Cheeseburger in Paradise

Duffy had the experience of attending a Jimmy Buffett concert last night at the Amway Arena in lovely downtown Orlando. Now to start off with, Duffy doesn't attend too many concerts. In fact maybe two or three in his whole life. The last one was probably around 1980 in Atlanta when Duffy and spouse watched the (what was left of) the Kingston Trio. Duffy realizes that 98% of the people who read this blog don't have a clue who the Kingston Trio is but they were BIG back in 1962! He also saw Peter, Paul and Mary back in college. Maybe somebody else, he can't be sure. Anyway, Duffy's spouse wanted to see Jimmy Buffett so she bought outrageously priced tickets and got her friend and her husband to go along. Duffy has always like Jimmy Buffett's songs and style and knows that he has a loyal following (Parrotheads) that turn out in great droves to see him perform. Mr. Buffett has worked years to perfect his "brand" and like the Grateful Dead has a vast merchandising empire that includes restaurants, merchandise, concerts and CD's that embody all things "Parrothead Nation". He's probably almost as rich as his other namesake, Warren Buffett.

The concert was sold out which meant about 15,000 parrotheads many of whom had camped out hours before hand in 50 degree weather to tailgate. Many huge RV's in the parking lot and lots of grills, beer coolers and lawn chairs. Was this a concert or UCF football game? The first thing that Duffy noticed walking among the crowds is that there really is an obesity epidemic in this country. It was obvious that a lot of parrotheads had eaten too many cheeseburgers in their life. Many had sharkfin hats on, many of the rest wore straw cowboy type hats. In spite of the temperature a lot of the fans wore shorts and Hawaiian type shirts. True devotion requires some sacrifices.

Even though we didn't have the cheap tickets ("cheap" being a relative term) our seats were in the top level which our group got to by climbing a 80 degree slope up to our row at about 9,000 feet. Somewhere down below we could see the stage. The concert was supposed to start at 8 p.m. but when the appointed time arrived perhaps half the seats were filled. Promptly at 8:20 band members starting appearing and in about 3 minutes 8,000 more fans piled in the arena to their seats. Obviously many of them knew the drill. A few minutes later Duffy saw Joe Biden walk out on stage which set off wild clapping and cheering. Duffy thought, "why is eveybody cheering the vice president?". Duffy knew that he had never heard of Joe Biden going on tour with a band and so looking at the big screen hanging down to conveniently aid those of us in the clouds to actually see what the hell was happening down on stage, Duffy could see that it actually was Mr. Buffett who must have been separated from Mr. Biden at birth. And Mr. Biden wouldn't wear shorts, a T-shirt and no shoes.

Mr. Buffett had 11 muscians and two female singers in his group and one could tell they had all been together for some time. Several of the group looked as old Mr. Buffett, a man in his early 60's, who looked to be thoroughly enjoying himself. The group did all the old favorites including "cheeseburger in paradise", "Havana daydreaming", "changes in attitudes, changes in latitudes" and other songs of that genre. After a while Duffy got the impression that Mr. Duffy has gotten fabulously rich over the years basically singing the same song over and over again but changing the words and the tune a little bit. If one's idea of paradise is living like a bum in a tropical location then one can appreciate the appeal of Jimmy Buffett's songs. And in fact, ole' Duffy does see a lot of appeal in that lifestyle......

Mr. Buffett seem energized and focused in the first half of the set but after a short 10 minute intermission both the energy and focus seemed to Duffy at least, to have devolved into a "when can we get this concert over with?" attitude subconsciously emanating from Mr. Buffett. One supposes that after singing the same songs, telling the same jokes, year after year on the road, doing concert after concert can do that to you. However, it was obvious that Mr. Buffett and his band members were enjoying themselves probably because in their heads they were counting up the gate receipts of the sold out crowd.

Duffy's take on Parrothead Nation is that they seem to share many characteristics with NASCAR fans, i.e. slavish devotion to the whole Jimmy Buffett shtick which includes dressing up in funny outfits and getting drunk. Duffy remembered why he dosen't "do concerts" as he was reminded of sitting middle seat in a Delta MD-88 flying from LA to Orlando. The acoustics was a giant echo chamber and the constant jumping up and down of short, fat female fans wearing cowboy hats distorted his view of the (very) small Mr. Buffett appearing somewhere, way down below him. Nevertheless, the spouse had a good time as well as about 14,900 parrotheads who screamed, whistled, yelled, jumped up and down like Nancy Pelosi and otherwise appeared very drunk most of the time. Mr. Buffett has a good thing going. And he knows it.