CONCERTS —
Date: Thursday, February 12
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Setting: Germaine Arena
Average age guesstimate: Snow bird
Attendance: ca 6000
If you want to understand what is probably the main reason Bill Gaither made such revanchist splashy changes to the Gaither Vocal Band, sit through the first hour of the show on the Lovin’ Life tour. If you want to know […]
Date: Friday, January 2
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Setting: Riverdale High School auditorium (which, judging by the temperature where I was sitting, doubles as a meat locker)
Average age guesstimate: 61
Occasion: Bill Bailey event, part of a package of concerts for snowbirds that Bailey puts on with these groups in Florida
Opening act: Bill Bailey. Who else? Artists must […]
Date: Sunday, November 3
Location: Orlando, Florida
Setting: First Baptist Church, Orlando
Occasion: FBC-O Free Gospel Concert event
Average age guesstimate: 58
Opening act: mercifully, none, but while I killed time before the show, I found this wonderful note scrawled in child’s script inside the Praise! Our Songs and Hymns book in the book rack: “OZZIE: Where is my gameboy? […]
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Setting: Germain Arena
Occasion: Gaither Homecoming Tour, part of a big swing through Florida to catch all the snowbirds
Average age guesstimate: 61
Opening act: The very funny Kevin Williams cracked not a single joke in the entire 10 minutes he stood on the stage playing a few hymns from […]
Date: Saturday, January 6
Location: Fort Myers, FL
Setting: Riverdale High School auditorium (a nice venue, but waiting for the show to start I was struck by how ugly and sad-looking the typical gospel music stage is)
Occasion: Bill Bailey event, part of a package of concerts Bailey put on with these groups in Florida
Average age guesstimate: 62
Opening […]
I had a chance to catch Gaither’s The Best of Anthony Burger on Saturday night. The most striking thing about it was how much the interview with AB turned into a pretext for Gaither to talk and talk and talk. But anyway, watching the old clips of some of AB’s big moments I … or […]
Location: Dix, Ill. I grew up the middle of the nowhere and this place, trust me, is in the middle of the middle of nowhere.
Setting: Boyd Christian Church gymnasium
Occasion: A Reunion of Homecoming […]
Location: Bonne Terre, Mo.
Setting: North County High School auditorium
Occasion: Leadbelt Pentecostal Church event
Average age guesstimate: 42 (!)
Opening acts: Two local church groups: Patterson Family (a mixed trio that had the baldfaced temerity to […]
Location: Belleville, IL
Setting: St. Matthew United Methodist Church, mid-sized, formalish
Occasion: Gospel concert series (this one is dubbed “Quartet Heaven,” by DBQ and Anchormen, apropos the all-sing at the end […]
Location: Arnold, Mo.
Setting: First Baptist Church; large but informal
Occasion: Real Evangelism Conference
Average age guesstimate: 57
Opening act: local choir (despite some infelecities, choir gets more sustained applause than GV)
Attendance: ca 500-600
Cost: whatever you […]
A note from reader FK, who attended an SSQ concert a bit ago and whose opinion I deeply respect:
What a refreshing concert!! I haven’t been so entertained in a very long time. […]
