Saved two months
Bought a little diamond
Tonight’s the
night
Feels like perfect timing
“She said yes! She said yes!”
 |
| The boys of summer |
After seven consecutive years playing Heinz Field, Kenny
Chesney is right when he says that attending his shows has become a summer
tradition. The 58,000 fans who sang along to every last word all appeared to
have made that tradition theirs.
It’s just as well that they sang along, because it didn’t
seem as though Chesney’s mic was working all that well — it picked up the upper
register of the choruses well enough, but the verses suffered intermittent loss
all night. The Inky Jukebox has
attended three Chesney shows, and this time, the sound balance favored the
guitars so much that every performer’s vocal suffered.
This technical difficulty didn’t stop the love, however. The
last time The Inky Jukebox saw the
Eli Young Band play, we had our hands on the stage. They have since had enough
hits to bring the pre-show audience alive.
Chesney did what he does best: drop a solid two-hour set
crammed to the gills with hit after sing-a-long hit. Behind him, a supermoon
rose from the Pittsburgh skyline in an arc to center stage, providing an
enormous celestial spotlight.
 |
| These boots / Have counted off many a band... |
Halfway through his set, a young man seated two rows down
from The Inky Jukebox proposed to his
pink-hatted girlfriend, and she said yes. Much high-fiving with everyone around
him ensued, he wearing a giant smile and declaring how happy he is. The good
spirits defined the crowd, many of whom had been partying for days in advance
of the show, in boats parked 13-deep outside the stadium at the head of the
Ohio.
Sitting outside in the heat at midnight, having stopped for
a soft-serve on the way home, an old man saw The Inky Jukebox’s hat and asked if we’d been to the Kenny Chesney
show. The Inky Jukebox said yes. “Lucky
dogs,” he replied.
He was right.
