Garth Brooks Connects in Phoenix!
It was a wild and wonderful crowd @TalkingStickArena
I love country music because the lyrics are easy to understand and you can sing along. Sing along they did – all 17,000+ fans at the Talking Stick Arena on Saturday night when Garth Brooks brought his high energy concert to Phoenix. We were lucky: there was no second show that night, so Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and the band had the next several days off. Our concert ended around 10:45 and the crowd wanted more!
We had great seats eight rows up behind the stage. At a Garth Brooks concert, there are no bad seats. He and his crew run around the whole stage all night, with their antics projected onto giant screens visible from every angle. We were on our feet for the whole concert, laughing, stomping, singing along, crying when a cowboy proposed on the big screen to his cowgirl… it was a memorable evening.
Garth Brooks hasn’t been to Phoenix in 17 years. The audience was hungry and they got what they paid for. If you’re a Boomer like me, you remember how we used to click on our lighters to show appreciation. It’s now updated to lighting up your cell phone flashlight. Here’s what it looked like:
As a singer, you know you’ve hit a home run when the audience knows all the words. On several occasions, Garth and Trisha stopped singing and let the fans take it away. Hearing 17,000 people singing together and swaying to the music gave me chicken-skin (as we say in Hawaii.) It was connection: tangible evidence of the resilience of the human spirit. We were all in this together and, for a moment, there were no differences. *
From my catseat I could see this was not just a regular “redneck” crowd (whatever that is.) There were Baby Boomers, Millenials, and Gen X’ers. There were people of all races. There were rockers in ripped shirts, George Strait cowboys rockin’ black cowboy hats, and bandana-wearing bikers with tats; there were folks all dressed up who looked like they came from church. We had cute little cowgirls in tiny shorts rockin’ high heel cowboy boots, and the Millenial guys smart enough to be there and watch them. 😉 I even saw a couple of burkas.
Garth Brooks and his wife Trisha Yearwood define “crossover music.” If you like to sing along to music that makes your day, this is one to check out. She has always been a favorite of mine; I originally wanted to go because she would be there. I love watching them sing together.
You still have next weekend in Phoenix to see this show. They will be in Utah, California and Kansas next. Here’s the Tour information
Happy Connecting! I hope you get to see this!
Cheers!
© 2015 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved
- [I wanted to show you a 30 second clip of that, but got my hand slapped. Sorry about that! I thought since he wasn’t singing but 17,000 people were it would be ok…]