i saw willie nelson

yesterday, ray, charlotte, david & i drove to richmond to see willie nelson. this show was one of the "field of dreams" concerts that are happening in minor league ballparks around the country.

and to be fair, the show was not just willie nelson, but "willie nelson, bob dylan, and the hot club of cowtown"... but it's clear what my agenda was.

the seating was all general admission, but divided up into "field" and "stands" seating. we had "stands" seats and got there early to get a spot under the stadium's overhang. (as it turns out, it only rained for about 10 minutes during bob dylan's set... a shocker, considering we were still dealing with the remnants of hurricane charley.)

the sound was pretty terrible. very boomy. i don't know what i expected, but after seeing more than my usual number of "big" concerts this year (prince, hall & oates) i should have been prepared. when the hot club of cowtown came out we were stunned by how poorly we could hear them. the people down front, by the stage, seemed to be enjoying it, though, so we thought that perhaps it was only bad where we were sitting, up in the stands.

willie nelson was great, though. something about the nasal quality of his voice cut through the boominess. willie has such a nice rapport with his audience... he'd wave at people, and point and them and smile. he'd even take off his headband and throw it into the audience (then go tie another one around his head and repeat the whole process 20 minutes later). there is something magical about willie nelson that i can't even put into words... a twinkle in his eye, the smile-lines around his mouth... he's a lovely man, and i'm so thankful to have seen him.

i'm really reluctant to talk about bob dylan's set, though. i know very little dylan (just the hits, mostly) and was shocked to find that he's a total rock-and-roller now. electric guitars and big drum sets. not what i was expecting.

i was also not expecting him to stand at the side of the stage playing a keyboard all night. he never played guitar, and the only time he faced the audience was after his set was over and he stood and accepted the applause (i don't think he even really bowed... just stood there stiffly). the rest of the time we only saw him in profile, and his big black top-hat-lookin' thing obscured what little of his face we could see at that angle.

we recognized 4 of his songs: "i will be released", "it ain't me babe", "like a rolling stone", and "all along the watchtower." the rest just sounded like mooshy, unrecognizable rock & roll to me.

david & his pal, will, managed to sneak down into the field area during dylan's set, and he reported that the sound was much better down there, and that dylan even had a little rapport with the audience... things we weren't able to discern at all from our stadium seats.

(for what it's worth, we specifically opted for stadium seats, thinking that at least we'd be able to sit and have shelter. i'm glad we got those tickets, even though it meant we had to suffer through some bad sound. also, because the field was so soppy from the weekend rain, no lawn chairs were allowed on the field [as was initally advertised] and people were forced to stand on weird rubber mats.)

all in all it was a good night. relaxing. we ate tons of junk food, too (as charlotte is so kindly demonstrating below). the close-up photos of the willie were creatively taken by putting the camera lens up to our binoculars... that's why the quality is a little fuzzy.

   
  
 

Posted by xta at August 16, 2004 02:22 PM | TrackBack