PEPSI SMASH
Wed. Sept. 24, 2008
Regency Park, Cary
Sitting at the computer Wednesday surfed tickets for sale on craigslist
and saw a posting for a GRETCHEN WILSON Event this very night at
Regency Park in Cary.
Once that portion of my brain was spiked with concert adrenalin I went to
the Master of Tickets to see what could be had but it was past 4:00pm on
the day of the show, no options were there so called the box office and
those that know me said, “It’s a Free Show, Pepsi Smash Event” so all
that I had to do was get out there asap and WQDR had a six inch stack
of tickets they were passing out.
Scored my free stub, got in line to wait for the venue gates to open, after
they did and we quickly moved forward there were lamer’s in front of the box
office trying to sell some of their fist-full of free tickets but it was only
seconds before security and the box office manager were out there telling these dredges of society to move on. Everyone in this line has a free ticket bubba, you are preaching to the choir.
It was a cool overcast day and too many of those that are streaming in don’t seem prepared for what low temperatures nighttime will bring and as the evening progressed people were wrapping themselves in anything they had that would keep the winds off and body temperature up but there were a lot that would have liked to fire up a stack of burning plastic chairs to help in their little bit of area longing for global warming.
This was a General Admission Show, GA, which allowed people to sit anywhere they want and I was surprised that the plastic chairs were in place down front as GA standing would have been the better route.
When you are flying solo GA with seats is a constant loser, every time I got up to get a beer, I lost my seat, further and further I kept moving back. One yellow shirt security guy there said, “I’m not use to seeing you sit so far back,” I told him that it was those Free Shows, what can you do. I have always liked having a ticket where I could leave, then come back, hold up the ticket and tell someone, “Hey, you’re in my spot”.
It never fails, at Country Events between acts the PA is always hammering out Rock Music and Gretchen seemed to like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Johnny Cash which were both more invigorating than the opening act Beth Wood whose songs were about trying to get her boyfriend to pick up his mess. More than an act of two guitars would have helped.
As the time for Gretchen drew near since I had been replaced from four previous seats I moved to the side of the stage. There are no barricades anywhere and it was like this was a new one for security and they weren’t sure exactly what was going to happen but one thing was certain, Lee and where he is was a problem.
“You need to go to your seat”.
“Here’s my ticket, show me where my seat is” as I held my free GA ticket up.
“You need to be in front of your seat”.
“I am, it’s behind me somewhere.”
I was finally told to move to an empty seat three feet away, but it was time to go. I did say it was my fourth seat.
...fnLEE
