Dwight Yoakam at Billy Bob's

Got to see Dwight Yoakam at Billy Bob's in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, on Saturday night (January 28, 2012). This wasn't my first time at Billy Bob's, but it was the first time I'd seen a 10:30 pm show there and the first time I'd seen Dwight Yoakam since his July 6, 2000 performance at Pine Knob in Clarkston, Michigan, outside of Detroit. Whereas the Pine Knob concert was an outdoors venue, Billy Bob's was an inside one, with about a 6,000 person capacity.

The way it's set up at Billy Bob's, there's an interior rectangle facing the main stage for reserved seating and a large U lapping it on three sides away from the stage, where mobs of people mill about, play pool, sidle or bluster up to one of the many bar stations, smoke or look at the walls. The best place to be for the music is in the reserved section, of course, but there are flat screen TVs in the back areas so you don't have to miss a beat no matter where you find yourself.

Part of the fun was taking in the audience. It was an eclectic group, as befits Dwight Yoakam's fan base. There was a smattering of Goth and alternative folks and a large contingent of big-hatted people augmented by the Fort Worth Stock Show that's been going on all week. Some of the men looked ridiculous in their outsized getups, but this was more than made up for by numerous women of all ages in buckskin and jeans and cowboy boots or miniskirts and go-go boots and the like. Oh, yes. 

As for Dwight Yoakam and the music, he was as excellent here as he'd been in Michigan nearly twelve years ago. Calm, cool and collected and thoroughly professional, as was his backing band. This guy has a sound that's built to last and he is always worth seeing live where possible.

Today's Rune: Possessions.