The show was originally scheduled for the end of July, when the weather outside is warm, and gentle breezes flow in and through the Sleep Train Amphitheater, in Marysville, CA. However, Gary had vocal problems, and the date was rescheduled for the cold, rainy night of October 28, 2005.
The day started out cloudy as I left my home. I live about 85 miles from the amphitheater, and brought a sweatshirt jacket to wear over my Blake Shelton Fan Club t-shirt and jeans. The weather reports said rain through the morning, clearing by evening. Well, let me tell you, the weather reports were wrong. As I left my house around 2:30 pm, it was cloudy, and the closer I got to Marysville, the damper it got, until I had to put on the windshield wipers full blast, and turn on the defroster, so I could see where I was driving.
By 4:00 pm, I arrived at my hotel and checked in. The weather was still raining. Not a downpour, but nothing I'd want to sit outside in, without a rain coat. And, nothing I'd want to subject my camera to.
After dinner, I kept looking out my hotel window, thinking I just spent $85.00 on a room for nothing. There's no way I was going to sit outside in the rain, no matter how light. By 6:00 pm, I had about given up on going. Then, at 6:30, I took one more look outside to find that it had cleared up a bit, and the rain had stopped. I quickly gathered my driving instructions, ticket, camera and note pad and jumped in the car.
The Sleep Train Amphitheater is one of those venues that does not allow cameras, period. So, I obtained a photo pass in order to have some photos to go with my review of the shows. It had been a few years since I had last done so, and the policy had changed at the venue. No longer did they take your camera and meet you at the front of the stage and let you shoot the first 3 songs, then take your camera back and meet you again for the next act, etc. Now, they expected me to take photos of the first 3 songs then leave the venue, and take my camera all the way back to my car, then walk back in and watch the show, then go back out to get my camera again for the first 3 songs of the second act, and take the camera back out, and then come back and watch the rest of the second act, then go get my camera again for the 2nd and 3rd songs of Rascal Flatts. Well, that wasn't going to work for me. I would miss half the show. I wouldn't know what they sang in my marching back and forth between the venue and my car, which was parked WAY out in the far reaches of the parking lot.
While I waited in the office to be escorted back to the amphitheater, I watched the clock as it ticked down past 7:15... 7:30, and finally the lady in charge came in at 7:40, which was 10 minutes too late for me to go to my Blake Shelton Meet & Greet, which started at 7:30. I couldn't leave without her as I didn't know how the camera deal was going to work. What a pain. I will NEVER go to this venue again. They are too disorganized.
As I stated, I was allowed to keep my camera with me as long as I put it in my purse under my seat. It was such a joke that I couldn't take pics after I got to my seat as most of the people around me all had small digital cameras and phones and were taking pics all over. But, I kept my camera put away.
I was so glad to get to see Keith Anderson again. I had reviewed his show this summer when he was on the Riverfront stages at the CMA Music Festival. Looking back on that review, I see that he performed virtually the same thing he did back in June. He opened with the really catchy "Wrap Around," then sang his current hit "XXL." He told the same story he did in June about being the smallest one in his family. He said he's got Aunts that are 350 to 450 lbs, and wear mumus. Now, Keith has a Jim Beam guitar (like Troy Gentry plays in Montgomery Gentry), and he took it out for his next song, "Picking Wild Flowers." I just love that song. The guitar riff is so infectous! As I headed back to my seat, Keith said he'd sing one more, and asked if we were warm yet. His final song was the title cut Three Chord Country & American Rock & Roll.
Song List:
- Wrap Around
- XXL
- Picking Wild Flowers
- Three Chord Country & American Rock & Roll