Who knew?

So last night my daughter and I went to see Reba McEntire in concert.  Not a big arena show, or a stadium show, though certainly the lady deserves to play in large venues (and has and will be doing so on her current tour) and deserves to have big crowds there to enjoy the performances.  Nope, this one was in a podunk little town in Southern Maryland at the equivalent of a County Fair type environment.  Not a State Fair, but a County Fair, and a smallish one at that.  More like (with all due respect and no slight intended) a mid-sized church revival.

Saint Leonards, Maryland.  The Bayside Toyota Pavilion.  (You'll see it in the photos I'm going to include here.)  Google on SLVFD with Saint Leonards Volunteer Fire Department and then try looking at Google Maps where you can somewhat zoom in on the venue.  Basically a ball park that has a small covered stage at one edge of it.

In anycase, it was a relatively small venue, though it had a good sized (for the area) crowd all out in the heat (hot and humid for sure) enjoying the show.  And that's where my "Who knew?" comes in.

I'd heard some minor complaints about the facility from friends and others that were waiting to get tickets for another show that I'm planning on attending there.  Small facility, seats aren't the best, and it can be tough to see the stage because there's no incline in the seating area so it's basically rows of folding chairs lined up to face the small stage.  No screens on the sides (something that it really could use) with no projectors that focus on the star of the show to help the people in the back of the area see the artist(s) better.

Given the lack of incline in the seating area, if someone in front of you stands up, you will definitely not be able to see so it seems that attendees are encouraged to sit their butts down in their seats and watch from a seated position rather than standing and dancing for the entire show.  Yay!!  If you must stand, then you are welcomed to go out into the standing room only area.  If you wish to take pictures, you must do so from your seats.  Double Yay!!   Seriously, I'm not a spoil sport and if someone does want to get up and dance and sing along (well, unless the artists insist on the sing along, I wish people wouldn't as I'd rather hear the artist I'm paying to see sing, but that's just me) I hope they can do just that, but please be considerate of the other people that are there in seats in rows behind you.  Don't block their view just because you don't mind being rude and feel you are entitled to stand for the whole event.

Again, I don't know if the crowd was just that much more refined and respectful of others or if previous attendees had been told to please remain seated throughout the show unless they wanted to venture into the standing room areas, but I greatly appreciate that in a tiny little podunk town, on a softball field that is converted to a concert venue, the crowd was generally nice enough to their fellow concert goers to honor the DOWN IN FRONT type requests that would surely have been coming.  It made for a great and enjoyable concert going experience and that I really appreciate.

Now, on with more pictures.

Melissa Peterman (of the Reba show and lately The Singing Bee on CMT) warmed up the crowd.

Reba with the band

Barbara Jean/Melissa Peterman comes back in fire-fighter garb to interrupt the show and converse with Reba

I'm gonna try one more link here, if it works, yay!  If not, sorry.

Hopefully that link works for everyone so they can enjoy just a little bit of the show.