Making The Best of a Storm Delay

Last night, er, this morning at LP Field in Nashville, the first night of concerts at CMA Music Fest were almost rained out. Chuck Wicks opened with the National Anthem, followed by an Air Force flyover. Soon Brooks & Dunn took the stage and played a fairly lengthy set of hits. Pulling mostly from the tempo catalog, Kix and Ronnie only slipped a couple of semi-ballads, one of them “My Maria.” And yes, since she’s making her first big appearance in some 9 years at Fan Fair, now known as CMA Music Fest, Reba made a cameo to help on her part of the hit duet, “Cowgirls Don’t Cry.” Shortly thereafter, Reba was back on the stage on her own to belt out a couple of her hits, and then strange that the timing was, as soon as she wrapped her latest single, the host, appropriately Storme Warren from GAC, appeared on stage to stop the show with weather warnings. Fans were told that there was storm activity in the area, expecting heavy winds, torrential rain, hail, and frequent lightning activity. Learning from the morning’s fan-drenching, officials stopped the show at a point prior to the storm to allow ample time to evacuate the stadium in an orderly manner. With the storm approaching in minutes, fans were asked to wait in the shelter of the concourse, and if it were possible after the storm passed, the show would resume.

Nearly a couple of hours later, the storm hadn’t come yet. Patient fans were packed and scattered on the floors of the humid concourse, some seeking relief in the top few covered rows inside the stadium. Food vendors were doing brisk business as the captive audience that otherwise would have been more interested in music than food at that point in the evening, had nothing better to do to pass the time than eat. For the most part, steadfast fans made the best of the situation. Sections of restless fans were seen doing the wave. An impromptu sing-a-long of “Friends in Low Places” began. And as the rain delay progressed, more and more fans began creeping back into lower rows, despite security’s best effort to keep the evacuated fans in the concourse.

Then the rains finally came, about the time that many fans were feeling that had the show continued, it would have been almost over by this point – at which time if the show had been called for weather, fans would have just gone away satisfied with having had most of the show. But considering that there had been only two acts, and several more superstars were promised, fans weren’t going anywhere as they waited out white-out rains in the relatively dry confines of the concourse. The heavy rains continued for what seemed like an eternity, however, it was more likely about an hour.

When the soaking storm they promised finally disappeared as quickly as it began, the stage was squeegeed and the remaining faithful were called back to our seats – then invited to more down front to fill the vacancies left by those that chose to flee to drier and more comfortable accommodations. As promised, the show continued, with due accommodations made for late night / early morning noise ordinances. And due to the late hour, the artists who hung out through the storm performed only abbreviated sets to move things quickly, yet satisfy promises to the fans.

Darius Rucker played his three singles and a rowdy cover of “Family Tradition.” Dierks Bentley was next with a selection of his high-energy numbers. And then Brad Paisley came out to close the show and make good on all his tour threats to play concerts until 2 or 3 in the morning. All he had to do was sing a couple of songs, and it was gettin’ to be 2 in the morning. Dierks came back out to duet with Brad on an encore of “Alcohol,” and then the first nightly concert of 2009 was in the sopping bag. Rascal Flatts sent apologies that they were unable to wait out the storm due to travel times necessary to get to their next gig tomorrow night.

Providing there is not more rain in the morning, we’ll check out the riverstage shows tomorrow and then it will be time to head home all too soon.