Tough Love at Country Concerts

350-plus "detained" at Kenny Chesney concert ... Underage concert fans get the handcuff treatment at the New England Country Concert. The most arrested since the Grateful Dead show in the '80s! It was a story that got pretty big coverage in the Boston area and very light coverage in the so-called "Country Music Media."

No one wants to hear about the dangers of having tens of thousands fans hit by severe weather, electrocuted, killed by a drunk driver and so on. Country music fans have been faced by all those things this summer and you sure don't hear anyone speak of it.

Weather: Two name artists hurt, one fan killed, dozens injured in weather events in Canada and Montana. Weather protocols, pre-plans, all those issues. Playing concerts in the middle of an electrical storm in Texas. Lightning overhead as seen in a YouTube video.

Drunks a'plenty ... Name the show ... Boston, the latest where people were arrested or detained. Seattle, one drunk fan punched a cop in the face. Two young girls killed after tailgating pre-Chesney last year. One drunk driver kills a 18 year-old in the parking lot of Darien Lakes in upstate NY.

The NFL is attacking the issue of binge drinking and over-tailgating this year more than the year before. You sure don't see anything about Country radio or concerts reacting to the problem.

HEY ... Drinking is getting out of control in the lot and in the venues ... Does anyone ever go out among the fans at these things? Not every show, not every act, but certainly the festivals -- and some big name shows with booze partnerships. Someone has died at many of the big festivals this year. The causes are never given or just brushed under the rug.

Then you have the concert where the 1,000-plus cars went underwater when the dam decided to let out the water.

Having tens of thousands of listeners and fans show up at something comes with some kind of responsibility and liability. The weather and drunks are like gunpowder. Artists, radio people, concert makers ... everyone better get the message that weather planning has sucked this summer and drunks are a problem. Underage drunks really give people a black eye if something bad happens to them.

The economy has cut back on reporters at TV, radio and newspapers. This has saved a few of you. Lucky break! Boston seems to still have a few left.

Better re-think all those wild booze bonanzas you are promoting ... It's always been dangerous ... How much is your image worth? Country getting more arrests at a concert than the Grateful Dead ... Now that's a real record!

Oh yeah, Kenny Chesney took a woman's video camera and threw it on the stage ... Was that a smart thing to do? Happened in Boston and in Edmonton. Should the artist be enforcing concert rules? Personally? Probably not.

Everyone better get the message that these videoclips are going to show up ... Cell phones with multi-media are not going away. Why are we banning the cameras in the first place? Copyright? Control? Habit? Bad lighting? What exactly ... The new generation is all about video! You want the kids, you better get with the lifestyle.

Artists should probably also not be fighting with the concertgoers ... Pulling them on-stage for arrest or jumping off the stage and chasing them ... All of this has happened this year.

Billy Currington to me has the song of the year ... In so many ways ... God is great ... Beer is good and people are crazy!