Kansas City has two upcoming Christmas shows - the Rockettes show and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  From what I’ve heard about last year’s and this year’s show, the Rockettes’ Christmas is supposed to be a great time.  The problem is the date, November 19th.  I might end up enjoying it but I’m ot really interested in dropping the cash for a Christmas show a week before Thanksgiving.  I’m barely in the mood for Christmas after then, but a week before?  Forget about it.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra has the opposite problem.  They’re coming to Kansas City December 29th.  By then I’m already sick of Christmas and I’m disgusted by the news stories showing people exchanging their gifts so it’s not something I’m up for.  In this case at least the whole show isn’t based on Christmas so I could see myself going to this before I would go to the Rockettes’ show too early.

I realize that these shows need to make money and that they wouldn’t be coming to Kansas City after Christmas unless there was a good chance they would turn a profit.  I would just be curious about how many people attend these two shows this year especially compared to last year.

A couple of videos in anticipation of the upcoming Jackyl show. The first one was filmed in Kansas City.

The second is my favorite song of theirs.

I don’t consider myself the biggest Jackyl fan but I’m really looking forward to the show. The crowd - which should be okay as long as I stay away from the hyper-aggressive knuckle draggers near the stage - is really going to be into the show. Jackyl puts on a good live show and the Midland is a great venue, so it should be a good time.

The Kansas City Star reported that Kenny Chesney will be the first concert to play Arrowhead Stadium since 2001.  I had absolutely no idea that he - or any current country act outside of Garth Brooks maybe - was popular enough to fill a stadium.  They’re estimating that 40,000 - 50,000 people will show up to this which is incredible for someone who I can’t name a single song by.  Of course the article lists every show that has played Arrowhead and I’m suprised that a good two-thirds of them were popular enough to warrant a stadium.  I knew n’Sync was popular but I had no idea they were that big.

On one hand it’s interesting that they’re having concerts in the stadium again but I can’t imagine anyone I’m interested enough in seeing to actually go and deal with the hassle.  The article mentions U2 as a possibility but how bad would that suck?  Bad sound, horrible parking, a ton of people, and lousy seats.  Someone would have to rise up from the grave a book a date at Arrowhead in order for me to go, and not just any ghoul, I’m talking about two of the Beatles or Tommy Bolin.  I’ll pass on Kurt Cobain, thanks.

One of my least favorite concert trends to pop up in the past few years is playing a classic album from start to finish.  I know Iron Maiden and Judas Priest have done it, and recently Megadeth and Slayer went on tour together doing just that.  When I saw Ratt last year they performed Out of the Cellar and it was a let down.  I prefer not to know what songs are coming up in the set - the suprise of what’s coming up next is one of the things that I enjoy.

When I heard that Roger Waters was coming to Kansas City to perform The Wall, I wasn’t interested at all.  I don’t like the whole gimmick of playing an entire album and I saw Roger Waters at Kemper Arena somewhere in the 2000 - 2001 timeframe.  It was a great show and I didn’t feel the need to see him again.

I changed my mind once the reviews of the current tour started coming in.  Every one I read was positive and the show sounded more interesting than a typical concert.  I’m really glad I went - the show was incredible, much better than I thought it would be.

I’m not going to get into details on the show, I don’t want to spoil anything for someone who hasn’t gone.  I don’t go for gimmicky props in a concert, but the use of props on stage (mostly the wall that was partially build before the show and was slowly built onto until the end of the first act) and animations were beyond anything I have seen at a show before.  The whole presentation was great and also made the 30+ year old material feel relevant and fresh.  Even the intermission in the middle felt right for the show although it did run a little too long.

I would say the only negative about the show is that for all the visuals the music - and especially the backup musicians - got pushed to the background a bit.  That’s really a small quibble because the musicians were right on and did a great job.

After the show I started thinking about this one versus his concert here in town several years back.  Both were great and I really think you can’t even compare the two.  One was more of a straightforward concert and was about performing the music and this was more about giving the audience a show.  I’m really glad I went to both and came away from each one with something different.

Seriously, I would recommend this show to anyone with even a passing interest in the material.  There is so much happening that even if you’re not that crazy about the music you would still be entertained.

A few years ago I read an article about Disneyland that broke down a guest’s entrance into the park, and the jist of it was that even before you enter the park you are in four different lines.  I wish I had a link to that article because I kept thinking about it on Saturday.  The Roger Waters concert marked the fourth time I’ve been at the Sprint Center - three times for concerts, once for a business scam I went to for work.  The common thread is that Sprint Center management has made the experience of going into their facility pretty unpleasent.  In order to make it to my seat I had to:

• Stand in line at will call.  I normally try to avoid this because the will call window is a lot like the post office - there’s always some asshole ahead of you who’s got problems that can’t be resolved in a couple of minutes.  I won’t fault the Sprint Center for this.  Things ran smoothly.  I showed up at the Sprint Center at 7:20 and this took about ten minutes.  Fine.
• The line for the security check is the one that drives me up the wall.  I don’t know why they’re the only place in Kansas City that has this, but they’ve got metal detectors and you have to empty your pockets into a plastic bowl before you go in.  Everything I’ve been to, including the business scam, had this set up so it’s not like they just set it up for rock shows.  This line took 20 minutes so now we’re looking at 7:50 for an 8:00 show.
• The line to give the person your ticket is another one like the post office, it seems like there’s always someone who printed out their ticket who is having problems.  This one only took five minutes but that’s way too long considering that the line was only three deep.
• Once I got up the stairs and found my section I ran into a new one for me - the backup where the ushers had to examine everyone’s tickets even if you were just sitting in the cheap seats.

By the time I sat in my seat it was 8:00 on the dot which is unacceptable when I arrived at 7:20 and didn’t stop for beer or to use the bathroom.  The worst part is that nothing’s changed over the past year and a half, and why should it?  It’s not like events aren’t going to be booked in Kansas City’s shiny new arena any more.  I just feel that when you’re going somewhere to enjoy yourself you shouldn’t have to go through a lot of unpleasentness before you have fun.