The Big Guy and I went to see Hootie and the Blowfish last night at the Minnesota Zoo Amphitheatre. In a word...this show was AWESOME! When we purchased tickets back in May, I thought I hit the jackpot when we get front row. I thought, "Wow! Is it always this easy? I always seem to get super-way-up-high-nosebleed-seats."
Yeah. Kindof. That is, you have to read the fine print.
Warning: Limited or Obstructed View
OK, so we thought, "How bad can it be? A pole? A speaker?" When we got to there, we took our seats and seriously thought, "what's the obstruction?" Take a look for yourself. This is what we had for a view. Literally, less than 10 yards from the Hoot-master himself.
That's when the little security man came to us and said, "You understand that you have obstructed view seats?" The Big Guy and I (along with our two bench partners) said, "Yes". He then replied, "The reason it says 'obstructed' is because people can come down here and dance."
Whachu talking 'bout, Willis?
Dance? In front of me? I don't think so. There isn't a bad seat in the house! Why would people come down and stand in front of the front row seats. It made no sense, but we decided that it was as much our right as anyone else to stand up and move 5 feet closer to the stage. So, if we see people coming down to dance, we were getting up front.
Priorities, people. We have priorities.
We were also seated next to the handicap section. A nice young lady was assisting a gentleman in a wheelchair and they were seated next to us. The Zoo Volunteer who brought them down looked at the 4 of us (me, The Big Guy, and the two girls seated next to us) and said, "Do you have tickets for these seats?"
Our reply: "Yes"
The Zoo Volunteer then said, "When did you buy them?"
Huh? Are you really asking us this?
Our reply (in unison): "When they first went on sale."
She then said, "Well, that's good. Because this concert is sold out."
The four of us looked at a each other--baffled.
The Concert--Opening Act
The opening act was the Drew David Band. They are a country group. I like country so I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I have decided that I have a new favorite country band. These guys ROCKED! There wasn't one bum song in their set. They worked the crowd, had a great sound and overall--well worth it. If you like country they remind me of Big & Rich as well as Montgomery Gentry. Even a little bit of Keith Urban. Very cool.
Here are some YouTube links to their videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exJHhQh_Pwk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mN_px-Z_qE&feature=related
The Big Guy Dancing....
This is all that would move when he danced in place.
Yep...just his lower legs. That's it.
HOOTIE!!
These guys were great. They sang lots of cool songs and even some cover songs like, "Losing my Religion" (apparently one of their band members actually played mandolin on the original track of that song for REM!), and "Get Down on It". Very fun. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
EDITED: Videos are up! Be warned: the sound quality isn't all that great (I was next to a speaker, so it's a little...well....loud).
Every Time I Look at You...
Yes...I was that close. This is not zoomed. When people ask me, "how close were you" my reply will be:
"I could see the crease in Hootie's jeans"
"I can tell you that Hootie doesn't bite his nails"
I was that close.
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