Review: LeeAnn Womack, Reba, George Strait

There was a lot going on at the concert last night, and I’ll be posting another blog with more random observations from the show. Here is the basic run-down of the show itself.

I have been to A LOT of concerts in my time (current count is 26 and I think I’m forgetting a few), and let me tell you, not everyone sounds as good live as they do on CDs. The good thing is that all three of these artists sound just as good live. Always a good thing. (It’s so disheartening to go to a concert to realize the only reason you like the artist is because of the handiwork of some idiot in a sound booth.)

This was the first “in the round” concert I’d ever been to, and that was different. I mean, we were close enough to not have to watch the screens, but when they were on the other side of the stage, you had to. So, you have to work hard during these shows to find the optimum viewing angle for each spot.

LeeAnn Womack came out, and she’s okay. Not wearing the most flattering outfit in the world, but, you know, whatever works for her, considering she does NOT look like she did in the picture to the left. She did sing my favorite song of hers, and I wasn't sure she would, which made me happy. About halfway through her set, the two automatic cameras (out of the four, one for each corner of the stage) went out. Geek that I am, I had more fun watching the cameramen struggle to follow her than anything else. That is insanely pathetic, and I’m aware of that, but my pathetic-ness does get worse as the night goes on. Trust me.

So, LeeAnn Womack goes away and the next act comes out. We weren’t sure if it would be Reba or George Strait. It was Reba.

The last time I saw Reba was back when she was doing major theatrical stuff, with like 19 costume changes and all that. This was incredibly toned down compared to that, but it was great. She has a way of engaging the audience that is unrivaled by any other female artist I’ve ever seen. She was obviously having fun, including her band as much as possible, and I always appreciate artists who look like they are enjoying themselves as opposed to those who look like, “Damn, do I have to go to work again?”

This is the exact red dress she changed into.
Yay Google Images!

LeeAnn Womack came out again so Reba could sing “Does He Love You,” and their duet was pretty good. No one is Linda Davis, but it was pretty good nonetheless. Then Melissa Peterman (the blonde from the Reba show and host of “The Singing Bee”) came out, and the two did this little comedy act. You can tell it was totally rehearsed and was acting, but it was hilarious.

Her encore was, as I predicted, “Fancy.” This did allow for a costume change from all black to a bright red dress. She even came from the back to the stage in a mini-taxi. It was kind of cute.

Obviously, since Reba was the middle, that left George Strait to close. Reba’s a tough act to follow. God knows if I was on tour with her (ha, like that would ever happen – I am tone-deaf as hell), I would have to open because I wouldn’t want to be the let-down after that.

Needless to say, George Strait was a bit anticlimactic. He stands there, and he sings. That’s his thing. He would do two songs in each corner of the stage, then move to the next one. No moving during songs, no engaging the audience, just singing. He’s rather boring. In fact, I stopped watching him after I realized that, contrary to what middle-aged women have been screaming for years, George Strait has no ass. He does not have a cowboy butt that drives me nuts – or anyone, cause he doesn’t have one! How the hell Wrangler’s getting their money’s worth out of his endorsement all these years is beyond me. But I digress…

There were these screens in-between the screens that showed him, and they had these hypnotizing geometric shape things going on. The problem is, I noticed immediately they were off-center and it DROVE ME INSANE! Didn’t bother Scott until I pointed it out to him. Then he looked at me and goes, “Damn you.”

Towards the end of the show, which went on until 11:30, there was no dearth of drunks. Considering George is a rather boring guy to see on-stage, I spent more time watching the drunks act like fools. (More stories about those in a future blog.)

Oh, and observing George Straits weird mannerisms (shush, I had to entertain myself somehow – unlike Reba, you are not magnetically drawn to watch the stage when he’s on). He seemed to have a quota of the number of people he had to point to or wave to at each mark on the stage, and let me tell you, he’s got the most feminine-looking wave. I know it’s because he’s holding a guitar pick and trying not to be distracting to his singing, but, well, when you’re me, you notice this kind of thing. He said very little outside, “Thank you very much.” He did regularly tell us we were a great audience, and of course, my mind immediately went to Jimmy on South Park.

He also made incredibly weird faces when singing – if he had range, I might understand that, but, well, he doesn’t.  A couple times, he even did the “oh-no-she-didn’t head roll.” (If he would have snapped, I would have lost it right then and there.)

Basically, you know how, in the “Write This Down” video, he’s just kind of standing there singing, playing to the camera? That’s what he did this whole time. And that was his biggest thing. His audience was the camera in front of him, and not the thousands of people who were there. But, come on, we knew he lacked personality and charisma, you’ve seen the “wonderful” acting in Pure Country, haven’t you?

He left, came back and did a four or five song set as an encore, including “Folsom Prison Blues,” which seemed a little weird for him to be doing. I mean, George Strait doing a cover? It just didn’t make sense to me. (Then again, Reba has no need to do covers either and she did an entire album of them, so maybe I’m just over-analyzing.)

Anyway, the show was pretty good. I can now say I’ve seen George Strait live, even if it wasn’t crazy-exciting or anything. At least I can say I’ve done it. I’ve been there, done that. Did not spend a small fortune on the t-shirt though.