Dwight Yoakam Arena Theatre November 28, 2014
Guitars, Cadillacs, etc., etc. was released in 1986, and other than his catalog expanding, not much has changed about Dwight Yoakam. He has been one of country music's most consistent performers, who gives equally consistent performances. If you have ever seen one of his concerts, it is highly likely that you did not walk away disappointed.
Last Friday night, the Arena Theatre looked like Gilley's back in the day, packed with pearl-snap shirts, boots, tight-fittin' jeans, large belt buckles and tall cowboy hats. Or it could have been the inside of a large tent at the rodeo cookoff. Groupon specials helped bring in fans on the unofficial day-after-Thanksgiving holiday, but it still wasn't quite enough to sell out the venue as several rows in each section sat vacant.
The rotating stage appeared to be set up exactly the same as it was during the past several stops by Dwight and his band in our fine city. A few minutes before show time the stagehands unraveled about a dozen several set lists protected in plastic covers, locating the correct one and affixing them to the floor.
The show was very loud, leading to quite a bit of distortion and feedback that sounded more like a Sonic Youth concert. A significant amount of people got up and walked out about four songs in, a real surprise considering the cost of tickets. The sound quality was superb during some of the more quiet ballads, but these instances were few and far between.
Yoakam came out in his familiar tight jeans, denim jacket, pressed button-up collared shirt (shirttail out), boots and signature cowboy hat. His band was dressed in seemingly diamond-studded jackets so blinding they only rivaled Paul Wall's grill. The crowd was pumped and excited as he started to sing., but the first few songs seemed to be a bit subdued.
Yoakam and his crew had much more excitement in store, though, peppering in a couple of new songs from most recent album 3 Pears with the big hits. Once he tuned his guitar for "Honky Tonk Man" and started those first few chords, the ladies were dancing the rest of the night. It started a string of his biggest songs that continued through the encore until security ushered everyone out.
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