The Lawn at White River State Park, Indianapolis
Alison Krauss and Union Station with Jerry Douglas
A couple months ago, back when The Coach was still getting out of school in May, I received one of those junk emails that are overly-attracted to my gmail account. Usually, I just delete these things, but the subject line caught my eye. Alison Krauss! Coming Soon to a Venue! Near! You! Now, there are very few people I’m willing to pay good money to see: Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, the Dixie Chicks, and — of course — Alison Krauss {1}. The Coach would add Barry Manilow to that list, but quite honestly, that would make my ears bleed and my brain explode, so let’s not go there.
Anyways, I have loved Alison Krauss ever since I first came across her music in that slightly odd George Clooney movie, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? When I moved to Louisiana, my friend D. also talked about how much she liked Krauss’ music and pretty soon, I had more than enough CDs to fill every slot in my old car’s six CD changer. What can I say, she’s one of the few singer that I can easily harmonize with when driving down the road {2}. I’ve been trying to go to a concert for years and came close once — when she was going to be in St. Louis — only to have the concert cancelled due to bad weather or something along those lines.
So, when I saw that the tickets were for sale for the first day of our previously schedule vacation, I bought them. I thought we’d drive up to Indy, see the concert then head for Niagara Falls. Of course, the best laid plans … always go right down the crapper, my friends. Our vacation has been shifted backwards, first because I was afraid that The Coach’s passport wouldn’t come in time, and then because he was out of school for 10 “flood days.” That moved his last day of school (for teachers anyways) to, umm, today {3}.
Thus, I had tickets for a concert that The Coach was going to have trouble attending. Fortunately, his principal is a nice guy and let my husband leave work at 10 a.m. on Thursday {4}, so that we could make it to Indianapolis. We started out by going to Shapiro’s Deli, theoretically one of the Top 10 delis in the United States according to USA Today. The restaurant’s motto? “Cook good. Serve generously. Price modestly. People will come.” Well the food is good and the portions are generous, but I wouldn’t say the prices are modest. Well, maybe they’re modest for say, New York City or Chicago, or LA, but not so much for the heartland of America where our economy sucks, but I digress.
For the record, The Coach had turkey and Key Lime pie; I had a reuben and Boston Cream Pie.
We ate. We played around on my phone trying to find out where the VIP parking was for the concert. We became frustrated with the lack of decent information on the White River State Park website (try finding parking on this map).
For the record, the actually concert was — as the dude behind us kept shouting out — “Awesome, just awesome!” Alison Krauss was terrific. Jerry Douglas was great. The opening act — some guy who was on the Sing Off — wasn’t too bad either. And, even those the air was so thick you probably could have swam in it – as in, steamy enough that Krauss quipped “I’m sweatin’ like a man up here” — the concert last for a long, long time, right through a four song encore. Seriously, her feet must have been sopping wet by the end of the night, thanks to those knee high boots. Phew!
What was disappointing was the venue. I don’t care if Pollstar does rank The Lawn among its Top 100 concert venues in the United States, the staff was completely unprofessional. Let me give you just one example: the clueless security guard. Here we are, sitting on our blanket waiting for the concert to begin when the guy in front of us lights up a cigarette. In a non-smoking venue. At a concert sponsored by the State of Indiana’s 1-800-Quit-Now hotline. Ironic, yeah. Now, this didn’t bother me as much as it bothered the woman in front of us. She actually complained to the security guard who walked past us before the open act started:
Woman (stopping security guard): “Excuse me, that man is smoking.”
Security Guard: “I’m sorry I don’t really know what our policy is about that.”
Woman: “There was a no smoking sign at the entrance.”
That’s it! The guard just looked at the guy, the guy shrugged, and she (the guard) just keep walking. WTF? Seriously? You are going to work security, but you don’t know the policies? Get with the program or get a new job. This wasn’t the only problem we had with the staff not knowing how to do their jobs (a very special thank you goes out to the chick who sent us to the wrong entrance because she didn’t know what a VIP pass was), but it was the most obnoxious one. Plus, to be honest with you, I couldn’t believe the fees on these tickets, which were advertised at $29.50 (really cheap, right?) but had a $10.50 service fee per ticket {5}. And, don’t get me started on fact that the VIP passes were a complete ripoff. I mean, come on – who puts the “VIP Club” behind the stands so you can’t see the stage? I pretty much could have paid for my gas with the money I spent on that VIP pass.
The final judgment? I would pay to see Alison Krauss in concert again, but I sure won’t be returning to The Lawn at White River State any time in the near (or far) future.
