Well, Laurel had a little 'mad money' and I saw the billboard for the Washington Town and Country Fair.  It said, "Steve Miller Band, August 8th".  I called Laurel and said, "Guess who's gonna be at the Washington Fair!"  She said, "The Steve Miller Band?"  Hehe... good guesser, she is.  Anyway, we decided it would be worth $50 of her 'mad money' to have a date night at the concert.

It had been a while since I'd actually been to a concert.  A few days before I had this odd thought...  I'd only listened to the SMB on the 'Greatest Hits' album that we had, plus maybe one or two other songs that I'd heard once or twice.  What if they didn't sound the same in concert?  Would I still appreciate it?  What if they were really wild and crazy on stage?  Hmmm...

So, we dropped the kids off at my folks' house Saturday evening and headed to the Fair.  It very much reminded us of the Kansas State Fair (though less than 1/10th the size) and made us a bit homesick.  We wandered around, watch the micro car races, looked at the animals, walked down the Midway... and then headed over to the stage.  There were folding chairs set up for maybe 2500 people.  We found some good seats, in the second row that was open to the public and Laurel waited there (keeping our good spot) while I went to find some funnel cake - a necessity when one visits the Fair.  Eleven dollars later I came back with a small funnel cake and a 32oz. Lemonade.  Ouch.  and we waited for the show to start.

The show started, and it was very entertaining.  The SMB has a great sense of rhythm, and almost all their songs make you want to dance.  As a side note, it was hilarious to see the 50 and 60 year old gals who danced to those same songs in their 20's dancing as if they were still 20-something.  Of course, thirty plus years of playing a song, it will change from the studio version, but I found that I enjoyed the way they performed it, even when the tune differed significantly (though it made it hard for the audience to sing along).  The closest thing to a negative reaction was when Steve sang "Space Cowboy" with just his acoustic guitar while the rest of the band took a breather.  The crowd went absolutely wild later when the full band went through it again in the encore.

They were not a 'showy' band, though one guy seemed like he was only in the band to do interpretive dance.  There were a few solos, drums, keyboards, and one or two for each of the guitars, and the harmonica player got the spotlight a couple times (one of the best harmonica players you'll ever hear).  Steve switched guitars almost every song, and I was surprised when he did three entire songs in a row with the same guitar.  The music was a little loud (we were basically 10th row or so) and it seemed they blew a speaker in the encore, but I don't think people minded much.  It was a fun concert.  I looked around about halfway through the concert and the chairs were full, the grass on either side was full, and there were people standing on some of the structures a ways back from the stage, trying to get a good view.

One of the most humourous things was the two sign language & interpretive dance gals.  They took turns, so they could get some rest, and they really did a great job.  They were fun to watch, especially on some of the songs that either went fast or had difficult or unusual words/sounds.

All in all, it was a fun evening, and made me think that we probably should go to more concerts...

 Here's "Dance, Dance, Dance".  Enjoy!