Concerts and Fireworks Don't Mix

Last week D and I went to the Pirates game.





Let me tell you it was one of the worst games I have ever attended. It lasted all of three hours and they lost 3 - 1. Boooooring. So boring that this is the most interesting thing I took a picture of during the entire game.





I wasn't the only one who thought it was a horrible game. This was the Post-Gazette's write up of the game.

As long as REO Speedwagon has been riding the storm out, the band might never have had an opening act bomb quite like the Pirates' offense did in an exasperating 3-1 loss to the Cincinnati Reds last night at PNC Park.
Try 10 men left on base.
Or 2 for 12 with runners left in scoring position, with one of those hits actually driving in a run.
Or that all eight hits were singles.
Or, simply, isolate on a maddening seventh inning in which the first three batters singled and no one would touch home plate.

The blah tone was set even before the game, when no more than 7,000 of the paid crowd of 35,439 was seated for Ian Snell's first pitch, evidently satisfied to show up for the SkyBlast show and concert scheduled to follow. In sharp contrast, the place was at full capacity all through the show.



The only reason to sit through a game like that was to get to the concert at the end.

While they set up the stage they played clips of last summer's concerts. Do you recognize this band?





If you said Styx, you would be right.

The game may have been horrible but the concert was great. Sort of. It was a combination concert and fireworks show. But instead of showing one and the the other they alternated REO playing with fireworks. Two songs, fireworks, two songs, fireworks. I didn't like it. I thought it was really disruptive. Just as the concert would get going they would stop for 5 minutes to set off fireworks.





The fireworks were really cool as you can see but not only did it disrupt the flow of the concert it caused one teeny, tiny problem. Take a look.





What do you see? That's right, not the band. Because the air was so still that night the smoke didn't clear very fast from the field. There were times you could barely see the stage and at times even the screen. Someone didn't think this through very well.

Despite all of that it was still a good concert. How can it not be? It was REO after all. At one point I looked ahead a couple of rows and I saw a guy holding his cane over his head pumping it up and down in time with the music. At one point he started playing it like a guitar. Too funny. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.

I will leave you with a some concert footage from that night.