Yes we went to see Kansas

The finally concert of the 2006 Nebraska State Fair featured Kansas.

Note to the vertically challenged,

Do not attend a concert at the open air auditorium and have the expectation of being able to see the stage. It was not built with enough slope top to bottom for decent viewing when everyone is seated let alone standing.

Standing everyone does it, even me

Yes everyone stands at concerts, I stand at concerts, it is something people excited at seeing a favorite band do. I don't have a problem with that at all. But please have some consideration for those around you; If everyone else is seated then plunk your overage ass down on your seat.
We want to see the band not some nearly geriatric deadhead gyrate like he/she is 18 again.

Viewing at that venue is so bad that a some of the shorter adults and children took to standing on the bench seats just to be able to see. These weren't tall people trying to get a better view, these were people that were just trying to see in the first place. Most of them when standing on the seat were no taller than those around them standing on the ground.

They were not hurting anyone and they certainly were not blocking anyones view anymore than anyone else that was standing flat on the ground.

This of course did not go over big with event security.

"Oh No We can't actually have everyone having a good time.... this is Nebraska for Pete's sake."

"Hey Dickless Tracy, who can we intimidate the hell out with the least threat to our own physical well being?"

" Hey Deputy Fife I know, let's make the short people suffer, their mostly wimmen & kids anyway, if they give us a hard time surely we can kick their asses. We don't want to make big people mad we might get hurt."

For most of the concert, in our section and all others I reasonably presume, rent-a-badge wannabe sour faced Dickless Tracy's and Barney Fife's huffed, puffed and chugged their way up and down the ailses telling short people to get down from the benches.

If everyone was doing it or didn't need to I wouldn't have a problem with it, but the people that availed themselves of standing on the seats were acting out of a desire just to be able to see in the first place.

If because of rude people and overzelous security types one is forced to only listen to a live concert they are being cheated out of their experience. There must not be very many Cornhusker fans that are also Kansas fans, because I did not see one inkling of the courtesy that Husker fans take pride in and are noted for in evidence.
I did see a lot of Husker Red though.

As for the concert itself, it was an even worse rerun of the Three Dog Night concert we attended last week.

Instruments too loud for vocals and vocal microphones too distoted to understand most of the lyrics.

The band also had their fog machine going.

To the naked eye this created a wonderful visual effect. For pictures it sucked. Because of the lights refracting off of the smoke I did not get one usable picture.

Of course the band saved their trade make "Dust in the Wind" And "Carry on Wayward son" for the obligatory encore. I will say that Kansas did a fantastic job with "Wayward son". The instument/vocal balance was just right and it was a pleasure to see it done live. If they can do it for one song why not the entire concert?

I was disappointed in their rendition of "Dust in the Wind" though. It is one of my all time favorite songs and it seemed to have been done as an "Well okay if we really have to we better do this one for you too" afterthought.

I am not alone in my thoughts on these two concerts either, everyone I have talked to has made the same comments in regards to performance.

So what if it's substandard it's free ain't it?

Concert goers paying admittance to the fair do not incurr any addittional charges to attend the concerts so they are billed as "free entertainment".

What they don't realize is that some people only attend, paying the 6 or 8 bucks entry fee to see the concert. Many do not even check out the rest of the fair, they go in see the concert and leave.

Whether I incurr any addittional cost or not the band is paid to be there. Do these bands put on a better concert when the seat prices are 25 bucks or more? Are they just slacking off at the fair because they know the audiance is there at a cut rate? Did they cut their rate to do the show so they are then entitled to give a cut rate performance?

It may not have cost them any extra dollars to attend, but I did see a large number of people express their dissatisfaction with their feet. In the section we were in I noted no less than 25-30 people get up and leave during the concert. It was obvious they too were disatisfied with the entertainment as they headed out shaking their heads with negative expressions on their faces.

When you pay cheap prices you get just exactly what you pay for; cheap entertainment.