Never Break the Chain or You'll Go Your Own Way

 

Thursday brings us to yet another Music on the Half Shell concert in Sutherlin's Community Park. In this episode, I sit here speechless, actually. Yes, without words. What are words, anyway? 

The entire show my mouth was agape. Not aghast at how incredibly good these singers were, but at the idea of how disharmonic the majority of the concert was because of the singers.

 Mallory and I sat in disbelief. Terry said he couldn't even hear most of the lyrics or the beat well enough to understand what song was playing. Being hard of hearing does come in handy at times. 

One woman out of the bunch of band members had a similarity in voice to Stevie Nicks, but poor Christine McVie must have been turning over in her grave asking, "What the hell is that?" 

There was a bit of closeness to the tone of McVie, but then off would come the gloves. This woman would hit raucous notes and be way off key at other points of the song. I can't even put into words what happened at the end of one song. Don't even recall which song, but this woman let out a sound close to that of a bull moose, during rutting season. It wasn't just one quick note either. She released it and it lingered in the night air for several minutes, without wavering and definitely without any resemblance of a note that was pleasing to the ear. 

Mallory and I both cringed at the same time and held our hands over our ears. At that point, I was ready to leave. It literally molested my ears and made me want to go home. Shivers down the spine, ear-drum-bursting yowl at the moon. And loud. Really, really loud. 

I'm certain the neighbors in Oakland heard that note clear from Sutherlin. I was thinking of Oakland, Oregon, but California will do as well. Awful, awful pitch. Dogs were dropping and whining to make it stop. Children were crying to their mothers while covering their ears. Mallory and I were holding our ears, talking about how we wanted to go home. Terry? Sweet man was recording the song while leaning toward me to ask, "What song is this?" 

Not every single song was completely horrid. There were a couple of them that sounded okay. You could at least make out what the song was and get into a beat. That is, until the end of the song when he or she would begin to run with unrecognized notes that left you wondering if they were blending another song into the mix.  

One song literally had a four-year-old boy in the row ahead of us grasping his ears with both hands. He wanted silence. Can't blame him there. 

The entire evening was not a complete bomb. There were food trucks. Terry and I went to the Mexican food truck, where he had a large burrito. The burrito off of this truck is his favorite on these concert nights. I ordered a taco salad. Pretty good. 

I also had a chance to go to the porta-potties to pee while I was waiting for our food. Terry came with me and entered the one next door, so the time was well spent. Back to grab our food and go to our seats, but not before I had a chance to see the slogan of the septic service company handling the portable toilets.  Of course a picture was needed here. 

I thought it was funny. 

The people in front of us got up to go to the bathrooms or grab a bite to eat. When they did, it left his chair open to see this group of misfits on stage. I could not see the stage at all when they were seated. The venue was crowded, leaving little choice as to where you sat. 

Now, we did get a small number of videos. I will leave the opinion up to you, but it just didn't sit well with us. So many people there and all were chattering away during the songs or getting up to get food or go to the restrooms. Typically people are snapping photos or recording videos in these concerts, singing along with the tune, and truly getting into the program. None of that was happening. It was just an odd show. 

Toward the end there was dancing, but I do believe there may have been a bit of wine drinking involved. In fact, I was witness to a few glasses being poured. Hey, whatever gets you through the music, but did you bring enough for the whole class? Wild Rumours members were drinking some tequila as well. The lead singer announced that on stage. It was a party. But they seemed to calm down and sing better after that too. So hey, drink yourself into a stupor if that helps. 

The band is known as Wild Rumours, giving the audience a Fleetwood Mac experience or facsimile thereof. Bless their hearts, they tried. Like I said, some of the songs sounded pretty good. But wow, the others were like scratching nails down a blackboard and being forced to hear it. 

This was our Thursday night. Our next to the last concert in Sutherlin is now over. But summer events are not over as of yet. The Douglas County Celtic Society is having an event of bagpipes, Celtic fun, and even heavy athletic abilities on the weekend of the 24th and 25th. If muscular men in skirts is your thing, there ya go. 

Sponsored and hosted by Melrose Vineyard. This should be an interesting event! The mix of wine and men in skirts and attending women could be hilarious, who knows? Pictures. There will be pictures. 

Our next concert will be on the 22nd, being the last concert of the year. This band, called Summer Groove Party Band is going to bring us some fun tunes from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Should be a good one!

But until then, we are keeping our eyes on the prize of enjoying our summer. We have spent a lot of Tuesdays and Thursdays this year in going to concerts between bigger name bands and those bands who create a good time in the park for all of us attending but might not be as well known as the others. 

Meanwhile, back to Wild Rumours and the concert:

Gypsy didn't sound bad. I thought she did an okay job on this one. Chalk one up for Wild Rumours. Her voice is great for the Stevie Nicks covers they do. The guitar was spot on as well. Nice cover. 

Go Your Own Way cover by Wild Rumours. This song was not so good. In combination with poor sound quality, the song was simply not all that fantastic. I believe the camera made it sound better than it actually was. My heart sank when I heard them play this song. 

I Don't Know cover that didn't sound all that bad.

Landslide cover by Wild Rumours. This was done with grace and a few tears at the end. She began to shed tears while finishing the song. Nothing wrong with that. 

Well, these are the songs we recorded. Of course they had the rest of the set, but we could not get video. We were really busy chatting and ignoring the sounds coming from the stage and weren't hearing anything worth recording. The first few songs especially. I'm a big Fleetwood Mac fan, but there were a couple of songs performed that I had to really sit and think about before I knew what song it was. 

Bless their hearts. The voice of the lead singer is there. It was good. Tone down the screeching and stick with what you do best and you've got yourself a concert. In one song, the notes were so annoying and painful to hear, that we had to cover our ears. I was ready to leave the grounds at that point. Like I said, they did get a bit better. At best the show was a six out of ten, with kudos thrown in for the similarity of the voice of the lead singer to that of Stevie Nicks. Guitars were pretty good too. 

***

Friday, August 9, 2024

Today was a busy day for deliveries, with a few moments of quietness to gather my energy for the next round. In between, I found myself down by the duck pond next door to Fred Meyer. Here I found a gaggle of geese, flock of ducks, and even a few pigeons hanging out on the grounds. Lots of fun. 

I'll bet they could get together and sing White Winged Dove without a hitch. That sounded just a bit snarky now, didn't it? Not nice, but true. So very true.

Remember, if you do go to feed the ducks and geese (and even pigeons) in your area, please take a bag of oatmeal instead of bread. Bread can harm birds and even kill them. Rice, oats, and birdseed are three suggestions and there are more on the internet. Stay away from the bread!

Got another call and had to run, but the day was pretty good overall. Made it home at the end of my shifts, to the arms of my sweet man. He wanted to take me out to eat so I didn't have to cook, so we jumped in the car to go to Hacienda Vieja, one of our favorites. 

Chips and salsa were nibbled on. 

Steaming hot fajita fixing's were delivered. Ooh's and ah's were spoken. 

Plates of rice and beans were worshipped. 

Tacos were eaten and it wasn't even a Tuesday. 

Tamales and enchiladas swam in a lovely sauce, with a blanket of grated cheese to put them to rest. It was a great dinner. Good company and wonderful food as always. 

What? Dinner is over? Fine. I'll take my box and go home. 

We returned to watch an episode of Leverage and to enjoy some time together. It's a good day. A good way to be. 

Until tomorrow, please keep safe. Be sure to hug and kiss your babies, including your furry ones. Oh, and the hubby too. 😀💋✌😜

Next up? Who knows what trouble we can get into? It's a big job but Terry and I are the ones to do it. Broken bodies be damned!