Friday, August 22, 2008

Country

So I guess I can officially claim to be a country fan. Having purchased the MegaTicket for the summer, I have lawn seats for seven country concerts. Last night was the fifth of those concerts with Kenny Chesney in town. I must say it was quite a show, one of the better overall concerts I have seen, though not quite the “show” as far as lights go as Rascal Flats, but still a great show. Thus far we have seen Tim McGraw, Brad Paisley, and the aforementioned Rascal Flats. We skipped the Montgomery Gentry/Toby Keith show due to my surgery. The concerts are a pretty good time. The seats are in the lawn, which is about all you want for the summer shows. Last night, however, we managed to pull a seat upgrade that moved us under the awning and half way to the stage in that area. With a pretty typical digital camera zoomed in, there was plenty of pictures and video shot with Kenny taking up the full frame. Of all the shows to get the upgrade, last night was the one to get it. Much props to Lilley and wife as they told us about the usher who was sporadically handing out a huge stack of tickets to fill the closer seats as the lawn sold out in a hurry.
Another thing about the shows, they have all been on Thursday, Friday, or Sunday, with most being on Friday. Always a bonus. With these nights, it makes tailgating prior to the show much easier. Just as a football game, tailgating is half the fun. Needless to say, the people watching is AWESOME. Take anything you could stereotype in the south, add alcohol and music, and you have the pre-game for most any of the shows.
The remaining schedule includes Brooks and Dunn with ZZ Top and Martina McBride. The first probably being pretty interesting, the other, so-so for me. All the acts have had big openers including Taylor Swift, Jason Aldean, Leann Rimes, and Jewel.
For those who have the option to catch a ticket package like this ($200/season ticket) I strongly recommend it if you like the music at all.
These aren’t Grand Ole Opry shows with some twanging and guitars. They are legit shows that rival most of the rock acts on the road.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rachel and I saw Brad Paisley when he was up in NoVa. I thought he put on a helluva show.

Chesney might be worth seeing, but you'd have to pay me to see Rascal Flats. In my world, they rank right up there with Keith Urban and Billy Ray Cyrus.

I've been big into Hank Williams III lately. If you want a listen, you know what to do.

The Double D said...

Yeah, a lot of people that like country, especially the old guard, don't like them. I can understand them. A fair chunk of their stuff seems to draw from 80's "Lite Rock" or at least sound like it. Now, to discriminate between the music and the show. By far teh most initricate lights, stage and set up. And they did a lot with it, especially giving the fat boy lead singer soem time off to go back stage and cool off, or do whatever it is that he does

Agent Orange said...

wait, you mean being from TN doesn't automatically make you a country fan!