Watch out, I'm going Country!

Derrick and I had the privilege of seeing Trace Adkins live last Wednesday night. This was a HUGE stretch for us because neither of us are country music fans. As a matter of fact, Derrick loathes it. However, as many of you know, Trace was on this season's "Apprentice" and when our friends heard that he was coming to town we decided we had to go see him.

Our tickets were AMAZING. I've never been that close to anyone famous. Redding Convention Center isn't huge by any means but we were three rows from the stage. It was exhilarating. Trace started us off with "I got my game on!". Immediately I was impressed by the man's mere stature. If you've listened to Trace before you know he's got about one of the sexiest voices out there. Couple that with the fact that he's an enormous, hunky man and you've got an instant fan. I only had two issues, one: the hair, I'm just not a long hair fan and two: the jeans. the man's pants were so tight I was waiting for the "censored" sign to come out. However, about the jeans, I could tell that the rest of the ladies up front LOVED them.

Like I previously stated, Derrick and I are not country fans and consequently knew not a single Trace Adkins song prior to going to the concert. It was a little bit of a bummer because that's the great part about concerts, getting to sing along with the actual performer. Well, that didn't stop Derrick and I. Trace did the typical crowd/performer thing where they sing a line and then put the mic out to the audience to finish it. So, here goes Trace, "Her favorite color is...", we chime in, actually we scream "RED!!". We were so proud that we could look like we fit in. Until the end of the song when Trace sings out the whole line "Her favorite color is...CHROME!". I looked at Derrick and said "welp, so much for pretending we're fans, the gig is up now".

Of course, the concert wouldn't have been complete with out a few autograph freaks. There were middle aged ladies, all sweaty from dancing frantically holding a sharpy pen and Trace's picture. It was interesting because I found myself thinking "when do the expect him to sign those things, I mean the man is singing for crying out loud!" However, topping the list of desperate autograph junkies were two people. The first was a lady who brought her baby. The baby couldn't have been more than 11 months old and now thanks to his caregiver will be deaf because he saw a concert he'll never remember. This lady was pimping out her baby in order to get an autograph.

Our other favorite autograph lady was this gal one row ahead of us holding a file folder she had written on and a crumpled up baseball cap. Every time Trace would walk across the stage in our direction her arm would shoot up holding that sign with serious conviction. I couldn't see exactly what the sign said but it look something like "Please sign this hat for my mom" or something like that. But the best part was, on the side of the folder/sign that faced the audience she had written a huge "PLA". In my head I played out the scenario, here's how it went..". Lady: Oh, I'm so excited, Trace Adkins...now I just have to find something to make a sign. Oh, look a file folder this will work. What should it say. Hmmm, "PLA..." Damn it! I misspelled 'Please'!" So all night long, Derrick and I made fun of the sign lady. I know, we're jerks, what can we say. Derrick would look at me and say "PAH-LACE SIGN HAT, Pah-lace" as if that's how she talked. We're super mature.

So, I don't think we're full on country yet. But we are going to a rodeo tomorrow and I'm pretty sure Derrick's gonna where tight wranglers, at least I hope. Until next time...