The Forum
Rome, GA
October 29, 2005
Review By: Tammie
The show in Rome, Georgia would not be the first time I had seen Patty in my home state. It would, however, go on record as officially being the shortest distance I have ever driven to see her. From my hometown to Rome is about 30 miles, certainly beats the hundreds I’ve been known to drive in the past.
I got up around 6:30 to get ready to pick up Jordan (who had graciously offered to sit with me all day) and head to Rome to secure – what we hoped would be the first spot in line. Trust me, getting up this early ANY Saturday is a chore for me, but this one proved especially challenging since it was around 2:30 when I had gotten in bed from the Brooks and Dunn show the night before. But, no way was I going to risk NOT having a great seat for this show. I had some friends and family coming with me, as well as some coworkers who made the drive up from below Atlanta. We all wanted to score awesome seats.
I picked Jordan up and we headed down. My friends and coworkers, Darrell, his wife Tonia and their 15 year old daughter Ashley were making the drive up to meet us at the venue. Darrell is a fan who has never seen her in concert, so he wanted to make certain he had a great seat. For them, it meant getting up and heading out at 4:00am to make the nearly 3 hour drive. Darrell and I had discussed what time they should get there earlier in the week, I assured him I did not think there would be a crowd until later in the afternoon. But, Darrell, being the nice person he is just said, “No – we’re coming up to wait in line with you! I don’t want to get in front of anyone who has been waiting a long time and I don’t want you guys to have to wait alone.”
Jordan and I arrived at the Forum around 7:30, found a great parking spot, an empty lot and a dark building. YEAH! We were the first to arrive, even beating out the people who work there! I got out of the truck, gathered everything together from the back, chairs, blankets, etc – in the anticipation of sitting outside all day.
Around 8:00 or so, we noticed the lights coming on inside the building, and the door opened. A gentleman opened the door and stared in our direction, ‘Here we go’ I thought to myself as I exited my truck to have a conversation with him. His name, as it turns out, was Mike and he was extremely nice. He wanted to know if we needed to get into the building, to which I replied, “No – we’re here for the Patty Loveless concert and wanted to be first in line, since the seats are general admission.” He said, “Oh ok – it’s gonna be a great show!” I said, “Yes sir, it certainly will be and I’ve never been to the Forum.” He smiled, saying, “Really? Well – would you like to come in and look around? I’ll have some coffee on in a minute and you can have a cup!” I excitedly replied, “Sure! Thanks!” I hurried back to the truck for Jordan and we went in for the tour. (southern hospitality at work!)
We had the chance to tour the conference room areas, the kitchen and see the stage, before any equipment was set up on it. We spent a few moments in the actual arena itself – picking out the seats we hoped to get! After our impromptu tour, we found our new friend, told him we were headed back outside to wait in the cold. At this time, Mike told us we were welcome to wait inside – the building was open. It turns out, there was an art exhibit of some kind down one of the hallways, so the general public was coming in and out during the day to view the artwork.
About 9:00am, my friends showed up – we ran out to give them the good news! The building is open and we are welcome to wait inside! Yahoo…where it’s warm, where there are comfortable chairs, vending machines, coffee and restrooms…..so, we quickly went inside and found some chairs and a bench tucked under the steps up to the second floor area. Here we quickly made ourselves comfortable and settled in for the long haul.
During the course of the day, we made friends with the security guards watching the art exhibit and the promoter responsible for getting Patty to the Forum! Hey – what else are you gonna do with 12 hours of time to kill on your hands?
From our area, we could watch the people who came in for the art show, there was also a Halloween walk in the downtown area – so kids were going by in costumes and the river was in view outside the window. While there were plenty of people in and around the area, it was clear we were the ONLY ones in line for the show this early. After all the doors didn’t open until 4:00pm. I almost felt the need to apologize to my friends for having them come up so early. I just said, “Sorry – but I had NO idea it would be this way.” They were just taking in the entire experience and loving every moment of it. The day passed rather quickly as we talked and “people watched.”
At one point during the early afternoon, the promoter came over and said, “Guys, I hate to do this to you, but I need to get a couple of these chairs to take to Patty’s dressing area.” Of course, we all quickly jumped up and graciously gave up our seats!
As the afternoon progressed, we were fortunate to be able to hear, at least a somewhat “muffled” version, of sound check coming from the cracks in the doors to the auditorium. This excited my friends, who had probably never been at a show this early in their lives! One of them looked to me and said, “What are they doing?” I replied, “It’s sound check – they always do that before the show. Normally, however, the building is not open to the public when that is going on. The art show being in here today is the only reason we can even hear this much of it.”
I must admit, I had so much fun just hanging out with my friends and watching their reactions to the new experiences. I was a little disappointed that no one was arriving to get in line however. Finally, around 3:30 some people started showing up for the show. We formed a rather short, but very excited line and filed into the auditorium to our seats.
I should think it would go without saying, we managed to get front row seats on Deanie’s side of the stage. Together, we took up eight seats on the front row, with myself, my friend Penny, her mother Ann, Olivia, Jordan, Darrell, his wife Tonia and their daughter Ashley. We all settled in for what we were certain would be a great show.
Jimmy Hall opened, I had never seen him before but knew he was a member of a group called “Wet Willie”. They were a great band to watch, with a rather “bluesy” sound. He stayed onstage with T. Graham Brown and together they performed for about 90 minutes, each one taking about a 45 minute set. I thought this was rather long for an opening act, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind.
There was a thirty minute intermission and Patty was set to take the stage around 9:00pm. We were standing at our seats talking about the “hits” by T. Graham Brown we had forgotten about when some of the band came out for their last instrument checks. I briefly spoke to Deanie. I then turned to make one last crowd check, which was at best, disappointing. This venue seats around 4.000 – it wasn’t even close to being filled. I’d guess there were no more than 300 people. Which is really a shame. I was standing there, wondering to myself exactly what that meant and why there weren’t more people there, when my friend Penny said, “Hey – they’re pointing at you.” Snapped from my disappointment, I asked who? She said, “The fiddle player and those other two people.” I looked over, surprised to see Todd and Melinda talking to Deanie.
I walked over to say hello and find out where they were sitting. Unfortunately, they had just arrived, making the drive down from North Carolina. Melinda said they made a last minute decision to drive down and once they arrived in Rome, spent a big part of the day looking for Ridge Ferry Park. They had no idea the show how been moved to the Forum. Hey – come to think of it, perhaps that’s what happened to the rest of the 3,600 people that didn't show up! Needless to say, they came ready to party and after finding some seats and making a few trips to the “beer wagon” they were ready to go!
Finally – the moment we had waited 12 hours for. The house lights dimmed as the band took the stage and began the intro to “Keep Your Distance”. Here’s where the fun begins. The crowd, though small, proved rather loud as Patty walked from the shadows onto the stage. I watched Olivia as Patty took the stage and began to sing. She had the “oh my goodness it Christmas morning and I have the largest present under the tree” look on her face!
Being on the front row, nearly center, she was hard to miss. She danced in her seat, clapped her hands and sang along – all this with a HUGE grin on her face! Deanie and Kylie spotted her early in the show and smiled as she enjoyed the music. Patty gave Olivia a smile from time to time– which absolutely made Olivia’s day. Jordan was have a blast too, singing along and she also managed to get a smile from Patty as well.
The set list was pretty much the standard for the tour. She did add “Grandpa” this time, which has been missing from the last few shows. The acoustic set sounded great and the crowd seemed to really enjoy this part.
When Patty introduced the band, she told the crowd that Troy’s wife was expecting a baby next June. This followed a previous announcement that Shayne was a new father – she then laughed and said, “I guess I’m not keeping these boys out on the road enough!” This received a nice round of both laughter and applause.
During Guthrie’s introduction – a girl SCREAMED from the audience. Patty turned to Guthrie and said, “You have a fan – is that your mother or your girlfriend?” Guthrie smiled and shrugged as if to say, “no clue?!”
When Patty introduced Pete – she said, “he’s not playing guitar tonight – he normally would be, but he’s only playing steel and dobro because last week – I tried, well I accidentally nearly cut his finger off – I slammed it in a door.” She then turned to Pete and said, “Don’t you DARE hold up which one it was either!”
As she began to introduce Kylie – she told the story of how she hosts a show on GAC, called “Edge of Country” and we should all watch for her there – but just before she could give the crowd Kylie’s name, a lady in the audience shouted, “YEAH! KYLIE!” Which caused both Patty and Kylie to laugh!
Unfortunately, the show was nearing the end and as is the norm, just before starting “Blame” Patty asked the crowd to stand. This is the part of the show Olivia was waiting for. The crowd stood and sang along! Olivia made her way up near the stage and when it came time for the sing-along, Patty held the microphone down for Olivia to sing, which she did – of course, without missing a word. She than gave Olivia a “high five” which made Olivia’s night. The band left the stage and came back for the encore.
Tonight it would consist of two songs, “Wheel” and “Elvis”. The crowd LOVED “Elvis” and again had so much fun. As the band and Patty were preparing to take their final bow, Olivia walked over to the stage, Patty looked down at her and said, “Bye Darling!” which got one last smile out of Olivia.
As Patty left the stage, she thanked the crowd of Rome and commented that the crowd was small but great. Someone asks, “Why are you still a fan?” I have another great answer to that question after this show. It would be easy, as an artist, to walk on stage – see a small crowd and become discouraged and not give it your all. Patty Loveless NEVER does that. She gives all of herself to the crowd and leaves nothing backstage or on the bus. It doesn’t seem to matter to her whether the crowd numbers large or low, if the venue is big or small – she walks onstage ready to give each person there an amazing show.
She works hard to give each individual the feeling that their hard-earned money was well spent and I honestly think she appreciates each and every person who buys a ticket, CD or T-shirt.
After the show, all 8 of us gathered to quickly discuss the show. My friend Penny and her mother had seen Patty a few times before – but said that was the best show they’d ever seen from her. Darrell and his wife said it was the best concert they had EVER seen! Our group broke up as Penny and her mother decided it was late and they headed home. I went over to have a brief conversation with Kylie – Cole and I had seen her boyfriend playing drums in Marcia’s band on Thursday. I chatted with her for a moment about that – Olivia and Jordan wanted a picture with her – Kylie of course, gladly obliged.
She asked me, “Is this your family?” I said, “Yeah – my nieces, Jordan and Olivia.” She said to Olivia, “I saw you out there – you’re just like your crazy auntie here – you know every word to every song!” Olivia said, “I know most of them!” Kylie laughed and said, “Oh it’s great – seeing you enjoying and celebrating Patty’s music!”
After saying our “goodbyes” to Kylie, we decided to head out to the bus - perhaps to catch one last glimpse of Patty and Olivia was hoping for a hug! There was a small, but rather loud, group waiting once we made our way around to the back of the venue.
I noticed Todd and Melinda were already there along with about 5 or 6 others. We decided to wait in the corner as far out of the way as we could get. Some of the people were crowded around the door they were using to get equipment out and onto the bus, making it difficult for the guys moving everything. I told the people waiting with me that we’d wait back here for short while, just in case, but there was no need to crowd the door or rush her if she should come out. I laughed and said, “She’ll either come out and sign or take pictures with EVERYONE here or she won’t do it at all. But she’s not going to just start and then stop before everyone has a chance.”
It quickly became evident to me that we were waiting in vain, as David came out – apparently rushed and extremely busy. I could have SWORN I heard him say to someone, “Get away from the bus!” Now, as I said, we were trying to stay back out of the way so I couldn’t hear the entire conversation clearly – the promoter then came out and told everyone “Patty is gone – she has already left.” Well, talk about timing – just as he said those words, she walked past the glass doors on the inside of the venue. All this led me to believe that there were obvious factors involved, whatever they may be, that were going to prevent her from coming out to sign or take pictures. I had even begun to doubt she was going to leave through the exit we were standing beside. So, we decided to just leave and quietly slipped away without saying a word to anyone. I’d be willing to put GOOD money on the fact that she never came out that door. (At least, in my opinion if they were smart she didn’t anyway!)
Overall, it was wonderful day filled with family, friends and fantastic music. My thanks to everyone involved for another GREAT show! Until next time……
