Brooks and Dunn/ Craig's List

Craigslist NYC is an incredible resource for young New Yorkers without a lot of money to spare. With the CMA awards in town this week for their Tuesday night awards ceremony, all the incredible country artists have landed on the island of Manhattan, cowboy hats and all. Trying to make the most of this historic visit, a ton of incredible artists have scheduled concerts right here in the city. Not really figuring this out until pretty last minute, all of the best concerts were already sold out. So I went on Craig's List and plugged in some of the big concerts. The first one that popped up was Brooks and Dunn. I offered some dude who realized he had others plans for that night 50 bucks for his pair of tickets. He happily agreed. With concert tickets today for country, pop, and everything else going for $75-$100 for general admission this bid I was sure would be turned down. I also posted that I really wanted to go to the Brad Paisley, Sara Evans, Sugarland concert. On Craigslist you aren't supposed to sell tickets for more than face value and tickets for that concert were on 40 bucks. I love Sugarland, my new fave band, after the Dixie Chicks of course. Was contacted by some random NY woman whos friend cancelled that she was gonna go with. I'm not the type of person to generally go to a concert without a friend but her seats were incredible and she was selling for face value. I took her up on it. Turns out she actually knows some people I know which makes me think she won't murder me or anything if we hang out. The Brooks and Dunn dude lost 30 bucks in selling me the tickets but I am incredibly grateful. Brooks and Dunn have never been my favorite band out there but I know enough of their music to make a concert worth it. The concert was incredible. Decked out in my cowboy hat I bought on our senior trip to Puerto Vallerto after HS graduation, jeans, and tennis shoes (couldn't wear my boots cause it was standing room only and cowboy boots would grow uncomfortable for that long). I got to Irving Plaza the concert venue in no time leaving me to stand in line for an hour and a half before the doors opened, ensuring me a sweet spot. I was kinda embarrassed on the Subway so I didn't put on my hat, just carried it. That got me enough stares alone. Destiny got out of the hospital late and I had to leave her ticket at Will Call so I could run in and get us a good spot. The great thing about country is everyone is so damn friendly. I waited in line with a niece and aunt from Memphis and a family from the Bronx. Once I got inside I stood nearby those new friends, but also a 60-year-old Hispanic woman celebrating her birthday with her sister and a couple where the husband was drunk already when we got inside. You'll never see a more interesting bunch of folks than you'll find at a country concert. Alot of folks are just like me, in denial that they enjoy country music, always writing Anything But Country on a Fave Music listing on sites like MySpace. That is until they hear that one song that opens their ear for the first time. That song for me was Don't Take the Girl by Tim McGraw. It really opened my eyes to the truthfulness and beauty of the country lyric. Thats something I could no longer deny. So the concert was unbelievable. We were steps from the stage, maybe one person separated us from reach up and plucking their guitars ourselves. The opening band sucked (I don't particularly dig bluegrass, like I said before, the lyrics are what really drives the music for me) but when Brooks and Dunn came out the standing room only crowd just erupted. They put on an incredible show. They aren't stringy about throwing souveniors out to the crowd. Throughout the concert, Ronnie Dunn was throwing out drumsticks to the crowd. I caught one right away, almost got a second to give to Destiny but some fat dude stepped on it and I couldn't get it out. But hey, I'm not greedy one bit. They even made comments to the psyched crowd about how stupid it is to say there aren't any country fans in NY. This packed house in the Village of all places shows thats not true one bit. I thought that was great. Theres all this hoopla surronding country coming to NYC. All the papers are running stories and there are posters all over town. On the way home I proudly wore my hat on the subway and loudly sang You Can't Take the Honky Tonk Out of the Girl. It was awesome. The stares soooo did not bother me as I played drums with my new Brooks and Dunn drumstick. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn are like the Country Music Missionaries to NYC. They are hosting the CMAs on Tuesday night, but not until they finish a free (I hope) concert from the roof of Madison Square Garden, the venue of the awards ceremony. Since MSG is a block from my midtown office I plan to be there for that concert and will try to get as close to the red carpet as possible. Anything to view my fave Tim McGraw. Love him! Anyway, thats all for now. Peace!