If I understand correctly, that this was a concert at which you were expected to sit and listen, then an hour would have been appropriate, perhaps. "Big Band" music is for dancing and they shoulda had a dance floor - or a section of street for the dancers. A 3 hour dance is about right, but nobody should be expected to "just sit and listen" for that long.

Excessive amplification is a common crime, and is almost to be expected at a "small town event," since few such places stage enough such activities to gather - or remember - the inevitable complaints.

Sitting in front of a blaring speaker is your own problem. Often such presentations sound better from about a half block away - which is where I usually listen.

Sitting in one spot for a 3 hour "event" that doesn't interest you just shows a distinct lack of initiative. At all such "small town" events I've ever been to, there's always something else going on, even if it's only the local alleycats fighting behind the drugstore, or the local "Ladies Association" swatting flies on the table where they hope to serve you a piece of pie after the concert.

Assuming a "sufficiently small" town, their 4th of July celebration was most likely put together from local resources and locally known "entertainment." Their purpose is to celebrate their own community. As an "outside visitor" your opportunity is to see what the town has - not what it can buy and import for your entertainment. Whining about their failure to meet your "big city" expectations is - in lieu of alternative descriptors - "childish."

It sounds to me like you missed an opportunity to observe the whole town by sitting on your butt at a boring (to you) concert.

I apologize if this sounds harsh; but I like small towns in small enough doses. I don't choose to live in one because I do understand how many of them do things.

John