Tag Archives: BOK Center

NCAA March Madness in Tulsa 2017

Sunday evening I went downtown and watch the the second round of games of the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament, aka March Madness, at the BOK Center. There were lots of people with me. I saw the kind of accessories I saw in that site.

Lots of people there, most of them wearing the blue of the University of Kansas Jayhawks. I am not sure if there is an actual bird named a jayhawk but it doesn’t matter.

The Jayhawks of Kansas were playing the Spartans of Michigan State University. Their mascots had a little mock battle that was amusing.

Sorry for the fuzzy photos. I was sitting in the cheap seats way up high so I was doing the best I could. The game was very competitive for the first 30 minutes or so. Kansas couldn’t quite put Michigan State away until then but then they broke loose and ended up beating the the Spartans 90-70. It was a good game. Both teams were were well coached and played well.

I like how the college game has evolved from the dreadful boringness of the 70’s with the four corner offense and the excrutiating final minutes of a game where the teams fouled each other. The shot clock and other rule changes have really breathed live into the college game again. Also, I was impressed with how well coached the teams were and the discipline displayed by the players. They seem less upset with questionable fouls now. They just deal with it.

The second game was another good one between two fine teams. The University of Southern California Trojans and the Baylor Bears of Texas.

The two teams were evenly matched. I’ve always loved the color scheme of USC. The Bears on the other hand. It looks like they went for road safety yellow for their color scheme. Baylor fans assure me that it is green. Judge for yourself. I say it is yellow. I think they wanted to make sure that nobody would steal the uniforms. (I am just having fun. I know several Baylor fans and they need to be made fun of, if you know what I mean.)

The game went down to the wire and Baylor won 82-78.

USC brought 12 fans to Tulsa to cheer the team on. Go ahead count’em, let me know what you come up with.

They also brought some cheer leaders. They had the smallest pom-poms I’ve ever seen.

All the cheerleaders were very nice looking and energetic. I would say the Baylor women were the best dancers, followed by the Michigan State ladies, and the USC cheerleaders.

The Kansas cheerleaders did a great job but didn’t appear to be into dancing that much. (I know some overbearing Kansas fans also, and I need to give them some grief also.) Actually all the cheerleaders from all the teams did a great job. I had a great time and I’ll be back again when March Madness rolls back into Tulsa.

Coldplay brings their “Head Full of Dream Tour” Concert to Tulsa

Heather and I attended the Coldplay Concert at the BOK Center here in Tulsa Thursday night.

Heather is a big, big fan and I was a kind of well, you know, I like their song Clocks, and they are okay, you know, they don’t suck.

I’m a fan now. We have been to some great concerts over the years and this one ranks up there with the best. Heather said it was “the best” she had ever been to, even better than Sting. Sorry Sting, you are now second best in Heather’s eyes I guess

The lead singer, Chris Martin is a dynamo. Not only does he have a great voice and stage presence but he is very athletic. He was running and jumping while singing the whole show. And the special effects were timed perfectly with his leap and jumps. Confetti, flame, lasers, and big balloons. They spent a fortune on expendables that night.

They had an “A” Stage at the front of the Arena, a “B” stage in the middle, and a small “C” stage in back. They were everywhere.

Playing their heart out without a break for over two hours and 24 songs. Here is the set list.

They played rock songs and ballads, their new songs and some of their old songs, and everything in between.

The fans loved them!!

We’ll be back and I will trying to find where Heather hid her disk.

As an aside, they had four light people hanging from the ceiling. They looked all strapped in and belayed so probably OSHA is okay with it.

We missed the first opening act but the second, Alessia Cara is a dynamo who can really sing.

Official, by gum video released by Coldplay for the tour.

Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood in Concert at BOK in Tulsa

Friday night and Heather and I headed out to the BOK Arena to attend the Garth Brooks concert in Tulsa. The first of seven. When he put the tickets on sale back in early Noveember he sold 105,000 tickets the first day. Just for Tulsa. You see he is a native Oklahoman and the people here love him. Besides his last concert here was 17 years ago and so we were feeling a little deprived.

Heather and I got there well before the schedule start time of 7 pm. We are such nerds. When we see a start time we assume that they are serious. Well we waited a while so we had some time kill. You can see the view we had. I’m surprised that we didn’t have Sherpas and oxygen bottles to get to our seats. Oh well, we were in the house and that is what counts.

What did we do with the time. Well of course we did a selfie!!! Lots of Selfies at the arena that night.

Especially down close to the stage. I brought my Canon PowerShot SX40 HS super zoom camera to the concert. It is concert legal, anything that uses detachable lenses is forbidden, but the Canon has the super zoom feature and a low light mode that gives me a decent chance at photographs.

There were almost lined up. Who invented the term Selfie. You know I might have I am not sure. So anybody making or looking at Selfies you need to send me a dime every time you do do those things. Don’t worry though, it is in effect only today and I should have a billion dollars by this time tomorrow and then they will be free again. Unless I run out of money.

Then we got a little bit of a warm up act. Singer/Songwriter Karen Rochelle came out and sang and few songs for us. I thought she was really good. She writes songs for Garth’s wife Trisha Yearwood. She was going to be in the concourse after the show to meet people and even take Selfies. If you are going to tonight’s show I’d appreciate if you would stop by her booth afterward and remind about the dime fee that she owes me for each selfie. You know, in accordance with the new policy and all.

And the Garth came out. Actually he came storming out. I had forgotten how active he is on stage. His fans love him.

When he got tired of running around the state, he started climbing stuff. I bet his insurance company has concerns about stuff like this. He was singing the whole time also.

I judge concerts by how much in tune the performer is with the audience. Nobody is in tune with Okies like Garth is. He blew by everybody else. His musicians are first rate and they have been with him a long time. The “new guy” has been with him only twenty years. Garth even introduced a couple of the road crew. I have never seen anybody do that before.

He was here, there, and everywhere. He even grabbed a video camera at one point and was running around the stage with it.

After a while his wife Trisha Yearwood came on stage and they sang a duet.

And then a little bit smash face and then she sent him off the stage. You know to go fetch something or check on the kids or something.

And then she sang some songs. She still has the voice as she played some of the favorites.

She is quite a performer in her own right.

They are pretty cute together. They have been retired for the last ten years while their daughters were growing up, in the Tulsa suburb of Owasso and they have been seen all over town. I have several friends who have ran into them in various stores and everybody is impressed with how friendly and approachable they are. I think they are two of the world’s really nice people. The kids are out of the house and now and so Garth and Trisha are resuming their careers.

So, Garth finished up his set, said his goodbyes to the crowd, several times as everybody was still screaming at him.

He had two encores and then that was that. He is doing two shows on Saturday. It must be grueling for him. He put everything he had into the performance Friday night. I can’t imagine him doing it twice.

If you are not familiar with Garth here is a song.

Edit this setlist | More Garth Brooks with Trisha Yearwood setlists

If you are familiar with him, here was his set list for the concert.

And I got a t shirt. The last concert t shirt I got for Janet Jackson way back when in the early 90’s or late 80’s in Oklahoma City. I still don’t know why I got one.

I just hope that Garth comes back sooner than seventeen years.

Katy Perry at the BOK Center

Heather and I went to see Katy Perry at the BOK Center here in Tulsa Monday night. We get lots of really nice concerts here in Tulsa and they are mainly on weeknights because the big popular guys and gals like to spend the weekends in the big cities where I guess they can make more money.

Anywho here we were at the concert late Monday night along with half the areas teenage and pre-teenage girls and their moms. Including our next door neighbor’s teenage daughter who sat right in front of us. We each pretended to act like we didn’t see the other.

I bet that there were lots of tired grumpy girls in class on Tuesday!! The concert didn’t let out until 11:30. That was late,even for me.

Anyway Katy Perry sang, and danced, and changed costumes, and then sang, and danced, and changed costumes again.

She sang loud and she sang soft, she sang while standing on the stage, laying on the stage and sitting on thrones.

She even sang wearing a cat suit.

And she sang while wearing a birthday suit (fully clothed of course, she is very classy)

Her guitarists flew through the air. I missed the shot where the guitars shot flame. Darn!!

She sang while adjusting her costume.

Did I mention something about flying through the air?

Oh yes, and she sang on a horse.

And she sang to everybody. She has quite the connection with the audience. That is what I like the connection. She can do it. Not quite like Michael Buble and Taylor Swift (nobody connects with her fans like Taylor Swift!) but Katy puts on a great show.

Now lets switch over the other people. This guy with the Murse is Katy Perry’s father Keith Hudson. He is a preacher!! He has a blog and made a very interesting post about meeting President Obama at the White House. Check it out!!

And I’m sorry, if you are taking a selfie, then I get to take a picture also. Its one of Newton’s laws of selfies. Something about for every photo taken then an equal an opposite photo must be taken. So I’m just representing the balance of nature.

I know this is a cute couple. I hope they don’t get mad. I don’t know why they would.

Ah, yes, well, ahem. Okay

Here is a little youtube of Katy. She really is quite talented and comes across as very grounded.

Edit this setlist | More Katy Perry setlists

And of course the set list. Gotta have the set list.

All in all, one of the better concerts we’ve been to in the last few years.

So, what do you think of Katy Perry?

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Come to Tulsa with Steve Winwood Opening

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers came to the BOK Center in Tulsa for a concert last Sunday night.

We were a little out of sorts when we got there but he put is in the mood right away. Heather is the Tom Petty fan in the house at least up till Sunday night, now I am also.

There is something about seeing a band live that makes it all makes sense in a way that listening to the same music on radio doesn’t really bring. The personality of a performer comes out in a concert, for good or bad, and with Tom Petty it is for the good.

The concert was a totally satisfying experience. Worth the late time getting home with an 8 am meeting the next morning and being tired all day.

Steve Winwood opening up for Tom Petty was a big surprise to me, and nobody else. I had forgot all about this guy. He was big back in the day.

He hasn’t slowed down a bit. He sang his old songs and some of his new songs. He was really bluesy. Steve Winwood was a great opening act.

Plus I am entering this guy in the bearded stage security hall of fame.

Edit this setlist | More Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers setlists

Taylor Swift – Fearless in Tulsa and the Hanson Brothers were in the House

Sweetie and I ventured downtwn to the new BOK Center to see Taylor Swift in concert as part of her Fearless Tour.

OK, what’s the deal? She is supposed to be a Country Western singer right? Where’s the hats? Not just hers but everybody elses. I only saw two cowboy hats all night, neither one of them hers and in fact none on the stage. Tim McGraw wore one in a video segment and I saw one other hat. The cowboy garb seems to be boots. She had several pairs. Lots of the girls (Yes, I mean girls, in a half dozen years half of them will be women the rest of them will still be girls.) wore boots with their short dresses. Kind of a strange look, but it has been around a few years and I guess that I’m used to it. I think the rule is that those who look good in short dresses can wear what they want. If they don’t look good in a short dress then the boots are not going to either help or hurt.

OK, now the other thing, are not Country Western singers actually supposed to sing Country Western songs? I mean, have they changed the rules. There were no steel guitars, no blue jeans, no yee haws, no “heidy yall,” no flags, no horses, no salute to mommy and daddy. What up? Also, at the very end, she took a shower on the stage. Don’t get excited, she kept her clothes on, check out in the collage below. Are all Country singers going to start doing that?

All I know is that she put on a hell of a show. Tulsa loved her, they loved her a lot. I thought it was great. She got a bigger ovation than Oklahoma’s own Carrie Underwood last year and pretty close to Garth Brook’s shows at Driller’s Stadium back in the 90’s. For somebody so young she is so accomplished yet comes across as unspoiled and real. She is certainly talented. She writes the songs, she sings the songs, she plays the guitar and the piano. How can somebody be that talented?

I’ll be watching young Ms. Swift. I hope that she can stay centered and grow and prosper in her career and develop as a person. She is off to a great start.

Check out her web site here.

Check out the Tulsa World review complete with slide show here.

Oh, by the way, Tulsa’s own Hanson Brothers were in the House sitting about 3 rows down from us. They had better than your average Tulsan’s haircuts but were just like regular people with wives and kids and all that. Sweetie noticed them right away. Nobody else seemed to be paying them any attention until a plus sized gal flashed about six inches of butt crack clambering over seats to get to them to get a picture.

I have to say they were very gracious about her and the subsequent rush of female fans. They put their arms around each of the fans and posed and even took the camera and did the old self portrait thing a few times. All the while they looked very relaxed and friendly and eventually they were left alone. I was very impressed.

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