WPOR Concert at the Beach

The beautiful OOB Pavillion

Tonight I went to the WPOR Concert in the Beach or whatever they're calling it now concert. It was at the Old Orchard Beach Pavillion, which is the best place ever for seeing concerts. All of the comfort of the layout of an indoor theater, outside!

Man, after seeing the Simon an Garfunkel tribute there, which was so quiet you could literally hear a pin drop, it was kind of a little bit of culture shock! S&G was half full, this was packed to the brim. SG no one sang along, you'd sing over the band - this one you couldn't hear yourself over the band, lol. People were so happy, yelling an screaming, clapping an just generally having a goo time.

Lots of WPOR staff around, several police around which makes you wonder what they were expecting, a few concessions. As I had expected, the last couple rows of seats had plenty of empty seats, which is where I wanted to sit anyway. There was not a bad seat in the house.

First guy boring, mostly, except for a rendition of the Beatles' Get Back (Beatles at a country concert? I wasn't expecting that), and a cover version of Rascal Flatts' What Hurts the Most. It might have been unremarkable, except that he had the audience sing every other verse, and I LOVE when they do that. It makes you feel so connected to everyone around you.

2nd act, some American idol guy, felt more like a religious revival meeting than a concert, lol. Nah, it wasn't that bad but this was definitely a guy who put God in a LOT of his songs...and everything else. As introduction to one of his songs, he asked "How many people were raised going to church every week?" or something like it. I am sure that would have gone over REAL well in the South, but I have to admit I was tickled to death when hardly anyone yelled back to say yes. This is Maine, after all. We have standards. =) No offense to religious people, I just don't like it to invade my music any more than it has to.

He was boring, an I was glad when he was over.

Talked to a trio of women in their 70s or 80s who were behind me during intermission. Would have been bored to death waiting otherwise, so I was lucky! One of them said she liked the guy's singing, but why did he have to dress like that? Couldn't he get a nice shirt? lol.

Jason Michael Caroll put on a great show. Took me a few songs to get into it, but then I got pretty much swept away, or as swept away as seems possible these days. I love the feeling, though, of closing your eyes an feeling the emotions of the song sweep through you, pulsate through you, so that nothing else exists in the world but that song.

And I did get that feeling on a few, most notably the first song I knew, "Numbers," so that made me happy. He did a good job alternating between honky tonk party songs that I hate and more pop, catchy or slow songs that I love. So I didn't really have a chance to get bored. He spent a lot of time off the stage in the front row signing the back of people's shirts.... and I tell you, he didnt even miss a beat when he was doing this! I found that rather amazing.

He was high energy, a gifted performer, and great at interacting with the crowd. Even if he did make fun of our "lobstah" ... haha. I found myself genuinely laughing at some of the stuff he said or did, which is not something I'm accustomed to doing. He sang Where I Come From, an Allyssa Lies 2 songs later, so that was good.

Jason Michael Caroll (in green)

Couldn't remember the other song I knew by him till he started singing it - Living Our Love Song. I was like, duh. Great song. Only bad part was it was the last song, quite unexpectedly too. People fleed so fast after that I was left in my seat stunned like, what happened? lol.

Only song he didnt do was Hurry Home. As I was sitting there trying to reconcile with that fact, someone came up to me and asked if I wanted a meet and greet pass. Stunned even further by this, I thanked the girl profusely and stumbled off to the given area, having no idea what I was doing. I waited with a very nice 13 year old girl who I shared my pass with for about half an hour. Asked JMM why he didnt do Hurry Home, he responded in the most pronounced Southern drawl I have ever heard, "I'm sorry, daaaaarling, I wanted to, we just didn't have time for that one." Nice guy. Said a few other things, left. Nice, but weird, end.

Not a bad way to spend a couple hours,though, that's for sure!! So nice to be able to experience a real concert like that in a venue I was actually comfortable in.