Good vibrations
A rocking Garth Brooks concert was so loud it registered as an earthquake
The song Callin' Baton Rouge is infused with a pining love for a Samantha from Louisiana. But as Garth Brooks took the stage Saturday, the country music staple became an ode of seismic proportions.
Stage lights flashed yellow and red inside Louisiana State University's Tiger Stadium as a cowboy-hat-clad Brooks — along with a fiddler — jumped into the first verse. Boots started thumping, hands started clapping and a sea of cellphone lights started beaming to the rhythm of a song that has become a tailgate anthem at the Baton Rouge-based university.
The earth was literally shaken as Brooks and an audience of more than 102,000 sang in unison about “send(ing) my love down to Baton Rouge.”
The small earthquake was captured by LSU'S seismograph — marking the second time in more than three decades that Tiger Stadium registered a tremor from cheering fans. The first, WBRZ reported, was when LSU narrowly defeated Auburn University with two minutes left in a 1988 football game.
The commotion increased to dangerous noise levels. Fans' Apple Watches began shooting up alerts about sound levels reaching 95 decibels — warning that spending “( just) 10 minutes at this level can cause temporary hearing loss.”
“The noise level in the stadium was insane!” a concertgoer commented on Facebook. “I've seen Garth before but it wasn't like this! He is such a great entertainer. It was my 11 year old son's first concert and he can't stop talking about it.”
Saturday was the first time Brooks had played in Baton Rouge in 24 years. But Callin' Baton Rouge has been long established as LSU'S unofficial alma mater song.
Before the Tigers rush onto the field during football games, speakers in the stadium blare the song to a chorus of singing and clapping fans who emphasize the “Louisiana” in the first verse. It's also played during the university's baseball games and as a closing-time song at local bars.