Alan Jackson Reliant Stadium February 27, 2013
As part of RodeoHouston's Armed Forces Appreciation Day Wednesday night, the U.S. Air Force rappel team glided down from the roof of Reliant Stadium carrying a giant American flag.
This was before the short, standard fireworks show that still makes me drool like an eight-year old, and Alan Jackson playing an hour of good-timin' country music.
Yes, Wednesday's festivities were über-patriotic (thank ya, soldiers, sailors, devil dogs and flyboys) and high on nostalgia (Jackson opened with radio staple "Gone Country"), and, of course, we all smelled like meat, beer and funnel cakes.
According to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, attendance yesterday was 73,052 for Jackson's 21st RodeoHouston appearance, and yes, folks, his moustache is back this year after an absence in 2012.
Mr. Jackson brings all them feels to his RodeoHouston shows: happy, sad, stoic, wistful, blue-balled, what have you. I mean, the fella in "Chattahoochee" can't catch a dang break.
His 9/11 anthem "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" was especially prescient, what with the servicemen and women in the house. They all had excellent seats in one corner of the stadium.
Someone in that group was holding a massive Pokémon plush toy they won at the carnival. I wonder if that will count as a carry-on on the flight home.
Jackson doesn't mind dragging out the weepers, like "Remember When" and "So You Don't Have to Love Me Anymore." Those are the songs that make people rise from their (cheap) seats to dance in the concourses. Whenever it is an older couple, I get a hitch in my step. Them feels again.