Cagle: Country cowboys or darling diva?
On Thursday, March 19, 2015, Chris Cagle played a show at Skooters Roadhouse.
After opener Nick Lynch lit the barn on fire and got the crowd going for Cagle, the country train pretty much derailed before he even hit the stage.
Everything was about the money for Cagle. His fans had to pay $20 just to get “backstage” for his meet-and-greet where he would take pictures and sign autographs.
After giving the management of Skooters the run-around – several times leaving staffers scrambling to get the room set-up for him to accept to do the meet-and-greets inside – he then changed his mind three or four times before giving staff a final answer on doing them outside by his bus.
It was bitterly cold and drizzling and he made his fans stand outside in this type of weather for close to an hour before actually taking three steps off his bus to do his meet-and-greets.
After standing out in the freezing cold for an hour, one might figure Cagle would at least be gracious and give his fans the time of day they deserved. Wrong again. He rushed them through the meet-and-greet and barely spent any time actually greeting them, which is the entire point.
I have been a huge Cagle fan since he first came onto the country scene in 2000 and have been chomping at the bit to finally see him live somewhere.
After releasing his last album in 2008, Cagle came back in 2012 with his Back in the Saddle album. His last single, “Let there be Cowgirls”, was released in 2012. Since then, Cagle has been on a three-year hiatus.
Don’t let my cynical tone fool you, I still will forever love his music, for songs like “Chicks Dig it” and “What a Beautiful Day”. But I really feel like Cagle just mailed-in his performance.
Cagle’s entire set list was one printed page with at least 28 point bolded font and went off on a lot of tangents during his show, taking away from his actual musical performance.
Cagle didn’t sound bad, but he sounded just like his CDs and that was also a disappointment because if I wanted to listen to the CD, I would have just stayed at home and done so.
Cagle never played his newest song “Dance Baby Dance” and even had to have one of his band members tell him that he was out of key on one of his most famous songs, “Chicks Dig It”.
His overall performance was riddled with political comments and long-winded speeches of which the only one I agreed with was talking about loving and supporting our troops and men and women overseas fighting for our freedom back home.
The music was mediocre at best and certainly nothing to write home about, and the performer has put on close to 50 pounds and was rather boring to watch on stage.
I felt rather gipped to be perfectly honestly because the Chris Cagle that I swooned over as a teenager was not the man that stepped off that bus. I actually didn’t even recognize him at first sight.
After the show, he announced he would be doing a signing back stage again by his bus. Remember how it cost his fans $20 bucks just to get back stage the first time? Well those passes were no longer valid and the only way you could get back stage was to buy something from his merchandise booth, with items ranging in cost from $5-$25 dollars.
He got off stage around 10:30-11pm and made his fans wait again for close to, if not longer than, an hour to do the second meet-and-greet. By midnight, the temperature had dropped even further and it had started to drizzle just a little bit harder.
Cagle sat on his nice warm bus for at least a half hour, smoking a cigarette while his adoring fans froze their butts off waiting for him in the rain.
Then, when he finally decided he was ready for the meet-and-greet, the lazy cowboy wouldn’t even come off his bus. He sat on his bus steps and took maybe five seconds to sign the item you had and absolutely refused to take any pictures this time.
Overall I was rather disappointed with his performance and not quite sure whether he is genuine in his love for his fans or if his actions spoke louder than his words.
I have also been published in National Geographic for an article I wrote about a Research trip with the Shedd Aquarium check it out: http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/2013/08/02/iguana-research-on-gaulin-cay-bahamas/
- The Roadhouse Review: Apr 3 and 4 - April 8, 2015
- Cagle: Country cowboys or darling diva? - April 6, 2015
- The Roadhouse Review Mar 27 and Mar 28 - March 30, 2015
