The 2015 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) has sadly come to an end on this past March 22nd. Featuring artists from all different genres, such as pop, alternative rock and country, Rodeo Houston is a hub for great music. It is also a great place to let loose, eat good food, and watch champion bull riders! Besides the show my favorite part of the rodeo is the calf scramble. While I personally never participated in the calf scramble, my little brother did, and my dad is part of the calf scramble committee. Therefore I get to be up close and personal with it every year.
Now for those of you that don’t know, HLSR gives kids the chance of winning a $1500 scholarship if they catch a calf. The scholarship will fund their FFA and 4H projects for the upcoming year. They are also encouraged to show their heifer or steer at the next year’s livestock show. It is a great program that allows many kids to raise animals they wouldn’t have been able to if not for the scholarship. After the scrambling, the kids and audience get to enjoy another few events, and then (my 2nd favorite part) the CONCERT!
This year I had the pleasure of seeing Blake Shelton and, boy, was it a great performance! He has a charisma on stage that makes the audience feel apart of the show. He talked about The Voice (http://www.nbc.com/the-voice), his wife Miranda and everyday life. My favorite thing he said was, “I’m sure there’s other things a lot of you dudes would rather have been doing tonight than sitting in here listening to me sing, but I want you to know that you did it for the right reasons—you did it because she wanted you to come out here.”(Blog) There were quite a few headshakes from men in the audience but when he followed up with “Doin’ what she likes” the men grabbed their sweet hearts and swayed right along.
Apart from playing all of his new radio hits he went back to the very first song he ever wrote. “Austin” separated the long time Blake fans from the newly acquired ones and brought everyone back to where he started. Since then he has grown into a great musician and entertainer.
I encourage everyone to go to the rodeo at least once in his or her life because it’s a unique experience. I mean riding rides at the carnival, eating funnel cakes and watching barrel racers isn’t an everyday thing for most people. I highly anticipate the rodeo every year and really enjoy it every time I go!
The openers, Drive-By Truckers, were a rocky start. The guitar drowned out the vocalist to the point that I really didn’t understand what he was saying the entire time. Their stage presence was so-so; they seemed more involved with what was happening on stage and not the audience, at some points completely turning away from the audience. Watching from high above (in a seat where even the jumbo viewing screens were blocked), it was obvious that the crowd was not feeling them either. The general admission floor was practically at a complete stand still. Because I am more attuned to really active floor audiences that come with other genres of music, this was really surprising, but as it continued, it became more and more obvious that it wasn’t just because this was a country music concert. Continuing to scan the audience, I noticed that nearly everyone around me had their phone out and was scrolling through Facebook and Twitter feeds. If people don’t even want to put their phone down to listen to you, you are doing something wrong! When a high pitched squeal rang out in the Frank Erwin Center, a guy behind me summed up there entire performance perfectly, “That was the best thing I have heard all night!”.
Now don’t get me wrong; Eric Church was phenomenal! His stage presence and audience interaction was incredible; from playing fan favorites to telling stories to signing boots that were thrown on stage, Eric did it all and gave us more than we could have ever imagined for a Wednesday night concert. No matter how fantastic an artist’s performance is, a concert experience can be hindered by anything from openers to the people around you. With this in mind, in the future, I would like to ward you against intertwining the two. Eric Church was awesome! My experiences at the concert were not quite as good, but that does not mean I think poorly of the artist.
As an urban city dweller from northern Chicago who has quite literally “Gone to Texas,” my take on the hit TV series Nashville is most likely different than most. I am coming up on the end of my third year here at the University of Texas at Austin, but what brought me to the fine state of Texas is different than most: the weather. Two and half years ago I took my first step in Austin, Texas, ready to leave the cold weather behind and embrace the southern charm of a southern state. One thing I did not expect to like so much however, is country music.