Perceptions

We have a great radio station called The Wave (KTWV) in Southern California that plays smooth jazz and R&B music.  They also periodically sponsor concerts at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon and their most recent offering was a free concert by Brian McKnight.  Those of you familiar with his smooth and sexy voice probably also know that he is fairly tall and apparently loves to play basketball.  Unfortunately, he had a pretty significant injury recently and has torn his Achilles tendon (my husband tells me that Chauncey Billups of the L.A. Clippers also had this injury).  That's the tendon that connects your heel to your calf muscles so it is used when you walk, tiptoe and jump and I imagine it is a pretty painful injury, not to mention how it impacts on your ability to walk and move around.  The lights lowered in the club and Mr. McKnight limped onto the stage with crutches and seated himself at a piano and proceeded to inform the audience that he was due for surgery in the morning but had refrained from cancelling the free concert so that he wouldn't disappoint his fans.  He proceeded to give a wonderful concert that combined a few of his well known songs, encouraged the audience to sing along (some members were a little more tuneful than others!), sang snippets in the stylings of some of his idols including the great Nat King Cole, played a couple of different guitars...one of which was used in a delightful flamenco style song, chatted and even brought one of his Twitter fans onstage to sing to.  He was playful, a little naughty, flirtatious and in fine voice.  Now I admit that I don't know all of the words to some of his songs but I enjoy his music and although it was a little disconcerting to have him stop in the middle of songs to let the audience sing the next verse or the chorus, people seemed to be enjoying themselves.  This is why I was really confused to hear people complaining about the concert afterwards.  He performed solo and I don't know if people expected him to have a full band or what?  He was obviously in pain so naturally couldn't be expected to move around the stage much although he did change seats so that he could play the electronic keyboard as well as the guitars.  I don't understand what there was to complain about.  I am grateful that he performed and think it was a testament to his character and grit that he did so.  My feeling is that he gave a great gift to his fans and I certainly hope that his procedure went well and that he will have a smooth recovery.  Those who were complaining?  Maybe they should stop and think about what they received versus what they 'paid' and spend more time being grateful and less time dwelling on what they didn't get...but that's just my perception!