65 degrees - you’d never guess that it was November in Minnesota! Although all the colorful leaves had left the trees in our last couple weeks of rainy, windy weather it was still a lovely ride that flew by as I listened to my book-on-tape (well CD actually these days). I found my way to downtown Mankato but was uncertain where the Verizon Wireless Arena was so pulled into a parking lot to check my maps. A young woman was walking by so I asked her if she knew its location. She laughed and pointed right behind me! Like a homing pigeon I had honed in on the concert venue without even realizing it! LOL
I walked around the neighborhood looking for an interesting spot for dinner but found only bars - lots and lots of bars. So I ended up in “Olives” in my hotel lobby which turned out to be surprisingly good. After my “Dirty Blue” martini (with bleu cheese stuffed olives) I had a wonderful French Brie and dried cranberry salad with baby greens, soft, plump berries, long thin crackers and a wonderful cranberry viniagrette and fresh baked crusty French rolls.
Two opening acts preceded Gary Allan. First the Eli Young Band played five songs. Although Eli is kind of a cute teddy bear of a guy, their sound system was not the best and probably didn’t show their music to its best advantage. I liked a couple of the songs but I (and much of the audience I think) was kind of lukewarm about their overall performance. Next came Jack Ingram and he immediately did better job of getting the crowd on their feet and singing. It has been years since I last saw him at the Wildhorse Saloon in Nashville and I was favorably impressed! Lots of energy and interacted well with the crowd. I liked that he actually chatted with us a little (something that Gary did not do later on). Jack dedicated his second song, That's A Man, to the soldiers at Fort Hood and their families and friends and all the men and women who take on the very tough job of serving their country. Later on, for his song Barefoot and Crazy, he pulled off his black boots (and balanced them, heel to heel, on top of his microphone!!) and told us we could get barefoot and crazy too, if we liked. The floor in my section was swimming with beer from the ‘ladies’ around me who could not, in more ways than one, hold their liquor, so I chose not to join in. Although later more than once beer rained on me so I suppose I should have just gone ahead and ‘waded”! Jack talked about his earlier visits to play in Minnesota, including playing on the kids’ “puppet stage” (as he called it) at the Minnesota State Fair in the nineties - lmao!!
Jack also talked about how his mom finally believes he has “made it” because now he has a fan club and how she is even asked him what favorite dessert he wanted her to make at Thanksgiving - a sign to him that now he is no longer the black sheep of the family (hee hee). Jack took a little different approach to building his fan club last night - he announced that anyone who joined his fan club at the concert by buying the fan club “Jack Pack” out at the merchandise booth would get a bracelet which allowed them to come back stage for a meet and greet after the show! I actually would have done so if it were the usual fee for joining a fan club, but when I checked at the merchandise booth the Jack Pack was $60 because it includes a teeshirt, CD and other goodies. I’m not a teeshirt person so I passed by the somewhat tempting offer.
Perhaps my favorite of Jack Ingram’s songs was “Barbie Doll” because he had so much fun with it and got the whole audience into it (see clip). Jack was gracious enough to bring out the Eli Young Band for another song and paid them several compliments. Fun performance tonight Jack - hope to see you again! But please share yourself more equally with fans on both the right and left sides of the stage! You spent far too much time over at stage left!
Gary’s stage set up was fairly simple and attractive - a centerstage stairway where I assumed he would enter (a la Keith’s ramp last tour) and layered draperies at the back and on either side of the stage. The stairway and the platforms for the drummer and the keyboardist were all lined with lumiere type ‘candles”. Near showtime one of the crew came out and stuck what looked to be incense sticks in many of these candles, although I can’t say I ever caught a hint of fragrance like we sometimes get at Keith’s shows. No catwalk or stage extension of any type (although seating charts had shown one). There was a single video screen about the size of a small movie theatre screen. Before Gary came out the video screen showed something that looked like the movie rating screen that appears before a film or a preview, saying:
The Following Show Has Been Approved For All Audiences.
Rating: COOL Some content may not be suitable for uncool people.
I have seen Gary Allan many many times when he opened for either Keith or Kenny, but I was curious to see how and what he would do now that the is headlining his own tour. I love many of his songs and was really looking forward to his performance. Gary strolled down those centerstage stairs at 9:30 without much build up or fanfare, starting right in on his first song. As is usual for Mr. Allan, he began with a thin leather jacket over his tee, but then removed it by the third song. He was wearing super-frayed, distressed jeans. The show progressed quickly from that point on, with little pause between numbers. From my front floor position in this rather small arena the sound was way too loud - made me want to plug my ears. It seemed to get a little better by the second half of Gary’s set, but maybe my auditory receptors were half stunned by then! I enjoyed all my Allan favorites and a few new acoustic songs I was unfamiliar with, but some of Gary’s newest were too hard rock for me - especially at high volume. It was a nice change to watch a band member in a kilt (one of Gary's guitarists)! : ) I liked that Gary brought out his opening acts for a fun song towards the end of the show. I also liked the special touch when, at the end of the encore, Gary's shaggy black and white dog was waiting for him at the top of the centerstage stairs. Gary gave him a rub in greeting and then they both departed! : )
Gary please share yourself more with all of your fans!! Even more so than Jack Ingram, Gary spent 3/4 of his set at stage left - I kept wanting to wave him over to at least centerstage if not to stage right where I was sitting. I never saw him really play to the risers or say anything to those at the rear of the venue. Such a sharp contrast to the way that Keith acknowledges every area of any arena and really tries throughout an evening to spend quality time everywhere that he possibly can. And I have to say that even though I really like Gary and his music, there were other sharp contrasts that detracted from the show. I did not care for some of his background visuals. I understand that as a more beginning artist he does not have a huge production budget, but I would drop the silhouettes or images of buxom women with spread legs and wielding machine guns (???? am I missing something about their relevance?) and some of the jerky low quality graphics at the beginning of the show. (Later numbers had much more beautiful and intriguing backgrounds). Also Gary is a very serious performer - as in very sparing with his smiles and sometimes almost looking like he was irritated to be there! I just didn’t get a sense of joy or that he loved what he was doing except for one brief comment that “If you treat me good I’ll play all night.” That was one of his very few comments to the audience - he really didn’t chat or engage with the crowd except for a couple handslaps. I missed that personalizing of the show.. He did scold security for harassing folks approaching the stage and told them to back off. But even that was done in a different tone that what I was used to. Gary phrased it “Back off, let them have fun - this is MY party!” (whereas Keith always refers to a show as the fans' “This is YOUR night - do what you want.”)
So my trip and the concert were very enjoyable but not “the best I ever had!”
(sorry for the drunken arm wavers in the clips below)
A few longer clips I put on Youtube:
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