L.A. Story: Fan Reaction To The Concert

A special thanks to everyone who sent in their recaps from the show!

Read RuPaul's recap of the show, and meeting Dolly in person the next morning, on her official site here.

Ryan offers his opinion: I drove from San Francisco for Dolly's L.A. House of Blues show and it was absolutely worth it! I don't have a lot to add to what others have written, except that I have to agree that there were certainly some obnoxious folks in the audience. One woman had the audacity to scream (cheerfully) during "Mountain Angel" when Dolly sang "Some say that she had died". I was mortified. I also spent quite some time asking people around me to kindly stop singing along at the top of their lungs. After all, I drove 6 hours to hear Dolly, not them. That said, what a thrill to see a legend like Dolly in such an intimate environment. She has certainly given her fans quite a gift with this tour. A great mix of old and new songs, warm and hilarious stories, spine-tingling vocals, and heartfelt engagement with her fans. I hope she tours again soon and includes San Francisco next time so I don't have to drive so far! Final note: it really caused a lot of confusion when she didn't do an encore. I was prepared for it since I've read the reviews here. However, many people looked surprised and very disappointed. Unfortunately, the concept of an "encore" has evolved over the years. An encore is supposed to be a performer's response to overwhelming applause at the end of a show: the audience "wants more". Most performers these days just build encore (sometimes several) into the show whether or not the audience asks for it or not. In Dolly's case, I think she should come out and do an encore in response to the overwhelming applause from her audience.

John reports: There were no surprises to Dolly's performance last night at the House of Blues from the other shows reported on your site. She had the same set list as Dallas, minus the silly-song medley, instead she did her "Do I ever Cross Your Mind" 78 record speed, as well as "Who Let the Hogs Out!" (Ed. Note: She's performed the brief hog song as she danced around the stage at each of her concerts; sorry I didn't mention it in the reviews of New Orleans and Dallas.) Dolly seemed annoyed with the audience because she told them to quiet down several times during the intros to "Little Sparrow" and "Mountain Angel." I was annoyed too because people would use quiet sad song moments to shout things out to her. After the songs she would comment about people being loud during a sad song. Most of the audience was straight men and women. She did talk about drag queens in the intro to Jolene, but she looked out in the audience for one, and could not find any. The House of Blues only let in people 21 and older, but to my surprise, there were not too many people under 25 or so. Saw several in their 40's, 50's, and 60's. Miss Parton was dressed in a short pink sequined floral dress with chiffon ruffles at the bottom, and the shoulders cut out with chiffon sleeves, added with gold lame pumps with a big red rose on each toe. She also said her nice Rebecca Sever (Cassie's daughter) was traveling with her this summer on tour and could we all sing Happy Sweet 16th Birthday to her. She came out from backstage to give Dolly a hug while we all sang. There was no encore, and people waited for one, but she never appeared again, even after people were chanting "Dolly, Dolly, Dolly!" The show started promptly at 9pm, and ended at about 10:40pm. The show was great fun, but the sound system seemed a bit loud and echoed. I was mostly disappointed in the audience for not letting us fans get a chance to really listen, instead just using quiet times during sad songs to shout out to her, in hopes she would reply back, for which Dolly never did. (During the sad ones that is!) I forgot to add that when Dolly sang "I'm Gone" the harmonica started up before she put it to her lips and she broke out laughing during the song and said "Well, I guess now you know I can't play this damn thing!" People were in hysterics!

Dan writes: I was one of the lucky ones who attended Dolly's HOB appearance last night in West Hollywood. Wow! She was so tiny and beautiful in a sparkly pink dress. The show went off without a hitch and included producer Steve Buckingham in the crowd AND an audience sing-along of "Happy Birthday" to Dolly's niece (and namesake) Rebecca, whom Dolly introduced and brought out onstage. The set list seemed to be the same as she's been performing on this tour, and included reference to some of the Dolly drag queen lookalikes in the audience. It was a wonderful night and some people I were with said it was the best concert they've ever attended.

Edward Jacobs says: Dolly Parton was in top form at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip on Wednesday, August 7, 2002. She played to a sold-out house filled with appreciative and vocal fans. Some shouted "we love you Dolly" repeatedly, even to the point of interupting her between-song stories about growing up in Tennessee. But Dolly took it in stride, because it was obvious that the affectionate welcome was heartfelt. The crowd was a mixture of country music fans of all types, genders and orientations. Several drag queens appeared dressed as Dolly. She recognized them from the stage by changing the words to the classic song "Jolene" to say, "but I cannot compete with you Drag Queens". Her set list was a cross section of new songs and old hits, including "Little Sparrow", "Rocky Top" and "9 to 5". A few of her classics were performed as an a cappella medley with her band. The lyrics to all of the songs were available to her on a teleprompter mounted on the balcony and visible to those closest to the stage, if they turned around. But, why would anybody take their eyes off of Dolly Parton? Her enthusiasm was infectious and there was never a dull moment. She even performed a "hick hop" song called "Who Let the Hogs Out"! The only disappointment was the let down after an hour and a half of pure fun, when there was no encore. It has been too long since Dolly played in Los Angeles and I hope she comes back very soon.

Jim notes: Dolly blew the crowd away as usual. She really had was dancing on our feet. This was my 5th time seeing Dolly perform and she just keeps getting better and better. Dolly's sister's Cassie's daughter was there and dolly sang happy birthday to her and then told her to go put on a bra, the crowd went wild. The crowd tried for an encore but we didn't get it. There were a few Dolly look a likes, one really look like dolly but had a few things that dolly dosen't do. But all in all the concert was a blast.