Patty Loveless played the Senator Theater in Chico, CA on October 20, 2004. I was fortunate enough to have found out about this and bought my ticket a few weeks before the event.
I must say I'm not very happy with the way my ticket sale was handled at ChicoTickets.com. As I was only buying one ticket, I was shown a seating chart and was able to pick the seat I wanted. I did so, picking a 6th row seat on the aisle. I like aisle seats best as you can lean out to take pictures and not have heads in the way so much, so I chose this seat for a reason.
A few days after I purchased my ticket I received an email from the Webmaster of the ticket site asking me if I would move in towards the center of the aisle, so he could sell a pair of tickets to someone. I said "No." and explained why I wanted the seat I chose.
Well, the day of the show, my two friends and I met for dinner, then waited outside for the doors to open at 7:00 pm. At 7:15, the doors were still not open and the people were inside going through the Will Call tickets and setting things up. The guy that promoted this show didn't do a very good job at organizing things.
Around 7:25 pm they finally opened the doors and I got in the Will Call line to pick up my ticket. My two friends had their tickets in hand before the show, so they went in to their seats. I should have waited and let Dianne buy my seat too, as they were in the second row in the center, but I was in a hurry and bought mine online.
I had my printout of my order, with confirmation number and seat location. The guy handed me my ticket and I went in. I got inside where the seats were when I noticed that I was given the seat in the middle of the row, not the aisle seat I was promised. So, I went back out to where they were doing the Will Call and Day of Sale tickets and told them I got the wrong seat. Apparently, I guess this guy decided to move me anyway, as they did not have my seat available for me to get the ticket. I was offered another seat, which was in row 2 on the aisle, so I took it. But, after getting inside I found out I wasn't on the center aisle now, I was on the far right, so it was a much worse seat. I was not very happy about this, but there was not much I could do other than go back out and demand another seat. I did see that someone was in my seat, so the guy did re-sell my seat. I will never buy tickets from this company again.
The Senator Theater is very old and very cold, with concrete floors and a really tall ceiling, where I guess all the heat was. I had a portable chair, so after the show started, I moved my seat down to the first row of seats on the right, so I was closer, but still not very close to the center of the stage.
Opening the show was a local singer named Corinne West. She was very good, with a folksy-western style. She sang all original tracks, many of which she wrote, and played for about 45 minutes or so.
They had a raffle to win a poster that was used to promote the show which was autographed by Patty Loveless . That was 2nd prize, and 1st prize was an autographed guitar. VERY nice! The theater only holds 999 people and was about 3/4 full by the time Patty started her show, so I thought I might have a chance at winning one of the prizes. Sadly, I didn't, but the money went to the Boys and Girls Club, so I didn't mind.
I had never seen Patty before, but I have several of her albums, and love her work. She started the show with "Tear-Stained Letter." Then, she sang a few more of her older songs, "You Can Feel Bad," and "Nothin' But The Wheel."
Patty told the story of back in 1997, being able to work with one of her heroes. That person was George Jones. She said that it turned out great as they walked away for the CMA Award that year for Vocal Collaboration. The song, of course was "You Don't Seem To Miss Me."