I must say I’ve never had a toilet fit my “seat” better than what I had at the Residence Inn in OKC. Well, I’m getting way ahead of myself here. I guess I should start from the beginning. A while back I found out that OU’s spring game would be on April 7th so I started making plans to head down to Norman. Then I found out that Mr. Keen would be playing at the Wormy Dog in downtown OKC so I decided I should just make a full weekend of it all. I tried to get some friends from around here to go with me, but their idea of weekend fun was not a football practice and a “hick concert.” Their words, not mine. I tried to get Van to go to the REK part of the weekend but he already had plans set up with the parental units. So I went solo for the weekend.
I got up early and headed the old Dodge south. Now you may remember from my Roy Clark review that I got my Dodge pickup less than a year ago, and you may be asking your self, “Self, why is he saying “old” when the vehicle is less than a year old?” To which I would reply, “well, thanks for noticing and reading past reviews, but I guess that’s just the way I talk sometimes, kinda like how I sometimes say “we” like I’ve got a frog sitting on my shoulder.” So anyway, my kinda new, but it’s not really new, pickup got me down to Norman in time to catch up with some Sooner friends for pizza and football talk before the game. On the way down I listened to Cowboy radio hoping to hear them play Whiskey Avenue, but they didn’t play it while I was in range. Bastards. I did hear some 1100 Springs and Bruce Robison though, so that was cool.
After the game I went up to OKC to get a hotel room. And here was the critical point of the weekend. Little did I know at the time, but the entire weekend, and dare I say, the rest of my life hinged on this one decision coming up. Do I go with the cheap hotel and save money, or do I go with one of the more expensive hotels downtown that is closer to where I’m going? Well, I decided to splurge and go with the more expensive hotel downtown. I checked in and had some extra time and the new Bass Pro Shops was next door so I wandered around there for a little while. Having picked out my dreamboat, a new charcoal grill and a new fly rod, (all of which I can’t afford, but if you’re looking for gifts to give me, I’ll point you in the right direction) I headed back to the hotel room. Once there, the pizza from lunch was starting to fight to get out. And this is where the life altering decision comes into play. Now you may be wondering why this is so life changing. But for me, this toilet in room 317 will be what I compare all future toilets to. Kinda like how I compare every steak I have to one I ate at Doe’s in Greenville, MS; every toilet from here on out will be compared to this one. Honestly, I’ve never had anything cradle my buttock like this seat did. It’s almost as if the seat was made just for me and my, oh so sexy derriere. Honestly, I doubt the Queen of the England has a better toilet than what this one was. It was as if a thousand angels were holding my butt up. But enough about the toilet because I could go on about it all day.
I then watched a little TV then headed out to meander around Bricktown. I hadn’t been down there for a while, and it’s turned into a very cool spot. I directed some out of towners to the Blazers hockey game and tried to listen to some street performer sing, or I guess that was what he was calling it. Not my taste of music, and that dude had some problems. Finally I ended up at Mickey Mantle’s Steakhouse. I went into the lounge to have a steak and an ice-cold Coors Original beer. They had a lounge singer singing as the Spartans hockey team was silently kicking the crap out of the BC Eagles on the TV over the bar. (Well, that was as close a reference to an REK song as I could muster, at least at that moment) One thing I found out when they brought my steak, when you order a steak there, you get a steak, a salad, some bread, and that’s it. No vegetable, no potato, just a steak and that was it. Now don’t get me wrong, the steak was very, very good, but at the prices they were charging, I expected more, at least one starch. The lounge singer gave a great rendition of Smooth Operator that somewhat (but not entirely) made up for no potato with my steak. I left the establishment and walked by the street performer who was still playing the same song, as best as I could tell at least.
Well, it was still early, but I decided to go ahead and go to the bar. I got there early enough that there was still a saddle at the bar open for me to sit at, so I sat down and had a beer at happy hour prices. The dollar Coors made up for not having a potato with my steak. It wasn’t to long before the Dedringers opened up for REK. This is actually the second time I’ve heard them, the first being at WGWOF ’06. These guys did a good job of opening up for REK and had some real good songs to showcase for the masses that were coming in. They had some good stories of dating a 27 year old at 18 and a dad’s reaction when finding out about it. My favorite song of theirs was the last one they played before giving way to REK; a real cool song called Heart of Gold, aka, the “Broke the Mold” song. (That’s just what I had wrote down as the title of the song when listening, thus the “aka” part) You can hear that song on their MySpace page.
After a short intermission a guy that goes by the name of Robert Earl Keen came on the stage playing It’s Saturday Night. I guess that’s in his contract to play that anytime he plays on a Saturday night. But it does set a good stage for the rest of the evening and is a good song to start off with. Now, I intended to write down all the songs played so I could give a full account of the gig, but after about the fifth song or so I forgot to write a few down, and my short term memory is so bad that I forgot what was played just a couple of songs ago, but suffice it to say, he played all the old and new favorites. Here recently he’s started playing a short 2-3 song acoustic deal in the middle of his set. I really like that part of the show. It’s just him with a guitar and gives his band a chance to rest up for the rest of the show, but the few times I’ve seen him with this acoustic part I’ve loved it. And it didn’t hurt that he played one of my favorite songs of his, Paint the Town Beige. I’ve always loved this song, and always will. I guess I like the chorus of the song, and even at a younger age could relate. You could say I was painting the town beige even in my college years.
Still I get restless and drive into town
I cruise once down Main Street and turn back around.
It's crazy but God knows I don't act my age
Like an old desperado, who paints the town beige
Since this concert was played the night before Easter, we had the pleasure of listening to Merry Christmas From the Family one last time before it goes into hiatus, not to return till Labor Day. It’s defiantly a crowd favorite and everyone sings along and I was glad I got to see the last performance of that song for a while. Another of my favorites he played was Feeling Good Again. There are very few songs ever that can evoke such imagery as what that song does. I can never listen to that song without imagining myself in the bar and $70 in my pocket.
And I
wanted you to see them all
I wished that you were there
I looked across the room
and saw you standin' on the stair
And when I caught your eye
I saw you break into a grin
It feels so good feelin' good again
As much as I love listening to Robert and the rest of the boys, I love people watching at a concert just as much. And there were some good ones to watch at this concert. There was the girl in a red dress, a strapless red dress at that. Of course you know that is always good. There was the drunken crowd that was parked out stage left. They were funny because they were taking pictures of each other in your typical drunk bar setting. You know, the kind I’m talking about, the guy acting like he’s spanking the girl, the girls looking drunk, the guys trying to look rock and roll. But then one guy decided to go around pictures with total strangers. He took my picture then moved on to the girl next to me at the bar. She was quick with an “I have a boyfriend,” but this guy either didn’t hear her or didn’t care, or both I guess. But he did manage to get a picture of her. At the end of the concert I told her she should’ve asked for prints, she laughed and said “yeah,” and just at that moment he was walking by, so she was quick with her digital camera and got a picture of him. There was also an older couple that sat next to me at the bar. The lady sat down on one of the saddles, but I guess she’s not a cowgirl because it was uncomfortable for her. They then moved to the center of the stage when she couldn’t take anymore of the saddle. I finished the night buying a hat and Road/Farm Fresh Onions bumper sticker. Robert Earl was kind enough to sign it, but now I’m not sure what to do with it, it’s too nice to but on the pick up, but where else should I put it. Oh well, I’ll have to figure that one out for myself I guess. I then walked myself back to hotel room 317 as I text messaged van a picture I took with my camera phone right before REK signed my bumper sticker.
So, what have we learned today:
- I take great pleasure in a perfectly formed toilet seat
- REK still knows how to make great music
- The Dedringers are a good up and coming band
- A steak is just a steak at Mickey Mantle’s, but it is a very good steak
- Smooth Operator is an underrated song
- And I’m feelin’ good again while I paint the town beige.
I’ll give this concert 4 out of 5-year-old Dodge pickups.