Another hot weekend in Dallas. At this point it simply seems redundant and like a groundhogs day we’ll never recover from. I did take Friday to stay indoors and visited my friend Karen Ledfords Karaoke show at Dicky Sheas Smoke n Pour and that is always good for some killer vocals and music. Do I karaoke? Not if I can help it, but I can listen to friends between their own gigs. Karen is “Karen” from Big Little Town, a Little Big Town tribute. Always fun to listen to her sing!
Saturday night was Hub 121 and *another* outdoor show. Friends and family (#TRIBE) Even It Up were set to play and its been far too long since I’ve seen them play. As usual, I get there in time to stake my claim to the side of the stage and watch sound check. I do believe it was the hottest day of the summer, but it wasn’t just the heat that was on fire that night.
Kristy Johnson (Ann Wilson) is always on point with her vocals. The sun comes up, the moon has a vast impact on our ocean tides, and Kristy’s vocals. All things you can count on. Tonight however, the most impressive thing was how she powered through the heat and never once faltered.
Lets face it, my voice cracked talking to Carol and Alex (more friends) next to me. But Kristy somehow managed to get through 2 hours of solid rock with full energy and vocals that were simply stunning. From walking the crowd during Alone, to dancing in every song, the Led Zeppelin montage to ending it with the perennial crowd favorite, Barracuda; she never once showed the impact the heat must have had.
It was also the first time I had a chance to check out the new “Nancy” with Jennifer Janèt. Welcome to the #tribe! She did a great job with crowd interaction as well as guitars and vocals. Can’t wait to talk more with her soon!
The entire band deserves major kudos for powering through in the intense heat that was still 100* at 11pm when i got home.
Sunday night. Wow. What can I say? I got approved to shoot the Rick Springfield 80s tour so my happy berg ass drove on out to Ft Worth. Dickies Arena, to get to the point, is amazing. The staff across the board were fantastic to work with. I’ll be back as soon as I can!
The concert itself we’re working on a full write up but I had to mention it here as well. Tommy TuTone and Paul Young both only had (4) songs each and shared the same band. That was pretty quick but it also meant we could sit to the side of the stage for all performances vs running out of sight. Now with (4) songs, you’d think Tommy would do all his own, but the surprise Croce cover “Operator” was amazing. Camera down, sing along!
First time seeing the Hooters and they also put on a great set.
And, in an evening of firsts, it was also the first time I had seen Rick Springfield also. Now while I never got a chance to watch him “back in the day”, I can only imagine it was very much like this. Again, I could go on, but I could only go on for 3 songs cause that’s all we get in the pit. I have a friend working on the full review and we should be able to post it shortly.
That wrapped up weekend 1 of my birthday weekend. Next weekend is Oscars in Burleson to see Dreams Unwind with Lori Carlyle and another amazing group of musicians.
FYI – my favorite part of the weekend was opening the birthday card from Kristy not knowing she put glitter / foil in the envelope. I got “glittered”. 🙂
some photos from the weekend:
