Willie

I went to see Willie Nelson at the Fillmore last night. When I saw the tickets for sale, it seemed like a romantic idea to see such an American icon at an American landmark like the Fillmore. It's a great venue to see a great, intimate show. I was excited to see the rugged, wrinkled, grey haired, smooth, sexy man.. the one that had loved all those girls before. I was excited for his timeless songs, his charismatic stage presence honed over decades.

Unfortunately, reality set in once we got there. As it turns out, he is a geriatric little grandpa with a geriatric little grandpa band. He's a little bit hunched.. his black jeans are pulled way up around his tucked in tee shirt. It took him about 5 minutes to get on stage once he was announced.

As he started, he seemed to be sort of blurting weak breaths of old lyrics into the mic. His bandmates were mostly older guys too... some looking kind of like confused deer in the headlights. Certainly not the lively, hells angels ho down I was expecting.

Monica and I kept looking at each other with a shared recognition of the bait and switch that we had fallen for... but he was cute and still iconic so we did our best to enjoy the show. I even got a plastic cup of whiskey to try and get into the spirit of things.

Once he got warmed up, the songs flowed a little better and the guy does still have some bounce in him and he had no shortage of loyal excited fans. But ultimately, we got bored and left pretty early.

Sorry Willie. We tried.