Parmalee and Backroad Anthem - 1/8/15

2015 started off with a bang!  I knew that the country band Parmalee was coming to town to play Cain’s Ballroom.  I’ll talk all about Cain’s in a future post.  I’ll stick to the bands for this one.

This summer I had the chance to meet Parmalee when our radio station K95.5 did a “Girls Night Out”.  These are so fun!  You have to win an invite by calling in on the radio – no tickets are sold.  It’s only women and the artists seem to love it.  It is usually an up-and-coming artist with 1 or maybe 2 songs on the radio.  They will do about a 1 hour acoustic set and then you get the chance to meet them after and get your picture with them.  What a great idea!!!  I try to get invites to as many as possible.  Who knows?  They may end up being a really famous band/artist and I can say I met them back when. 

So, because I saw them this summer I was going to skip this concert even though I knew some of the radio stations were giving out tickets.  It all changed when I heard the words “meet and greet”.  Yes, I know, I “met” them this summer, but how can I pass up the chance to do it again?!?  I woke up one morning and I heard them say on 98.5 KVOO they were giving away tickets, dinner at Oklahoma Joes BBQ and meet and greet passes.  So, of course I called!  I played a little game against the DJ, Sunny Leigh, and boom - I’m now going to the concert in 2 days!

My friend Monica agreed to go with me even though she wasn't really sure who they were.  But free dinner, pictures with the band and a free concert - she was in.  We arrived for the dinner right on time.  Oklahoma Joes is attached to Cain’s and has really great BBQ.  So we ate our dinner, I chatted with Sunny Leigh - who was extremely nice - and we waited for the band.

Parmalee showed up and we all lined up to take pictures.  I got up there, shook all their hands and let them know I saw them at Girls Night Out.  One of them said – “Oh yeah, that was a fun one!”  See, I told you the artists like an audience full of 150 women!   I got my picture taken in what Monica called “a Parmalee sandwich” and went back to sit down.

As we were standing in line, a reporter from KJRH Channel 2 News was asking people if they were attending the Garth Brooks concert this weekend.  A little side note – Garth Brooks has been all anyone has been talking about for the last 2 weeks!  He’s our hometown boy and he is playing 7 shows over a 6 night span.  I’ll tell you all about that concert in another blog post.  Spoiler alert: It was amazing!

So, anyway, I told the reporter I was going and she asked if I wanted to talk to them about it.  Sure!  I've never been interviewed on the news before.  So she put a mic on me and I did a little interview.  It aired that night on the news.  Pretty neat experience!

Because we got there early to meet the band we had first access into Cain’s.  As soon as they opened the doors we headed up to the stage.  Front and center baby!  But of course it also means you have to stand there for an hour before anything happens, stick out your elbows to claim your spot and make friends with the people standing around so you don’t have to keep saying “sorry I bumped you” all night.

The opening act Backroad Anthem came on about 10 minutes late.  I had never heard of them but hoped they would be good.  They had a lead singer, 3 guitar players, a violin player and a drummer.  That’s a lot to put up on half a stage!  Those boys could really play!  They rocked out for sure.  The main problem was it was too loud that we couldn't hear a word the singer was singing.  They were very entertaining for sure; just wish I could have heard the words.

After they finished I yelled at one of the guitar players to hand me the set list.  They came out to sign autographs so I got the set list signed and pictures with a few of the guys.  That’s one of the great things about Cain’s - a lot of the artists will come out and sign stuff after the concerts.  Stick around for a little bit and you never know who you may get to meet.

Parmalee put on a really great show.  I was afraid the same thing would happen that we couldn't hear the words but that wasn't the case.  They sounded great!  It was pretty much the same show that I saw acoustically this summer.  They mixed it up and did a little bit of everything.  Covered Bob Seger's “Night Moves”, Marvin Gaye's “Let’s Get It On”, threw in some “Shorty It’s Your Birthday” rapping and even changed the words to Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” to a song about Fireball Whiskey.  I’m sure country music purists don’t like it but I think it gives a good variety and gets the crowd going. They also sang one of my favorite songs right now "Dance".  It is very much a description of me!

It was the lady’s birthday standing next to me.  I told her to put up a sign.  I had put a pen in my boot in case I needed it for an autograph.  You need to be prepared for these things!  So we wrote on one of the paper tickets “It’s my birthday” and I told her to hold it up.  About half way through she was ready to put the sign away.  I couldn't have that, so at a little lull in the concert I started yelling that it was her birthday.  The lead singer heard me and he and everyone in the place sang “Happy Birthday” to her.  Then a little later in the show the drummer threw out a drum stick.  We caught it and gave it to the birthday gal.  She was so excited! 

Monica ended up catching a guitar pick and we convinced one of the crew to get us the set list from the stage.  I let Monica have it but told her it was no good without getting it signed.  They had told us at the meet and greet we couldn't get autographs but after the show they would come out and give them.  So we waited around for about 20 minutes or so and got more pictures and autographs. 

It was such a fun night and I’m really glad I didn't pass up the chance to see them again!