Yesterday (March 1st, 2008), I went to the Kenny Rogers concert. I've always liked Kenny Rogers, but I think he lost a lot of fans at this concert. From the start of the concert, the sound system just was not loud enough. People were screaming, throwing up their hands, waving, and generally trying to signal to the sound man that they just couldn't hear the concert.

At one point in time, Kenny was looking in to the crowd where they (the crowd) were screaming and signaling the sound man, possibly trying to see what they were trying to say, but he seemed to brush it off and go in to another song. As soon as the song started, at least 50 percent of the crowd started booing.

Within about 20 minutes of the concert, somewhere between 2 and 3 percent of the crowd left. By the 30 minute mark, another 10% or more. After that, they left the concert by the crowds. More people were leaving than coming in, even many people who were closer to the speakers that could obviously hear the concert better than we could. Many people that booed stayed too. So, it's hard to know exactly how many in the crowd were upset with the concert and possibly felt they just had to stay because they drove 200 miles or paid for the ticket and felt they couldn't leave no matter what, with out at least being at the show.

Many of those who actually could hear the concert actually said that they thought Kenny Rogers just didn't have the voice any more, but he is 70 or 71 years old after all.

Out of the concert, Kenny probably sang 80% of the time, talked in three or four sessions, for probably 10% of the time, and the other 10%, had a fiddle player and then two kids that no one could even understand. Some people said it was actually Kenny's kids, but like I said, no one could really understand much of what he said, especially in the talking sessions. It may have been his kids, may have not. I don't keep track of Kenny and his personal life to know about those things. All I can say is that from the distance i was, they looked like they were Asian.

The last few minutes of the concert, either the sound man turned the sound up just a tad or Kenny started singing a bit louder - I really don't know, but still, no one could make out what he said when talking, because obviously, his talking was a lot lower than his singing.

Kenny Rogers sang many of his hits: Ruby Don't Take Your Love To Town, The Gambler, She Believes in Me, Lady, Coward of the County, You Picked a Fine Time To Leave Me Lucille, among others.

He tried to get the crowd to sing along with several of his songs, and for the most part, the crowd wasn't buying in to it. Hell, after most of the songs, 99% of the people didn't cheer or clap. The first song I actually heard the crowd give a half-a$$ decent clap was after the gambler. I think (but don't quote me on this) that they gave the biggest applause after You Picked a Fine Time to Leave me, Lucille.

My personal take on the concert, besides the not being able to hear a lot of it part was that Kenny, to me, actually sounded OK, but the songs themselves seemed to be cut shorter than the album versions. I can't tell you every song he song, nor how many songs total he did sing, but I can tell you that he sang a lot of them for such a short amount of time he was there.

Most of the time, it really also sounded like he was using pre-recording music, mixed with music that the band had been playing. If that is or isn't the case, I do not know = only pointing out what it sounded like to me.

I'm very disappointed about the sound not being as loud as it needed to be, it only being an hour long, and various other quarks I've stated above, but what do I think of Kenny Rogers now? Is he still the awesome singer that wrote the gambler and lucille, or is he a hasbeen? Even though, judging from the crowd and how they would not sing along to his music when he tried to get them to and the fact that at least 10%, if not more, actually got up and left during the concert, that tells me that many people think he is a hasbeen. That is something I will have to contemplate for awhile myself.

The one thing I can tell you is that he lost thousands of fans after this concert, but does it really matter? He's over 70 years old now. So, maybe it's time for him to quit touring, just sing to his kids at night, or to his close family and friends, while they applause loudly yet quietly realize his singing just isn't what it use to be.

Another thing that kind of got to me is that after the 60 minute mark, he was done and gone. Many bands will actually play on longer than their mark, but Kenny Rogers may have thought that he'd only give the crowd what they paid for and not a penny more. Then again, he may have thought that the crowd was so bad to him for not singing along to his music when he requested it, as well as yelling and signaling to him that they couldn't hear, interrupting his speeches and songs he may have thought, that he didn't want to give the crowd any more than he had to. Who really knows the reason?

I personally don't blame Kenny for what the sound man is suppose to do, but he may just blame the crowd for being rude, and the crowd may just blame him for all of the other problems.

Yeah sounds like he should have walked off the stage for good eons ago, sound or no sound. Most people don't even live to be so old, yet he's still trying to muster what's left of himself. I'd ideally admire his efforts, but when your tank is well past empty, then trying to perform like you're 30 is just laughable and stupid.

I feel for the people who probably traveled across the country to see him screw up like that. Then again they should have realized this was coming.

People need to just accept when getting too old catches up with them and find better things to do with the rest of their lives. That's not a bad thing.

Too bad the concert was such a drag. Since you seem to like country music, you're probably better off taking your chances with Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, or Carrie Underwood. :)

I really don't like most country music, new stuff anyway. Kenny was more of a pioneer or bridge between country and rock. Of course, people say the same thing about Lynyrd Skynyrd, and they both sound completely different.

I was really considering going to the beach boys (aka brian williams band) concert at the end of this month too, but I know Brian Wilson sounds worse than Kenny. I've heard him even with studio stuff lately, and from what I've seen of him live is that he uses so many backup singers, to mask his bad voice that I'm not sure if it's even worth it.

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I'll tell you how my day went on the Kenny concert before the show. We left at 8:22 AM, hoping to stop somewhere to get breakfast on the way and then make it to the show by 10am. The car made it about 5 miles and then blew a head gasket. It ended up having several water leaks in one of the hoses that caused it.

Luckily, we had a cell phone and called AAA to come tow us in, but it took three hours for them to get there, even though AAA told us that it'd be there less than 1 hour.

We had given up on the concert, but my aunt and uncle were also going. So, he came and picked us up, but they didn't want to go to the concert until it was ready to start. The concert started at 3, and we got there at about 2:45, and the place had run out of parking spaces. We were heading toward the shuttle bus pickup, which would have taken another 30 minutes or more probably, because the traffic was packed, people were illegally parking all over the sidewalks and anywhere they could. Cops were everywhere directing traffic.

Then, we found a private parking lot where they were charging cars $5 a piece to park, which I believe was the only way we would have made it there on time, because it was only like 3 or 4 blocks from the north gate entrance. The place was crowded, and it took us about 10 minutes to even find a place to put the chairs and sit down. We had about 10 minutes to spare when we were setup.

Anyway, my aunt and uncle took turns waiting at the concession stand, to get drinks and popcorn and such. It took them pretty much an hour to get those things, and by the time we got the drinks, the concert only had like 10 or 15 minutes left.

The moral of this story is to get there as early as you can, in order to find a good place to sit and get all of your snacks and drinks.

Even after the concert was over, we just stayed in our seats for another 30 minutes or more, until about 90% of the people had left. Even then, we had to wait another 20 minutes or so to even walk across the street. Every one in cars were yelling and beeping their horns. Even the shuttle bus driver was pissed that it was taking him so long to turn left. They had to stop all right lane traffic for the cars to turn right, and all of the traffic for them to turn left, and then both the right and left and cross lane traffic for people to walk across the street.

I'm glad I didn't go to the Willie Nelson or Wayne Newton shows. It probably would have been worse.