George Strait, Reba, Lee Ann Womack Oct 14, 2010 Consol Energy Center Pittsburgh
I was so happy to learn about this show. I had seen Reba, with Brooks & Dunn, Terri Clark, and some young guy the ladies were screaming over, in concert about 12 years ago. Reba puts on one heck of a show! And she seems to always bring along very talented friends, or should I say her “good buddies” , to make for a great evening.
So I found out when tickets become available and I get my backside in line at the ticket office at the appropriate time. I don’t do it on-line, as my slow dial up connection is just way too slow. I am 4th in line. They open only 3 ticket windows! So I wait 5 minutes, but that means people on-line, esp. scalpers, grab up a lot of good tickets. I get up to the window and the guy working there is an older guy who is slow using the computer system. None of the tickets he offers me seem worth the $90+ . It almost seems like the ticket system tries to sell seats in the most expensive range that aren’t worthy, and that a cheaper seat would be a better buy. I got a bit frustrated and left. I thought if I were to go at that point, I would just get a cheap seat.
So I return to the ticket office just a few days before the show, hoping its not sold out. It wasn’t . In fact, I end up paying the $90+ for a seat. Although it’s not a good seat, it’s not that bad either. It is in a central location, about 14 rows up. I would say it was better than half the seats there. Plus, they used a “center stage” set up, not end stage set up. The stage was square, with the corners sort of pointing out toward the centers and the ends, like a diamond. Which meant those with ‘front row’ or floor seats were in good shape when the performer was on the stage corner near them. But they moved corner to corner, so it was really only like a quarter of the show that they had great seats. The rest of the show, the performers were away from them.
The day of the show arrived, and I headed on in. it’s an easy bus ride. In fact, the bus stop is right there in front of the Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh’s new hockey arena and concert venue. They don’t scan the tickets when you enter that first floor door, but they do check bags. I noticed that the rest rooms were crowed. I couldn’t believe it. A brand new building that lacked sufficient facilities? Plus I get up to the merchandise table and of course it was a real mess. A big mob. So I thought “forget this” and headed on in. They scanned my ticket, I took the escalator up to the appropriate level, and found a merchandise table with only a few people. Plus, the rest rooms on that level had more than sufficient numbers to handle the crowd. It was one of those things were people just tried to do it all when they first entered, instead of going to their appropriate area close to where their seats were located.
I bought a Reba program and a Reba fridge magnet at the merchandise table. George and Lee Ann did not have them, though there were CDs and plenty of T-shirts. I headed on in to my seat. All seats in that section had padding on both the seat part and back part. Plus they are new seats. It’s a new arena. Very comfortable. I looked through the program and noticed something about the one picture. Reba singing with another young lady. She looked familiar, but I couldn‘t think of the name.
As previously mentioned, the stage was sort of diamond like in the center. The band’s instruments were sort of circular in the center, while the side’s and corners were open space for the principle performers. They had a railing kind of thing set up from one corner of the stage, through the floor section, to a large opening that lead under the seats. I imagine that’s where the Zamboni is parked and comes out for hockey games. The performers used that aisle, from the large opening leading to the stage, to move on / off stage. The big arena scoreboard was retracted way up to the ceiling. They did have a smaller tv like thing extended down from it, and a much larger movie screen type of thing hanging down that they projected images on. I had a very good view of this rather large and central positioned screen, which worked out very well.
The show started promptly at 7pm with Lee Ann Womack as opening act,. She told us that, although the Consol Energy Center had previous concerts, this was the very first country music concert. She said something like “I hope y’all like REAL country” Also, she told us that we were so lucky to get the “King & Queen” (George & Reba) as the first country performers here. She sang a few of her songs, including “I’m gonna love you tonight” and “I hope you dance“, as well as some cover songs like “Night Life” and “Rose of San Antone.” As she sang “Night Life”, I had a flash back to a Reba cassette tape I bought maybe 25 years ago! Reba did that song on it. Lee Ann’s part of the show lasted about 40 minutes. She has a good voice, but, in my opinion, she lacks something. She clapped, danced around, and tried to get the crowd fired up, but she just didn’t get it done, in my view. She certainly waved and interacted. She ran around the stage, corner to corner, on each song. She must have done 50 laps. She did not display a shortage of energy, yet she didn’t seem to generate it either. Although some might disagree with me. She certainly did a good job, but, in my opinion, not great.
After a 15 minute intermission, its Reba, who had no problem displaying or generating energy! She knows how to work a crowd. Knows exactly where the arena tv cameras are for the big screen and knows how to play them. At first, the big screen had images of Reba over the years. As singer, tv star, movie star, broadway star, etc. Her program did the same thing. Each section sort of had something about a different phase of her lengthy, diverse, and very successful career in entertainment. But the images that they displayed on the big tv screen made me think back to her concert 12 years ago. That show started off in a similar way, with images on a big screen, but they were of the city. Her people must of went out and took images of various locations that said “Pittsburgh” and customized it to this one show. That must of took a little time and effort, but was very effective in establishing a connection with the crowd right from the start.
She performed old hits, like “Night the Lights went out in Georgia” and new ones like “Turn on the Radio”. On “Keep on Lovin’ You” she noted that her “good buddy” Ronnie Dunn wrote the song and that she toured with Brooks & Dunn for 4 years. She said that she had to be “the toughest lady in country music” and got a laugh. She also added that “just because they are splittin’ it doesn’t mean they’re quittin’”.
She featured her band on a song called “Nothin’ Left to Lose”. The female band member performed multiple duties all night long. She played some fiddle and guitar, sang some background vocals, did a duet with Reba, and even danced a bit when she had no musical part to perform. She was often on the opposite corner of the stage from Reba, providing the crowd on the back end with something live to look it, instead of just the tv screen with Reba on it.
Reba thanked everyone for supporting her over the years. She said “Thank you” a bit more than Lee Ann, who did the “Thank You” thing about as much as one would normally expect. Perhaps that’s a reason why Reba has been such a star over the years.
She continued on with many more songs and had several cool surprises in the show. First, when she performed “Does she Love You” a duet, she stationed herself on the stage corner farthest from the aisle and the steps leading up to the stage. She had everyone distracted far away from Lee Ann Womack’s entrance to sing the duet with her. Lee Ann was suddenly there…SURPRISE! She and Lee Ann were sort of in positions like they were dueling or fighting. The arena tv system positioned itself so you could see both on screen facing off at each other on opposite ends of the stage . They then joined each other on the one corner and sort of loudly sang right in each others faces. Of course Reba “won” .
Reba’s second big surprise also involved a duet. She noted how her “good buddy” (everyone is her “good buddy”) Kelly Clarkson wrote her next song and performed it as a duet with her. So, that left us wondering, if it’s a duet, who would sing with Reba? Lee Ann? Her female band member? Nope…out came….KELLY CLARKSON herself! A great surprise. Then I remembered. That picture in the program, the one I thought that I should know who was there with Reba? Well, its Kelly. They actually did 2 songs, "Because of you" and another that I didn't get the name for.
Reba’s third surprise happened at the very end of her part of the performance. The one guy said on speaker “Give it up for Reba McEntire!” and people gave her a big standing O, wildly cheering for such a great performance. She waved a bit and left the stage, headed back down the aisle to the big opening to the backstage area. Many people, thinking it was intermission, headed for concession stands or restrooms. But the house lights remained dark. AH-OH! Something’s up! An encore coming? Why…yes indeed. The big screen suddenly started showing the video for “Fancy” and the part with Reba riding in the cab. Then, the spotlight hit a cab coming out of the big entrance and driving as far as it could down the aisle toward stage. Suddenly Reba got out of the backseat, dressed in a red dress, and headed back on stage and performed her song “Fancy“ as last song of her set list.
She was looking great in that red dress! Her first costume was just a black, sort of tank top, kind of thing, with dark colored pants. It wasn’t fancy at all. In fact, Lee Ann’s attire wasn’t that sophisticated either, as she wore a silver tank top kind of thing with dark pants. Perhaps the ladies didn’t want to show up George too much, as he just wore his usual shirt, pants, and cowboy hat. Nothing fancy about him. But that’s part of his appeal.
Before I get to George though, a few more notes on Reba. She performed the theme to her tv show, I think its entitled “Survivor”. She also did well on “The Greatest Man I never Knew” and some song about cowboys, were they showed images of various people on the big screen, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, etc. Like Lee Ann, Reba did a LOT of laps around that square stage. I bet several laps per song. For a 50 something, she sure looks great and has energy! And she still puts on one heck of a show! Her part of the show ended at about 9:10pm. After a 15 minute intermission, on comes “The King”!
They played a recorded instrumental version of “Deep in the Heart of Texas” as entrance music for him. He started off with “Twang” which was a great lead off song. The crowd got to say “Twang” at the appropriate spot in the song and that generated fan participation and excitement. The third song was “Honk if you Honky Tonk” and that also went very well, getting the fans fired up! He went on to do a number of songs including “Can still make Cheyenne”, “I Hate Everything”, “Wrapped”, “Check Yes or No”, and others.
George took a different approach to the stage. Instead of running round and round like the ladies, he went to one corner, did 2 songs, then walked on over to the next corner, did 2 songs, moved again, did 2 songs, etc. His style was in complete contrast to the ladies. He didn’t jump around. Yet he still generated excitement despite the low key approach. Some people were dancing around. It looked like one usher in the floor section told people to settle down a bit. The ladies to my right were clapping, cheering, swaying, having a great time. Lots of energy! Now perhaps another factor played a role. Some people had been drinking beer for close to 3 hours. Maybe a “beer” effect? People were still completely sober for Lee Ann’s performance! George did interact a bit, but not too much. He connected to Pittsburgh by saying something like “This is Mario’s place, but we are gonna just borrow it for a little while tonight”. His main thing that he said the most was “Thank you” You will never hear a performer thank the crowd as often as George Strait. He said it after every other song.
He got to a point when he introduced his band, called the “Ace in the Hole” band. They did a fantastic job. There were 8 or 9 members. Both George and Reba had large bands. When he introduced the bass player, he made his voice real deep as he said “the bass player” . Most of the band were older guys from Texas, but he did have one pretty younger lady, his one back up singer, from Nashville, After he introduced her, he made a sound, hard to explain, one of those like “isn’t she a hottie” type of sounds.
He went on to do many more songs. I don’t have the whole set list. One song included lyrics that said, without Texas, there would be no Dallas Cowboys. That drew a few boos hahaha in a joking way. Pittsburgh is, after all Steeler country! It reminded me a bit of Garth Brooks concert about 15 years ago, When Garth introduced his back up singer, a pretty lady (seems a LOT of back-up singers are pretty ladies) he said “from Cleveland, Ohio” then her name. Everyone clapped and cheered for her. Garth then added “wow what a compliment, you don’t know how much a compliment that is” (as he looked over at her) then he added “a Pittsburgh crowd cheering a person from Cleveland”.
So George does some more songs. Including “How ‘bout them Cowgirls” and “Amarillo by Morning”. They did something very cool on Amarillo. Theres a fiddle part at the end, and they put the band’s fiddler on the big screen, then had a sky image in back of him. Somehow they merged images. Then as the song faded out, the image of the fiddler faded into just sky. I would love to see that again. Where is the replay button for live performances? I loved George’s performance of “Troubadour” and sang along, maybe a bit too loud. I must be getting old, ,as I can relate so well to that song.
George finishes, gets a great standing O, and leaves the stage. But of course theres an encore. Three songs, started with “All my Exs Live in Texas” followed by “Folsom Prison” and then another song that I don’t remember the title to. But some lyrics included “This is where the cowboy rides away” or something to that effect. Very appropriate for an ending song for a country star like George.
The show ended at about 11:20pm. We fans really got our money‘s worth in terms of both quality and quantity. Not much to say bad about this one. At times, I think the sound could have been better. But it was in a hockey arena with 10,000 plus in attendance, and very loud, so its not like a small intimate theatre where sound can be engineered for maximum quality. Reba did not sing “When Whoever’s in New England” and George did not sing “I Cross my Heart”, "Carrying your love with Me", or “Write this Down”. It would have been nice if they could have got those songs on the set list. But we can’t be too greedy. It was a lengthy show, and they had to cut it off at some point.
This show really is a MUST see for country music fans!
The newspaper review can be found here...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10288/1095449-388.stm 