This Weeks

K.C. Concerts

Produced Several

Thumbs Up

and one Big

Thumbs Down!

_____________

Well, Momma always

said, "if you can't say

something nice, say

nothing," and that's

pretty much the way

we run things here

at New Country Star.

But to save some of

our Kansas City

readers from ever

spending concert

dollars in the wrong

places, we send our

staff out to scope

every concert scene

that makes its way

through Missouri, Kansas,

New York, Arizona

and the surrounding

areas.  In fact, you

never know in any

crowd where there

might be a

New Country Star

Review Columnist...

So just play nice!

The Bellamy Brothers,

 sibling duo from the

late 1970's, made their

way to a small town

festival in the city of

Independence, Missouri.

Now when we say small

town, maybe the city

isn't so small, but the

festival is sure operated

as small town as they come!

After covering the past

weekend's HUGE concert

in Bonner Springs, Kansas,

where the staff of this, the

largest Amphitheater in

the Kansas City area, treated

not only our staff, but all

of the media like royalty,

it was a bit of a slap in the

face, to be held at bay by

multi-colored plastic

used-car-sale flag ropes.  

It was really funny enough

to just have a chuckle.  So,

that's what our staff did.

As for the entertainment,

the knock-off volunteer

security, was fervently

guarding the old sibling duo,

which was also a bit humorous,

considering

more than half

of those seated were just

there to take a load off after

walking the streets of this

downtown carni-fest.  No

mobs were swarming the

duo's bus, and no groupies were

gathered.  So, there

is a good chance some of

you may not even remember them,

but the brothers themselves would be

shocked to hear this.

In fact, we always find

it pretentious when an

artist has no time for fans

but plenty of merch

for sale on site.

These old boys had

decided they had no

time for media or fans.

They were doing the

crowd a favor by just

standing at the mics

singing their old hits

of the 1970's and 80's.

With a couple of their

new gospel tunes thrown

in, which they were

heavily pushing the

crowd to purchase.

It's always sad to see

the old musicians with

the hugest egos that

think their just too big

to be bothered by media

or fans.   Listen up

artists....YOU are never

to big to be bothered

by either.  It is part

of what you do for a

living, so take off your

imaginary crowns and

be human, or at least

fake it and a little

humility, as well. 

You'll do much

better in reviews, and

afterall, you never know

who is watching.  The

saddest thing we spotted

tonight was a youngster

who turned out with

guitar in hand, apparently

ready to play one of their

old hits.  For a young person

to take interest in music

from another generation

 is impressive, so we were

watching closely as this

kid followed along lick

by lick with every tune

from the front row.

Unbelievably, not only

did the Brothers give

the child the brush off,

but they asked the make-

shift security of the small

town festival to have the

boy sent out into the

crowd.  The Bellamy

Brothers have really

changed, well maybe

not, it is possible they

were always this arrogant.

We always look for

something positive in

every performance and

for every review.   And

we did find him, lead

guitar player Randy Hiebert.

Randy carried the duo

through their Kansas City

performance by turning

their old hits into, rockin'

tunes a 2007 crowd could

jam to.  The Bellamy

Brothers sure won't

earn any blue ribbons for

being fan/media friendly

and no NCS staffer in

attendance at their show

can recommend in good

conscience that this is

a good use of concert

dollars.   Luckily, this

was a free show, so the

crowd got music, but

they sure didn't get

any meet & greets, or even

acknowledgement from

the duo for their attendance,

but you can be sure the

brothers made a few bucks

in merchandise sales.

Watch your dollars

concert goers, make sure

you really want to support

an artist before buying

T-Shirts, CDs, and other

memorabelia.