Anybody out there catch the Brooks & Dunn "Neon Circus & Wild West Show" at the Delta Center Saturday night?
Good show.
I thought it was great, especially all the warm-up acts — Chris Cagle, Trick Pony, Gary Allan, and Dwight Yoakam and his Bakersfield Biscuits. Even emcee Cledus T. Judd was fun.
Brooks & Dunn were good, too, don't get me wrong, although they didn't play enough up-tempo songs before diving into a ballad. They'd play a fast song like "My Maria" and then a slow song like "Neon Moon." Then the band would play "Brand New Man" and then another slow song, like the new Ronnie Dunn tune, "That's What She Get's for Lovin' Me." Then they would repeat the same pattern throughout the show, so it looked like the audience was attending a huge church revival — stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down.
Still, the mix was good and the sound was balanced.
But there was another problem. And this has been eating away at me since the opening chords of the rousing "Only In America."
While the band was playing onstage, Brooks & Dunn appeared on a small rotating platform. Draped behind them was the American flag . . . and it was touching the ground.
And I don't mean that the end of the flag was barely brushing the ground. About an eighth of the flag was actually folded and crumpled on the ground.
The flag was attached to a T-pole, which was raised above the duo's heads, but the staff was either not long enough or not raised high enough because the flag wasn't unfurled all the way.
It made me cringe, but it didn't seem to bother the rest of the audience.
I couldn't figure it out. Why would a patriotic country-music group like Brooks & Dunn make the mistake of having Old Glory touch the ground?
What's more, the show opened with historic video shots promoting American patriotism. Newsreel scenes from the attack on Pearl Harbor, John F. Kennedy's famous inaugural speech and President Bush's recent State of the Union address.
The band even played a few chords of "The Star-Spangled Banner," to the cheers of the appreciative audience.
But the flag was touching the ground!
When I was in kindergarten, I learned how to show respect for the flag. I was told it was never to touch the ground and that if it did, it had to be burned in a private ceremony or buried. And I've always remembered that.
I know people made purses or curtains out of the flag during the late '60, or dragged it or burned it to protest the Vietnam War. And that today the flag graces everything from pillows to underwear. That's what free speech is about . . . legal or not.
But when the flag is touching the ground during a show that is designed to show patriotism, it just doesn't work for me.
Maybe the lift on the pole wasn't working. Or maybe the flag was a replacement prop that was too big. But if that was the case, it shouldn't have been used.
Brooks & Dunn's show wasn't a protest show. No one was wearing an American flag shirt, hat or socks.
And "Only in America" isn't a protest song. In fact, during the final verse of the song, U.S. Marines in uniform marched onstage, did a color-guard ceremony and took the flag down. They handled it with the utmost care and tenderness, and they began to fold it (though they didn't quite finish before the song ended).
I wonder if they went and burned the flag in a private ceremony after the show.
Really, they should have known better.
E-mail: scott@desnews.com