A year or so back the wife decided she wanted email. And use the interweb. Being a geek I supported her as it made buying a faster laptop and wireless gear so much easier. I also wanted her to get over her fear of technology. Soon she learned to use Google (as a verb no less) and life hasn't been quite the same since.
Readers will recall that the wife is a country music fan (and I love her anyways) so she's always looking for concert tickets for her favorite bands when they are in the area. Usually this means the Allstate Arena or the United Center as they are fairly close. She has always been a big Brooks and Dunn fan so when they came to town she was disapointed as they were playing the Tweeter Center - which is almost two hours away. She had resigned herself to not seeing them.
Then one night I'm watching American Chopper and she's surfing the web in the other room and I hear a scream. Figuring it's a spider I walk out there and she asks how bad would it be to get to the Tweeter Center. I say (like all good husbands) not too bad. She's been crusing the Ticketmaster web site and found 2 seats for Brooks and Dunn in the 20th row dead center. I logged in and bought them. I think I made her day.
Thing2 went and stayed at her Grandpa's house for the evening. We went down a little early and had lunch with Thing1 as his school is kinda on the way there. After lunch we headed over to theatre. Pretty nice place. The "security patdown" was a joke. Anything in the small of the back would get right in. My wife didn't even get touched. We wandered around for a while signing up for various give-a-ways: CD collections, autographed Big and Rich Guitar, and a Chevy Cobalt. The USO of Illinois was also there doing a raffle for a Custom Harley Davidson Fat Boy. For ten bucks you get a shot at winning the bike. Plus the money stays in Illinois to help Americas best when they need a litle lift. The US Army had a booth there attracting a fair amout of traffic. The recruiters were also in the crowd talking to young men and women. And no one was being disrespectful to them.
After we sat down and the opening band The Warren Brothers were done (Good band, wrong market. They really don't seem very country to me) the guy sitting next to my wife asked if it were just the two of us. She said yes and he explained that he had a friend that had seats in the tenth row and his wife couldn't make it so he wanted to sit with his buddy. After a inspection of the tickets we swapped. The wife was real happy now!
Big and Rich are a real good band. Great show. What I could see of it. The lady in front of use brought her young daughter who stood on the chair. That put her at about 6 foot 5. She had a great view. I saw the back of her head. After the set my wife tried to get the lady's attention to ask her to not have her daughter block my view as I headed off to get some liquid refreshment. When I got back the wife and the lady were in a huge argument. Names and insults flying (mainly at the wife). Eventually security got involved. My wife was accused of shoving the little girl and the woman. She was even threatened with physical violence by the woman. Finally security told the woman that if her daughter blocked anyones view again she would be removed from the theatre. All this because the women wouldn't politely talk to my wife. The woman and her kids went off to get something to drink and a lady sitting a couple of seats down came over (she looked to be about 7.5 months pregnant) and asked since she could see over anyones head if she could stand on the chair in front of us - smiling the whole time. The whole section was laughing. The people around us, who had witnessed everything, were amazed the woman had acted the way she did. After the woman left (about 5 songs into Brooks and Dunn) the guy who was sitting next to her moved over to step up on the chair, smiling the whole time.
Brooks and Dunn put on a great show. They end with "Only in America". It's an incredibly patriotic song. During the song 3 Marines, all dressed up, came out in formation, saluted the crowd, and went back in. The crowd went absolutly nuts. Nice thing about country fans - they love the U.S. of A.
One sad note - Ronnie Dunn has a habit of throwing drumsticks into the crowd when he's playing the cowbell. One went a few rows behind us and hit someone in the head. I think she ended up being taken out for medical attention. Hopefully she's ok.
I'm not a country fan but this was a fun show.
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