Last week, Pam and I made a return visit to the Pierce Arrow theater in Branson. We saw the Pierce Arrow show in 2006, and found it slightly above average. Seven years down the road, we decided to give them another shot. They are a well-established show, and I expected improvement.
“Pierce Arrow” is actually the name of a men’s quartet. While the show revolves around the quartet, the show also includes a woman who does several songs, a lot of comedy, and a superb band. They had the best veterans tribute we saw in Branson (this time, at least).
The quartet itself is quite good, though not great. The high tenor, Luke Menard, was on American Idol in 2008; he joined Pierce Arrow in 2011. They did a nice mix of songs, including some good Gospel stuff (most of the members have strong roots in Christian music). The bass singer, Tim Storms, holds the Guinness record for having sung the lowest note on record (seven octaves below the piano). Storms joined Pierce Arrow in 2006, which is when we saw them (I remember him). The other three guys are all new since 2010. Sometimes Storms’ voice seemed SO low that it didn’t really fit with the quartet. But that’s quibbling.
The woman singer, Michelle Wait, was good, but in a very average sense. She never wowed.
My main gripe is with the comedian, Jarrett Dougherty, who consumed a good deal of the show. Sometimes he really had me laughing. But too often, I found him either annoying or offensive. He did a lot of wife jokes, which rarely set well with me, plus some anti-Democrat jokes which appealed to the FoxNews-watching crowd (which most definitely doesn’t include me). In one sketch his character was red-faced yelling at another character, and it ended in a face slap. I found both the yelling and face-slap very unsettling. And then there were a bunch of fart and butt-related jokes–I mean, a BUNCH. Cheap, cheap humor. I expected such fare from the Three Redneck Tenors, but it turns out the Tenors were too classy for that.
Purely on the basis of the comedian, I don’t recommend the Pierce Arrow show. He grated on both Pam and me. And the other stuff wasn’t good enough to offset it.
