The Phil offers intimate venue for great shows

There's a mantra for the prospective success of a new business: location, location, location.

For concertgoers the same could be said for the quality of their experience: venue, venue, venue.

I've not been an avid concert attendee for several years because most of them lack a certain intimacy that only small club can capture. You know, the kind of stage where the artist can dictate the feeling and in turn enhance their performance.

So when I heard Gretchen Wilson was coming to Shiprock last week, I didn't know what to expect. I've seen country acts in large arenas and at small rodeos. I once saw Blake Shelton perform in an Oklahoma bar.

I'd been to the Phil L. Thomas Performing Arts Center for pageants and meetings, but never for what the building was designed to do - display performing arts.

On the night of Wilson's show March 23, I was sitting on the far right, about midway back from the stage. The hall is small enough that I didn't feel like a drop in a barrel of fans, and she wasn't a distant blip on the stage.

I thought if the lighting was just right, she might see me and throw a wink, a smile or even a kiss. But I wasn't wearing my cheek-chilling chaps, so kisses from Wilson, of course, were wishful thinking.

The sound level was right for the space. The bass was not overpowering and the midrange sounds including vocals, drums and guitars, were clean and crisp though at times Wilson's microphone could've used a little more volume.

But all that is technicalities. As most people know, you can give someone a bull rope, but that don't make him a bull rider.

"We come and play and have fun and just have a party with the crowd," Wilson told the Navajo Times a week before the show.

And she delivered on her promise.

Wilson obviously enjoyed being on stage. She smiled throughout the show and delivered song after song tirelessly.

She was so engaging that after a while I lost my reporter's eye and forgot that for her, Shiprock was just a quick stop between major tour dates in Las Vegas and Albuquerque.

The only things that weren't completely enjoyable were the brevity of her performance and some of her song choices.

Wilson was on stage for about an hour and 10 minutes and with ticket prices starting at nearly $40 apiece, I would've hoped for a longer show. However, I have to say that I haven't seen Wilson in concert before, so I can't say if this was a regular performance. (Reviewers in other cities note a length of 80 minutes at other Wilson shows.)

Of course she played all her hits, but with four CDs out, I was expecting a concert that entailed mostly her own songs. Instead, she mixed in cover songs, like Journey's "When the Lights Go Down in the City," or Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" and closed out her encore singing Led Zeppelin's "Rock and Roll."

Though I was expecting to hear more of her own material, listening to Wilson sing classic rock made me wish for more of it, and with a southern twist. I was thinking, "Maybe she'll sing some Lynyrd Skynyrd or Allman Brothers," but she left that to some other artist, some other time.

All and all, I thought Wilson put on a good show. But like I said, nowadays the venue makes the experience. Whether it's a Las Vegas showroom, a beat-up old bar or the Phil in Shiprock, the venue can turn an average show into a good one and a good one to a great one.

Last Wednesday night at the Phil was great.

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