Country grammar

I had the exquisite pleasure of attending my first country concert with Kia last weekend. Well, my first one ever. Not just with her. It was her second one. Truly a unique experience. I wish I had posted this sooner, so more of the details would be fresh in my mind. But alas, procrastination is a tough mistress. All in all, it was a good time. The main act was Tim McGraw. He's a good performer, but for some reason I thought he'd play the guitar at least once. He did elicit lots of passionate screams from the female portion of the audience for pretty much anything he did. And there were lots of women wearing cowboy hats. The funniest parts for me were when he'd announce that the next song was from his new album, and everyone who was standing would sit down. Then the next song would start and people would pop up again. Then a few songs later, everyone sits. It was like church. And he talked about God and the war too. Yeah, it was a lot like church. All things considered, I had a good time. There's something about live music that I really love. Even if I don't know most of the words to the songs or what a "ragtop" is.
 
The unpleasant part of the evening had nothing to do with the music or Tim McGraw or the 40-year-old women swooning two rows in front of us. The concert was at one of these outdoor pavilion places, where the seats are under a roof and there's also a lawn seating section. It used to have a nice name, but now it's owned by a bank and, therefore, is named after the bank. It's a trend I've noticed in lots of cities. Great Woods in Massachusetts is now called The Tweeter Center after an electronics store. Concert venues are getting named after beers and banks and cars. WTF? It takes some of the fun out of the whole experience to say, "Yeah, I'm seeing so-and-so at Microsoft Megaglobalcorp Toyota Stadium, brought to you in part by Red Bull." Not to mention sports arenas and stadiums. I won't even get into that. So that part got to me a little. When I saw Radiohead last August at the same place, Thom Yorke made some mention of it. Something like, "We're not playing here for them, we're playing here for you." Sometimes it's hard to distinguish the two.