By Stewart Lewis–
Winter is my least favorite time of year. It’s cold and gray, and the days are way too short. I needed a little dose of summer over Thanksgiving break, so I went to see Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band at KFC Yum! Center on Saturday, Nov. 30.
This is not my first rodeo when it comes to Jimmy Buffett concerts. I have been going to them every year since my parents first took me in 2004. Typically, friends meet to tailgate outside of Riverbend Amphitheater in Cincinnati Ohio around 12 hours before the concert to start tailgating. We dress appropriately for the occasion in bright colors, flowery leis, grass skirts and coconut bras.
The concert in Louisville was a different experience for me this year, and Louisville has some work to do in their tailgating department. It’s hard to lure patrons to pay for food, drinks and entertainment at 4th street bars when they’re used to bringing their own food, drinks and tailgate games. Some people might even be tempted to tailgate in parking garages.
The concert was amazing, and our seats were about as good as they possibly could be in the 5th row. And Jimmy’s performance was as good as any that I’ve seen in the almost ten years I’ve been doing the whole Buffett concert experience.
In a recent article for the Courrier-Journal, Communist reporter Jeffery Lee Puckett would have you believe that Jimmy Buffett was just trying to “play to his brand” of being a “beach-bum” with “a drink in one hand, and a refill in the other”.
And at 66 years old, I’d say Buffett has learned a little bit at what the audience wants out of his shows. We want to escape. We don’t want to be in Louisville, Kentucky where it’s freezing and gross outside. We want to be down-island, fishing, surfing or sailing. We want to go to Margaritaville.
Photo by Stewart Lewis/The Louisville Cardinal
