Taylor Hicks at Stadium Of Fire, Provo, Utah
I went to the Stadium Of Fire show in Provo, Utah, this past weekend to see Taylor Hicks perform in his first big gig since winning American Idol. Stadium Of Fire is the biggest annual event of the year in Provo, it is held outdoors at the BYU football stadium. My husband and I live in Montana, and we were already planning a June road trip to Utah when we found out Taylor would be performing there on July 1st. I got tickets online at the BYU ticket site and ended up with sixth row seats on the football field in front of the stage.
God and Patriotism are alive and well in Utah. Stadium Of Fire is a Fourth Of July show called “A Tribute To Freedom”, and was broadcast live to our troops overseas. I can’t remember the last time I was at an event where everyone said the Pledge Of Allegiance (including “under God”) and bowed their heads in a moment of prayer. Then came the national anthem, an F-16 fly over, then the Army Special Forces parachute team parachuted onto the football field, while everyone in the stadium was madly waving the little American flags provided to attendees.
I think some of the folks were there primarily to see the fireworks, and just tolerating the entertainment leading up to it. Tolerance was in order-though it was initially fun to wave the flags, the evening did not go smoothly--it was punctuated throughout the night by announcements from various local TV and radio hosts, as well as a silly event called “Family Face-Off Competition”, where two families were doing dumb stuff trying to win a TV set. Every time the show would get some music momentum going, they would stop and make announcements and the local T.V. anchors would start talking.
Our first glimpse of Taylor was a surprise--when the high school marching bands, choir, and dancers were playing and dancing to Stars And Stripes Forever on the football field, Taylor suddenly appeared on the 50 yard line and did a solo harmonica Stars and Stripes riff in his hunched over style. The crowd roared. It was great! At that point, those of us down on the field had to watch the big screen TV to see him but it was a fun moment nevertheless.
It was downhill for awhile after that--we saw Abba, Queen, and Beach Boys tribute bands and a couple other local musical acts that were just ok. Then they announced Taylor Hicks-“The gray haired winner of American Idol” and the crowd went wild!
Taylor appeared on the stage in a sport coat much as he did on Idol, his first song was Takin’ It To The Streets. He got the biggest cheers when he did his dancing thing during that song. Then he slowed down the pace and did a song from his Under The Radar album, during which he played the guitar and harmonica at the same time. I like the song but I thought it sounded a bit muffled and didn’t have the clarity it does on the CD, and it was too subtle or not quite big enough to engage the “waitin’ for the fireworks” audience in the distant seating areas.
His third and final song was Do I Make You Proud, he said onstage when he originally thought about doing this song, he wanted to make it in part a tribute to our troops overseas. His rendition of DIMYP was the best song sung by anyone on stage that night. The sound was big and powerful, and he is really making it his own. People responded to it. I know many Idol fans and Soul Patrollers don’t care for the song, but it worked very well on stage and he pulled it off beautifully.
It also seems that Taylor is definitely trying to find his way and adjust to a larger live audience. He was onstage alone in front of 50,000 people, no band and no back up singers, just him, his guitar and harmonica. He did a fantastic job but I think he'll get even better in the future.
Taylor yelled “Soul Patrol” as he exited the stage after DIMYP.
The headliner, Lee Ann Womack, came on stage next. While she was singing, a 40-something blonde lady came roaring over to our row of seats, and showed us her ticket stubs, which she said Taylor had just autographed for her. She was glassy eyed and looked to be in shock. Not caring to listen to Lee Ann Womack, we headed over to the area under the bleachers where she said Taylor was, and we saw him signing some autographs for about 20 young girls who were crowding around him. He was on the other side of a short barrier or they might have knocked him down. It was a small group of fans but very chaotic.
One 14-year-old girl was literally crying and begging a security guard to let her get closer to Taylor. She later managed to get next to him for a photo, which Taylor took in stride. He seemed slightly self-conscious and humbled by the fans clamoring for his attention. After another minute of signing autographs, he then waved them off apologetically and retreated back to the off-limits, behind-the-barrier area, and signed some autographs for military guys who were back there.
After a few minutes, Taylor walked back towards the fans, scribbled some more autographs and came out from behind the barrier. Stadium security escorted him onto the football field, his head was bent slightly down as if he was getting hit with hailstones but in reality he was braced against possible fan onslaught. The girl fans trailing him got left behind because he entered the football field area where you had to have field tickets to access. I had a ticket to the field area, so I was able to walk alongside him and observe. Once he got onto the field, no one seemed to notice that he was there as Lee Ann Womack was still singing and it was fairly dark out by then. Taylor sat in a row of seats on the football field where other dignitaries (Miss USA, Miss Provo, etc.) were sitting and watched Lee Ann’s performance. We headed back to our nearby seats, and when I looked back a few minutes later to see if he was still there, he was gone.
So that’s my Taylor sighting. I was six feet away from him, and he looked exactly like he does on TV. He seems like a genuinely nice guy.
Soul Patrol!
Caren
God and Patriotism are alive and well in Utah. Stadium Of Fire is a Fourth Of July show called “A Tribute To Freedom”, and was broadcast live to our troops overseas. I can’t remember the last time I was at an event where everyone said the Pledge Of Allegiance (including “under God”) and bowed their heads in a moment of prayer. Then came the national anthem, an F-16 fly over, then the Army Special Forces parachute team parachuted onto the football field, while everyone in the stadium was madly waving the little American flags provided to attendees.
I think some of the folks were there primarily to see the fireworks, and just tolerating the entertainment leading up to it. Tolerance was in order-though it was initially fun to wave the flags, the evening did not go smoothly--it was punctuated throughout the night by announcements from various local TV and radio hosts, as well as a silly event called “Family Face-Off Competition”, where two families were doing dumb stuff trying to win a TV set. Every time the show would get some music momentum going, they would stop and make announcements and the local T.V. anchors would start talking.
Our first glimpse of Taylor was a surprise--when the high school marching bands, choir, and dancers were playing and dancing to Stars And Stripes Forever on the football field, Taylor suddenly appeared on the 50 yard line and did a solo harmonica Stars and Stripes riff in his hunched over style. The crowd roared. It was great! At that point, those of us down on the field had to watch the big screen TV to see him but it was a fun moment nevertheless.
It was downhill for awhile after that--we saw Abba, Queen, and Beach Boys tribute bands and a couple other local musical acts that were just ok. Then they announced Taylor Hicks-“The gray haired winner of American Idol” and the crowd went wild!
Taylor appeared on the stage in a sport coat much as he did on Idol, his first song was Takin’ It To The Streets. He got the biggest cheers when he did his dancing thing during that song. Then he slowed down the pace and did a song from his Under The Radar album, during which he played the guitar and harmonica at the same time. I like the song but I thought it sounded a bit muffled and didn’t have the clarity it does on the CD, and it was too subtle or not quite big enough to engage the “waitin’ for the fireworks” audience in the distant seating areas.
His third and final song was Do I Make You Proud, he said onstage when he originally thought about doing this song, he wanted to make it in part a tribute to our troops overseas. His rendition of DIMYP was the best song sung by anyone on stage that night. The sound was big and powerful, and he is really making it his own. People responded to it. I know many Idol fans and Soul Patrollers don’t care for the song, but it worked very well on stage and he pulled it off beautifully.
It also seems that Taylor is definitely trying to find his way and adjust to a larger live audience. He was onstage alone in front of 50,000 people, no band and no back up singers, just him, his guitar and harmonica. He did a fantastic job but I think he'll get even better in the future.
Taylor yelled “Soul Patrol” as he exited the stage after DIMYP.
The headliner, Lee Ann Womack, came on stage next. While she was singing, a 40-something blonde lady came roaring over to our row of seats, and showed us her ticket stubs, which she said Taylor had just autographed for her. She was glassy eyed and looked to be in shock. Not caring to listen to Lee Ann Womack, we headed over to the area under the bleachers where she said Taylor was, and we saw him signing some autographs for about 20 young girls who were crowding around him. He was on the other side of a short barrier or they might have knocked him down. It was a small group of fans but very chaotic.
One 14-year-old girl was literally crying and begging a security guard to let her get closer to Taylor. She later managed to get next to him for a photo, which Taylor took in stride. He seemed slightly self-conscious and humbled by the fans clamoring for his attention. After another minute of signing autographs, he then waved them off apologetically and retreated back to the off-limits, behind-the-barrier area, and signed some autographs for military guys who were back there.
After a few minutes, Taylor walked back towards the fans, scribbled some more autographs and came out from behind the barrier. Stadium security escorted him onto the football field, his head was bent slightly down as if he was getting hit with hailstones but in reality he was braced against possible fan onslaught. The girl fans trailing him got left behind because he entered the football field area where you had to have field tickets to access. I had a ticket to the field area, so I was able to walk alongside him and observe. Once he got onto the field, no one seemed to notice that he was there as Lee Ann Womack was still singing and it was fairly dark out by then. Taylor sat in a row of seats on the football field where other dignitaries (Miss USA, Miss Provo, etc.) were sitting and watched Lee Ann’s performance. We headed back to our nearby seats, and when I looked back a few minutes later to see if he was still there, he was gone.
So that’s my Taylor sighting. I was six feet away from him, and he looked exactly like he does on TV. He seems like a genuinely nice guy.
Soul Patrol!
Caren