Friday night, part 1

All festival calendar advertisements for Friday night’s concert read something like this: “Celebrate the St. Patrick’s holiday at Miller Lite Central City Park with $2.00 green beer.” Well that’s a flat-out lie. When my friends and I attended the Eagles Tribute Concert by the Hotel California Band last night in Central City Park, we were expecting to find just what the advertisement said: $2 green beer. Very simple, yes? No. Instead, what we found was A) beer that was NOT green, and B) a beverage that cost a whopping $8. Actually, it was technically $8 for a tacky plastic “souvenir mug” filled with beer, which came with $6 beer refills. There was another option — you could buy green frozen margaritas instead, but those also cost $8 with $6 refills – but it seems you can save those tacky plastics glasses and mugs, carry them around all week for $6 refills. Well, gosh, that just makes that outrageous price all worth it. No matter, there was no beer for $2, and none of the beer I saw had anything similar to a hue of green.
The atmosphere of the park was also vastly different from what it was during the day. Friday afternoon, the park was filled with families, and men in pink coats could be seen in any direction you looked. By Friday night though, the park was more quiet, most of the kids were gone, and there were absolutely no men in pink coats anywhere to be seen – I’m sure they were all breaking it down over at the big gala ball at the City Auditorium, and alas, I am a mere copy editor who doesn’t quite have the funds to attend such events.
I guess what I’m trying to get around to is that at Friday night’s event, there was a completely different socioeconomic class difference from that earlier in the day, and it was very obvious. It almost felt a little like stepping into someplace similar to Whiskey River. Not that I have anything against Whiskey River – in fact, I’ve been there a couple of times. I felt going to the park during the day and then again that night definitely gave a small glimpse into Macon’s different sides that one could possibly never notice.
As far as the concert goes, the stage area was fairly crowded by 9 and several couples were even dancing, but many people were just sitting back and enjoying the music. When the band went on a rather lengthy break about 9:30, though, half of the attendees at the concert also left. The music was okay, I didn’t think it was bad – it was, after all, basically a cover band, and the lead guy did sound kind of like Don Henley to me. My friends were mixed on their reviews. One kept singing along, while one had this to say: “I never really liked the Eagles but this guy makes me miss Don Henley.”
I know it seems that I don’t have much of anything positive to say about Friday’s concert, and frankly I don’t. Maybe if I’d had some $2 green beer …