She's Gone [Aussie] Country!

Before my long weekend in Brisbane, I was offered the opportunity to see American country singers, Alan Jackson and Sara Evans, in concert at the Sydney Olympic Park Auditorium.  Doesn't matter if you love country music, or if the twangy tunes grind your g(ears), you have to admit that country concerts are a guaranteed good time.  In the states, country concerts consist of cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and many refills of beer.  In Australia, it is surprisingly the same atmosphere, except the hats are called "akubra", and the Australian cowboy is called a "jackaroo". 

[Side note: I also did not know Alan Jackson was still relevant to the country music genre - I couldn't even think of three songs when I was first offered the ticket! But a concert is a concert, and I sure love to hear live music, so I accepted the ticket, and was pleasantly surprised to know majority of the songs Alan performed.]

Typical jackaroo sightings

I originally thought there wouldn't be a large presence of American country enthusiasts in Australia, but boy was I wrong! This is probably because I tend to associate myself with the city-folk rather than the jackaroos that populate the rural parts of the country, or "the bush" as Australians call it.  There isn't much authentic Australian music that comes out of the bush, other than Indigenous-inspired melodies, so I really shouldn't have been surprised to find that majority of the country fans had traveled hundreds of kilometers from rural Australia to see Alan Jackson.  I'm not kidding - there are some DIEHARD country fans out here in Australia! The venue was packed - granted it only holds 4500 people... [Compare that to Williams Brice Stadium, which holds over 80,000 people - BUT STILL!] 

Anyways, I want to express how great it is to witness an American performer play in a foreign country. Not only does it feel like you are home because you have an American voice serenading your eardrums, but also the entertainer tends to only play his/her greatest hits! It is very rare for an American artist - who traveled across the Pacific to play for such a niche audience (i.e., Alan Jackson is no Justin Beiber) - to bust out new songs from an upcoming album. Instead, he plays what the audience wants to hear - which are basically all the songs that were overplayed on my father's car radio when I was growing up. Gone Country, When Daddy Let Me Drive, Summertime Blues, Don't Rock the Jukebox, Livin' on Love, etc... 

I will end on this extremely corny note: It was a special moment when Alan Jackson played Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning because he gave a warm thanks to the Australian forces that have consistently been allies with the United States for many decades. Also, at that moment, I realized I was still so proud to be an American even though I am hundred of thousands of miles away.

Actually, I'm going to end on this note: Lets be real - we all know the real reason that the U.S. Federal Government is shut down is because I left the country and everyone is FREAKING out. Sorry guys, you need to cool your jets - I'll be back before you know it.