Concert Review - Tim McGraw and Faith Hill - Soul 2 Soul Tour

Stefan and I went to the Faith Hill/Tim McGraw Soul 2 Soul concert last night at the Richmond Coliseum. We had floor seat tickets, which, if we had acted swiftly, would have cost us $85 each. But since we hemmed and hawed about going, we ended up paying a substantial amount more to secure tickets. The last time we saw a concert there, we sat in the section where they handed out oxygen masks because the air is a little thin up in the nosebleed section. When the drunk girl sitting behind started dancing, we braced ourselves for what could have been a long, hard fall. After that, we vowed never again would we sit up there.

I would really like to give a rave review about this concert. I suppose I could, but I would not be doing any fans justice.

The stage was rather unique. It sat squarely in the center of the floor, and then had cat-walks extending in the north, south, east, and west directions. The idea was to allow the majority of concert-goers a good view, and I believe this could have been achieved, had Faith Hill and Tim McGraw actually used the cat-walks. As it turned out, they spent most of their time on the center stage with their backs to us.

When we first arrived, the “volunteer” (aka not good enough to be paid) told us that our seats, Row G, seats 5 and 6, could be found by counting outwards from the cat-walk. We excitedly took our seats and nearly peed ourselves with excitement. Due to the cat-walk extending to our left, we were within distance of being sweat on by Tim and Faith! Unfortunately, our excitement was short-lived, as another “volunteer” came over to explain that the first “volunteer” had gotten her right and left mixed up, and we should have counted our seats in from the outer row. We were still quite close to the stage, and if we hadn’t been mis-informed in the first place, we would have been more excited. But that snafu took some wind out of our sails. Meanwhile, I was kicking myself for having left the camera in the car. I wasn’t sure that they would be allowed, but it turns out they were.

The first song was a duet sung by the two of them on opposite sides of the stage. I’d like to tell you what song they sang, but true to form, the sound was so bad, we couldn’t make out the words. I had heard that the Coliseum acoustics was not good for concerts, but I didn’t know how bad.

After the duet, Tim disappeared and left Faith to struggle on her own. It was cool to see her so up close and personal, but my excitement quickly waned. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I expected her to dress up a little. She wore grey business-casual pants with a black belt that had crystals on it, and a black button-down shirt. She would have fit in just fine if she’d shown up to my office dressed like that. Except for the sneakers. They don’t allow us to wear sneakers here, but I guess it was okay for her to wear them on stage. I had to ask Stefan to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, but it was true: he could see her panty-line as well.

Faith belted out her songs, but offered very little in the way of a performance. She kept her eyes on the ground, and she walked around somewhat, occasionally venturing out onto the cat-walks. What surprised me beyond belief was that she let her band up-stage her. They took every opportunity to run out on the cat-walks and jump around, trying to act as though they were the act everyone had come to see. It distracted me more than it entertained me. But even worse, was that Faith looked dressed up compared to her band-mates. The bass guitar wore pinstripe pants with a t-shirt and a long-sleeved shirt underneath. All untucked. Her guitarist wore these 70’s style Jordache jeans with white stitching and a jacket with zippers across the shoulder blades and Elvis style shades. We dubbed him “Jordache Elvis.” Another guitarist emerged, and my jaw dropped to the floor when I saw him. While Stefan and I waited patiently outside for an hour, waiting for the Coliseum to open, a man stepped outside. He looked like a strung-out roadie and I commented to Stefan that they’ll hire just any warm body for these events. Imagine my surprise when this “roadie” turned out to be a guitarist! All three of these band members thought we had shown up for them, yet they didn’t even dress in public appropriate attire, nor did they bother to shave for the last three days. They upstaged her so badly, that I spent more time watching them make fools of themselves than I did Faith. I felt embarrassed for Faith. Then I felt angry. Why didn’t she make sure her band looked good? Why didn’t she dress up? She came off as very shy and timid, which I though odd for a performer of her caliber. We had purchased a picture-book and her personality showed through in the photos, but this was not the same Faith as the one in the photos.

After about an hour, Tim came out and the pair sang a couple more duets. Nothing new or exciting to report here. They stayed in the middle of the stage with their backs to each other. Then Faith disappeared and Tim performed for the next hour. Tim’s band members looked better – their clothes matched and they had shaved. They didn’t steal as much thunder, but they did go out on the cat-walks more than Tim. Meanwhile, the reverb on Tim’s microphone was so high, we couldn’t make out anything he said or sang. After sitting/standing through almost another hour of disappointing performance, our eardrums were screaming for relief, so we left early.

Yes, we left early, folks. After all the hype, blood, sweat and dollars spent getting floor-seat tickets, we left early. If I were pressed to give a rating to this show, I’d have to give it one star out of five. If I had read a review of the show before purchasing tickets, this is one show I would have passed on. I feel ripped off. $85 is a lot of money to many folks, and that money is hard-earned. What I saw did not show me that they earned my hard-earned dollars. If they had gotten paid after the performance, they probably would have been forced to at least act excited and put on a good show. But as it was, the Soul 2 Soul tour should be re-named to the I Don’t Give a Crap tour.

Hopefully next week the Professional Bull Riders Championship will be better. And this time, I’m bringing the camera with me!