Note to self....

You don't like concerts in anything resembling a theater. If it doesn't have tables, chances are it's too big. You already know this, so why do you keep buying tickets to concerts in large halls thinking things will be different?

Reply to self:
What about Willie? You liked that, didn't you?

Reply to reply to self:
Yeah, but that was Willie. Willie's a special case, like AC/DC or the Stones. Or Jimmy Buffett. Besides, you had pretty choice seats for that, and a couple or three Bourbon-of-the-rocks during the show. But this was only George Jones, Merle Haggard, and homeboy Zona Jones, and you gave up fun for Lent.

OK, that's enough of the internal dialog.
It was Merle Haggard and George Jones closing the show for Zona Jones at Ford Arena, the occasional home of the Texas Wildcatters hockey team. It was set up like this:



My seats were in floor section 1, row ff, right in front of the dance floor. Way too far from the stage for my taste, but at least it was easy to get in and out.

Zona started at 7:00 and played for 45 minutes, then there was maybe a half hour break before Merle Haggard came on, and a similar break between Haggard's set and George Jones. Comfortwise, I think the seats were tolerable for about an hour; an hour and a half on the outside.

I really enjoyed Zona's set, and Merle Haggard was pretty good too, but by the time George Jones came on, I was ready to go. Still, I hung around almost to the end, but I really would rather have been sitting at home watching the South Park Season 7 DVDs that came in the mail the other day. There wasn't anything wrong with George Jones' playing or anything like that, I'm just turned out not to be a big enough fan to enjoy the show under those conditions.

Anyway, I left as George Jones' regular set was drawing to a close, but before the obligatory encores. For this, I have been subtly and anonymously chastised by a fellow blogging concert-goer for breaking Laurie's Concert Rules. I missed the George and Merle duets. Oh well.

Next week it's the Little River Band at Cactus Canyon. I've never been a huge Little River Band fan, but last time I saw them (they were playing outside on Crockett Street), I found out that there were a whole lot of songs that I knew that I didn't know were theirs. And, as I discovered when I saw Styx there, Cactus Canyon is a first-rate venue for bands that I sort of like that used to be a lot bigger than they are now.


Edited to add: While fixing a typo in this post, I heard on the radio that Buck Owens died today. I think the highlight of the portion of George Jones' show that I saw was "Who's gonna fill their shoes?" A fair question, and if the stuff they play on country radio stations is any indication, one that lacks a satisfactory answer. RIP.