Garth Brooks - LIVE IN LA!

Rod and I went to our very first Garth Brooks concert last night at the Staples Center. WOW. I'm not a huge Garth Brooks fan or a country music fan, but that concert was really amazing and a lot of fun. I know only a handful of his songs, but I even enjoyed the songs I didn't know!

Garth is playing a series of 5 charity concerts in 2 nights to benefit the firefighters in Southern California and victims of the wildfires. I heard the Staples Center donated the venue, although I'm sure they more than made up for it from concession (including beer) sales. I went to the 2nd show, a 10 pm concert on Friday night. The crowd energy was out of control. It was LOUD. People were dancing in the aisles. Everyone was taking lots of pictures. The audience sang along with every song. There was cheering, whistling and clapping -- all the time. It was like a huge indoor party.

Sometime during the show Garth said 10 pm was the latest start time he's ever had. And at the end of the show, he would come back and play another late show because it was that much fun. He also said that it was a night he'd never forget, adding that he's never made that type of statement before.

There were 5 highlights for me:

• We was in the 5th row, right in front of the stage. But it didn't start out that way. Tickets were so hard to get that I could only get2 single tickets. We had a floor ticket, 6th row, and another seat directly to the right of the stage, 7th row. After the concert started, one of the Staples Center staff people told me to give her $20, and Rodney and I could both sit (stand) in the 5th row, which was empty throughout the show. Easy money for her, a good time for us.
  
• Trisha Yearwood came out and sang two songs with him: "In Another's Eyes" and "Walkaway Joe." (I highly recommend listening to Walkaway Joe.)
  
• Huey Lewis was a surprise guest, and they sang: "Working for a Living" and "Bad is Bad."
• "Friends in Low Places" -- if Garth sang only this song, the concert would still be a success. (Unfortunately, this YouTube link doesn't include the infamous third verse.)
  
• Garth played a 1/2-hour encore. It was the most intimate part of the show. He got out his acoustic guitar and just played spontaneously. He'd talk about a song, a musician and sing and play. He talked about his musical influences -- all country artists I've heard of but whose music I'm not familiar with -- and how they shaped his own musical style. He played songs by George Strait, George Jones and Jim Croce. Then he played his own songs, explaining how they grew out of what he heard and admired. Through music, he demonstrated his upbringing, his life experiences and his early years as an artist.

Amazing night.