My husband and I spent last Thursday evening with Bob Seger at the Yum Center in Louisville. It was our fourth Seger show; the other three were part of his Face the Promise tour. For two of those former shows, we had the best seats ever. For the first, we were in the second row; for the second, we were at Rupp Arena, and our seats were front-row, center-stage, right in front of Seger’s microphone. We realize the probability of ever getting such great seats again is low; however, that did spoil us, so while we were happy with the good seats we had at the Yum Center, 19th row with an excellent view of the stage, Seger, and the band, we were also disappointed that our seats were not what we’ve gotten used to.
There were some interesting things about being 19 rows back, though. When you’re in the front, you miss a lot of the other stuff that goes on at concerts; being in the front allows you to focus entirely on the on-stage performance, with very little distractions. Being farther back, I discovered, provides many distractions.
Before I talk about the distractions, let me address the Yum Center. It’s a huge building and very nice. The only real problem I could find with it was that there was just a little too much red for my tastes. I’m aware that’s because the Louisville Cardinals play their basketball games there, but nonetheless, it’s was way too much red for me. I’m a girl who prefers blue. The Yum Center provided access to some fast-food options rather than just your normal concession stand fare, offering KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut. You might be aware that Papa John’s is Louisville’s favorite pizza, and to prove it, you can still get some Papa John’s pizza inside the Yum Center.
Let’s start with Guy in the Checkered Shirt. I wish I could say I felt sorry for this guy, but I don’t. He showed up wasted. My guess is he won’t remember he was even in the building to start with. This man and his entourage were sitting in row 18, about 5 seats to the left of where we were. Thankfully, they were not directly in front of us. His buddy was also drunk, but was not wasted. The group gets over to their seats, and Guy in the Checkered Shirt’s unfortunate wife/girlfriend (no idea which) had to help him sit down. Yep, he was so far gone, he couldn’t even manage to sit himself in the seat. And this was before Seger even took the stage. This guy’s night doesn’t get any better. When Seger finally takes the stage, of course, everyone in the arena is standing, even Guy in the Checkered Shirt, who manages to stand on his own for all of about 30 seconds before Unfortunate Girl has to hold him up. Both of these people were of average size, and while she tried to look understanding, it had to be difficult to support his dead weight.
Over the course of the first set (Seger takes a mid-show intermission to refresh himself and put on a clean, dry shirt), they were up and down. Briefly, she stood while he sat, and she was trying to enjoy the show, but she had to keep checking on him. Once she sat down, and he just laid over on her. Finally, Seger’s intermission arrived, and Guy in the Checkered Shirt could take no more; he puked all over the floor. I felt sorry for Unfortunate Girl and for the people sitting directly behind them, in front of them, and to the right of them (his drunken buddy was to their left), but I did not feel sorry for Guy in the Checkered Shirt. He ruined a great concert, which he will remember nothing of, for Unfortunate Girl. After he puked, Unfortunate Girl and Buddy helped him out of the arena. Buddy eventually found his way back; we never saw Guy in the Checkered Shirt or Unfortunate Girl again.
Here’s what I don’t understand about Guy in the Checkered Shirt. Why pay $150 for floor tickets and get so wasted you won’t even remember having been there, and you ruin the evening for your date? My guess is he’s just lucky he didn’t actually puke on the folks around him.
Then there was Grandpa and his granddaughter, who were sitting in the seats beside me, to my left. Seger is great for family bonding, I suppose. Grandpa and Granddaughter enjoyed not only a Seger concert but also drinking together. They had five cups of beer, each, over the course of the show. It’s interesting at these shows to look around and see all the middle-aged fans there to watch an old man and his band play some music; it’s also interesting at the number of young people who attend, so it was good to see them enjoying some family time at a Bob Seger concert.
When the second set started, the folks who were sitting directly in front of us stayed out in the aisle. Security asked them to clear the aisle and return to their seats, and they told Security they’d be glad to do so as soon as Security clean up Guy in the Checkered Shirt’s puke. So for the next three songs, we’re getting to watch the show and watch Security cleaning up the puke. True to their word, as soon as it was clean, those fine folks returned to their seats. While they were in the aisle, though, we could see clearly the people two rows in front of us. There we discovered Dancing Grandma. I’m telling you, this woman was as old as my mother, and she was dancing like she was twenty. I noticed her for the first time when Security was there cleaning up puke, and she was the woman sitting directly in front of Guy in the Checkered Shirt, so I couldn’t decide if she was dancing because she was enjoying the show so much or because she was so excited somebody was finally getting rid of the puke in the floor behind her.
So, what of the show itself? It was great. Seger looked younger and more energetic than he did four years ago. I attribute this to his having great hair going on. Four years ago when we saw him, he was sporting a short haircut; I’ve always preferred Seger with longer hair, and while it wasn’t as long as in the early ’80s, it was longer than it was four years ago, and I loved it. I’m sure the longer hair left him more energetic and feeling younger, hence the more energized show. In addition to enjoying watching Seger perform, I love to watch Alto Reed play the saxophone; listening to “Turn the Page” live gives me chills. For a couple of guys in their mid-sixties, they do a great show. You can’t truly appreciate their musical abilities and talents until you’ve seen them live. And when speaking of their talents, I can’t forget to add that Seger is the master of the Fist Pump, often throwing in a Double Pump to keep the crowd rocking.
The show had a few missteps along the way, but that just provided some extra personality. Seger and the Silver Bullet Band take the stage, get ready to start their first song, and some perhaps now unemployed stagehand had forgotten to turn on the keyboard. Later, Seger dedicates a song to all the guys there, but it was the wrong song. Later in the show, he had to do it again by saying, “This is the song for all the guys out there.” The stagehands bring in Seger’s stool and guitar so he can do a song, but it’s the wrong guitar. Seger walked all around the piano just to get back to the microphone and tell us, “It’s not time for me to play the piano yet.” And they get ready to play a song we might remember, and we wait, and he says that we don’t have a piano. When the issue’s resolved, we immediately find out how important the piano is since the song was “Old Time Rock n Roll.”
When the show was over, we headed back to Jackson since I had to work the next day. We’d enjoyed a great show and thought our adventures were over, until we returned to the parking garage. Of course, traffic was backed up, making us dependent upon the kindness of some stranger who just happened to be a fellow-Seger fan. We sat in our vehicle for probably twenty minutes before any traffic moved at all. A group of four young people decided to amuse themselves during the wait. So, they took pictures of themselves; some from outside their vehicle, some inside, some together, some by themselves, but they took a ton of pictures. I must give them a shout-out, though, because when the line of traffic finally started to move, they let us pull out in front of them. So, thank you, fellow Seger fans; by your kindness, you give me hope for the young people out there.
I drove back to the rest area just outside Louisville, and we stopped for a bathroom and snack break, and for Jimmy to take over the driving so I could sleep. After I left the restroom, I told Jimmy that I speculated the two women who’d been in there were drunk; they were just a little too excited about the hand dryers in the restroom. As we’re walking to the vending machine, the two women are standing there smoking. As we approach, they move along the walking path. As we walk through where they had been standing and smoking, I catch a whiff of what they’d been smoking and told Jimmy to scratch the idea that they were drunk; they were just high instead.
If anything else interesting happened, I’ve not been told about it. After getting back in the Explorer, I took my pillow and made myself as comfortable as I could and slept the rest of the way home. We enjoyed our date night, and we’re already looking forward to an announcement of future Seger shows.
educatedguesswork 