A Georgia Girl in Germany

I took the kids to their first true concert earlier this month, and they all seemed to enjoy it. We had great seats (eighth row, just right of center) to watch Gary Sinise and the Lt Dan Band perform a free concert courtesy of the USO. Gary Sinise and Kimo Williams started the band in 2003, and it performs primarily for charities and non-profit organizations...in particular, the USO and military bases around the world. While Gary did sing some, his primary contribution (other than the big-name draw) is as the band’s bass guitarist.

The band was very energetic and performed a variety of songs, including Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll,” Aretha Franklin’s “You Make Me Feel (Like A Natural Woman),” Lonestar’s “My Front Porch Looking In,” Miami Sound Machine’s “Conga,” Diana Ross’ “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” and even the theme song to Gary Sinise's currently running TV show “CSI: New York.”


We weren’t sure if the weather would hold, and we ended up having to pull out our umbrellas a few times, but by the end of the evening the umbrellas were put away and the crowd was on its feet. Here’s MacKenzie with two of her friends, Maddie and Natalie, as they tried to stay dry. MacKenzie and Natalie even rushed the stage when the band played "Ladies Night," but they got there just a bit too late to get on-stage...it was overcrowded by the time they got there. They were disappointed they didn’t get to dance on stage.

After a while (and fortunately after the rain let up), Gary Sinise left the stage and wandered through the crowd. As you can well imagine, camera flashes started going off like crazy. When he got close to me, I handed my camera to a friend, grabbed Benjamin (so he wouldn’t get separated from me in the throngs of people) and managed to have my photo taken with the big-name star. We were just in front of the spotlight, hence the odd lighting in this photo.


Toward the end of the concert, Benjamin became his typical monkey-like self, climbing on and off the barricade in front of the spotlight.

If you’re not familiar with Gary Sinise’s work, he portrayed the character "Lieutenant Dan" in the 1994 film Forrest Gump. Since so many people recognize him as Lt. Dan, especially those of us in the military, it only made sense to incorporate that into the name of the band. However, at the start of the concert he quizzed the audience to name some of the other movies in which he acted.


The concert lasted more than two hours, and the kids really enjoyed themselves, although MacKenzie was disappointed that she didn’t get one of guitarist Kimo Williams’ guitar picks (Maddie and Natalie both did, so she felt left-out).

To see the AFN coverage of the concert, go to http://www.afneurope.net//Article.asp?id=410931.

For more on the band, visit http://www.ltdanband.com.

Labels: Benjamin, MacKenzie