Isle of Capri Casino
Lula, MS
September 24, 2004
Review By: Cole
Friday Morning, I hopped in my car to head to my sisters to watch my nephew for a little bit. Tammie was on her way, and as soon as she got to
Nashville, we were heading out to Lula. Well, of course, it wouldn't be quite the Cole/Patty weekend if I didn't have SOME sort of problem arise, right!? As I turned down a road, some jerk
swerved into my lane- so I swerved off the road, and apparently hit something pretty hard because my two passenger tires were flat! Luckily for me, I got my car moved to my niece's school's parking lot,
and my ever loving sister came to pick me up (as she mumbled random words about how she couldn't believe I was still planning on going to see Patty).
Just a few hours later, Tammie and I were on our way to Mississippi. Lula is about 4 hours away from Nashville, but I was excited about getting there early. Since I just turned 21- I'd never been in a casino before!
Seeing Patty was far more important, but I surely wasn't going to walk away without doing a little bit of gambling!
If you ever travel to Lula (or Tunica)...be prepared for one of the most boring rides of your life! Once we got off the interstate, we still had about 70 miles until we got to the Casino. This 70 miles was filled with nothing but
COTTON! No joke-
everywhere you looked, cotton fields. We were growing bored by the minute, and anxious to find the casino! Once we got on the road that the Casino was ON, we saw a sign that said Arkansas was like 10 miles away. I had a feeling that if we needed to do any running around- we'd have to head to Arkansas to do so!
I thought this Casino was awesome- and the guards had to laugh that I was so eager to show them my ID. We went in and got our tickets-
special thanks to Gracee, Barbie, and Laurie - a.k.a The Isle of Capri Casino Queens ;)- for all their help getting us our tickets! (Pics will be on the way soon, Gracee! I owe you!) and went over to the little deli in the casino to grab a bite to eat. While eating, we ran into Marcia, and chatted with her for a while. She tipped us off on the best Casino Games, so we headed to the Casino after eating. Thanks to Tammie and Marcia's tips (and I suppose beginners luck!), I won about 80.00 @ the casino. Not bad considering I only spent 5.00 on gambling the entire night! Martin came by and asked me about the slot I was on- and I explained to him my winning strategy...just PRESS THE BUTTONS! I've still no clue what I was doing, but it was obviously good!
We gambled for a little while, but after a little while, I was becoming a little anxious. Seats were first come, first serve, and I wanted to be in the line at the front. So we headed to the door of the Ballroom and waited for the doors to open. The doors opened a little late around 7:10 or so. We made our mad dash and scored Front Row, right stage right in front of Garry. We were quite satisfied with the seats!! I also learned the drinks in there were free, so I was quite pleased with that as well!
Around 8:00, Deanie and Garry began their killer intro to "Tear Stained Letter". I don't know what they've got up their sleeve or thoughts for the next tour- but I sure hope they have an intro like she's had the past two years- letting the band show off for just a few minutes prior to her "Grand Entrance"! Deanie and Garry do a fantastic job on the intro to this one, IMO! Patty came out wearing jeans and, I WAS SO THRILLED to see her wearing a shirt I'd not seen her wear in a few years- a black and green striped like long sleeve shirt. She looked great!
The crowd was into it from the get go- they were a very lively bunch (including the Capri Queens sitting next to us!), and enjoyed being loud. At a place like this, the folks here enjoyed the uptempo stuff much more than the ballads. I felt like they didn't give her ballads a chance, but absolutely loved the uptempos!
I wont post the set list, since it really hasn't changed much. Patty sounded top notch, and didn't miss any notes. She had two encores listed on the set list, but didn't do them. Tammie had noticed she had hot tea and some throat spray, so we had our fingers crossed that she wasn't getting sick again. Irregardless, she sounded absolutely amazing, as usual. I've changed my mind and decided that my favorite song for Tour 04 is "The Trouble with the Truth", so I was QUITE anxious to hear that one, and Patty did
not disappoint me! Her ending to "Truth" is pure perfection, and no one could ever do it quite like she does!
In the beginning of the show, a man yelled out, "WHAT ABOUT MEMPHIS!". The band started to laugh as did Patty. Patty pressed her hands on her shirt and then said, "Well what about Memphis?", to which we all laughed. She finally told him that he was confusing her with her friend Pam Tillis. Later on in the show, the same man yelled out that Patty was prettier to look at than Pam, to which Patty said "I didn't quite catch all that". When Marcia filled her in on what the man said, Patty said, "Aww we really shouldn't be like that, but thank you". He was a tad bit obnoxious, but luckily, didn't do anything else the rest of the night.
"You Can Feel Bad" was a crowd favorite, and everyone had their hands in the air as Deanie guided them to clap along. "You Don't Seem to Miss Me" was a huge hit- especially with the three girls sitting next to us. They cheered Garry on during the song, prompting Patty to say that Garry Murray's Fan Club must be there, and only there to see him. Patty introduced Garry, and said that he does a fine job of filling in for George Jones. While I've said I'm not as crazy about this song, and wouldn't mind it being taken out of the set list, it is absolutely a good one for Garry to shine, and he
indeed does a great job filling in for George. George would be proud.
The Mountain Soul set consisted of the usual songs she's been doing all year long, and she told the story of Papa Cochran's photo in the cd jacket of "On Your Way Home", and started into "The Grandpa that I Know". This song live is superb. I had a quick potty break during this song, but when I came back at the tail end of it, I was a little disappointed the crowd wouldn't hush. It seems that I've said that a lot this year. Maybe I'm just picky. I just don't see the need to TALK so loudly during Patty's ballads, at
any show!!. In any event...the Mountain Soul set was as usual, wonderful! My favorite always remains, "Pretty Little Miss" in the MS set, and she sounded fantastic on it, and the crowd *loved* it. It wasn't a real "Bluegrass Crowd'. but they sure enjoyed "Boys" and "Pretty Little Miss".
I thought that the highlight of the night, aside from "Truth", was OF COURSE-- the intro to "Nothin Like the Lonely". She's been doing the extended hum on that one, and again- it's perfection! I don't think that I could listen to any other artist hum- Patty has set a high standard!! I must say during "Nothin' Like the Lonely", Deanie was just kicking butt, plain and simple. The entire weekend, Deanie sounded fantastic!! The intro to "On Your Way Home", was again as usual- absolutely amazing! (I always say this, but it's sooo easy to run out of adjectives to describe how she sounded on each particular show....she's just the best and thats the truth.)
The band was in top form. I really hope that on the next tour, Marcia gets more time to shine on her keyboards. Her intro to "Nothin But the Wheel" is just fantastic! I'd love to hear more from her- (maybe let her shine on "Elvis" next year!!;) ).
She ended the show with "Lovin All Night" and "Blame it On Your Heart", where Patty invited everyone to stand up- but only if they weren't too intoxicated to stand up;). Tammie and I burst out laughing, because it was the truth- there were quite a few people having a few issues trying to stand up to participate! The ones who did had a great time participating in the sing a long, and did Patty proud by knowing all of the words. She had run out of time after "Blame", and sadly for us, left the stage.
We headed out to have some time with the band and crew afterwards, and let Patty know we'd see her tommorow. We had a great couple hours just chatting, and hated to leave- but really had to get on the road because the show the next day was quite a drive, so we said our goodbyes and gave hugs, and headed to the car to get back to Nashville.
