Garth Brooks Concert Review:
Sacramento, CA (08/17/97)
Dateline: 08/25/97
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The night had finally arrived. I was finally going to get to see "the man" in person. Last time Garth was in my neck of the woods, I wasn't able to get tickets to see him. That was back in 1994. After a long wait, I finally had the tickets, and was finally going to have my own Garth encounter. It is about an hour drive from where I live in Vallejo to the Arco Arena in Sacramento. My husband had the directions and we made our way to the concert. As we approached the arena, I noticed two bi-planes circling the area. These were from two of the local radio stations, welcoming Garth to Sacramento. We parked the truck and began the walk into the arena. In front of the building, there was a booth, and the radio station was broadcasting live clips. There was also a souvenir stand, and I got my program before entering the building. As we got to our seats, I was really pleased to find out that I had an end seat. With seats 15 and 16, I never would have guessed this. We sat down and took in the scene. Looking down, I could see all the fans on the floor. Ohhh, did I envy them. I was stuck in the upper deck, and although it was still nice seats, I wished I could be on the floor. I noticed six fans had black shirts with yellow letters on them. They were seated so that if you looked at them, it said G - A - R - T - H - !, and if they turned around it would read B - R - O - O - K - S. Pretty neat. Close to 7:00 pm, the lights went down and the crowd roared its approval. The announcer welcomed us to the Garth Brooks Concert, then introduced the opening act, "This evening we are proud to present a couple of songwriting cowboys, please say hello to the writer of The American Honky-Tonk Bar Association, and The Old Stuff, it's Bryan "Chuckwagon" Kennedy. And how 'bout a warm welcome for the writer of Fever, and Beaches of Cheyenne, it's Dan "Rodeo" Roberts." They in turn introduce the third person on the stage, James Garver, who plays lead guitar in Garth's band, Stillwater. Bryan and Dan sang several songs, the most memorable being "My New Tony Lamas." (Here are the words to My New Tony Lamas.) They ended the set saying Garth was in for a treat with this crowd. The time ticked by, and the music played in the background. Jimmy Mattingly came out from backstage and walked around signing autographs and taking photos. Then I saw Garth's mom come out from backstage. (It was neat being up high for the reason that you could see anyone coming out from backstage from where we sat.) She stopped near the people with the black and yellow Garth-lettered shirts and took photos and talked with some people. As it neared 8:00 pm, the crowd kept getting real loud in between the songs, hoping that the canned music would stop and the show would begin. 8:00 o'clock came and went, and we wondered what was holding things up. Finally around 8:10 the announcer said "G minus 5. All band members report backstage." We watched as Jimmy came back, and Mrs. Brooks went backstage once more, and then at 8:15 the room went dark, and the crowd went wild. | |
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