By | Aidan Curtis
Staff Reporter
When going to the rodeo, fans expect country bands and other southern-type singers to be performing there, but that’s only sometimes how it seems. Country singers like Wynonna Judd, Gary Allan, and Neal McCoy are only 3 of the 21 singers who performed at the stock show and rodeo this month. The rodeo also brings in different genres of musicians every year. This year Cheap Trick and Styx were the stand-out bands that performed. Being that both of them were American rock bands and almost, if not all, other bands were country performers.
The genre mixing is not a big surprise for everyone as the rodeo has been doing it for decades. Booking The Beach Boys in 1993 and Big Time Rush in 2014 are more examples of how the rodeo does not only book country singers. With the way that rodeos are, not too many people would mind if the performances were all country, but having a little more diversity in the lineup sure does make things more interesting.
This year, I went to see the rodeo, and Cheap Trick was the band performing that night. Beforehand, I thought that the set might be good but I guess I wasn’t expecting the amazing show they put on. The audio had some issues and it hurt my ears more than any concert had in the past, but by the end it was sort of fixed but still had the same sort of effect. They played lots of their songs including some of their biggest hits such as I Want You to Want Me, Surrender, and Dream Police. I didn’t know many songs from them but I still rocked out to every minute of their set.
Having this kind of diversity in the performers every year brings in more people who are not country fans or are just bigger fans of rock and other genres. Their goal every year is to bring more and more people to experience the magic of the rodeo.
