Brad Paisley is so much cooler ... in person!

One of my highlights of the summer finally arrived this past Saturday night - I got to see Brad Paisley in concert! The weather was a little bit chilly, but at least it wasn’t raining; I’ve been to an outdoor concert before when it stormed – I mean STORMED – thunder, lightening, power went out at the amphitheatre, and we just stood out there. So this clear, chilly 45 degree night wasn’t too bad.

Here we are, eagerly waiting for the show to start.

There were a lot of WVU fans & students at the concert, including this one.

The first opening act was Taylor Swift who was born in Pennsylvania and she sang at least 6 or 7 songs, and Bobby and I got the surprise of the night… we had no idea she was so popular, and that there were 10,000 teenage girls surrounding us that knew all of her songs! Imagine our surprise when we’re just sitting there, on our blanket in the lawn, and the opening act comes out, no big deal, right? I mean, we know a couple of her songs from hearing them on the radio, but did we know that all these girls were going to jump up, start dancing, and sing everything word for word? Not a clue… it was pretty amusing.

Second act was Rodney Atkins. Now he does have a few songs that we really like, and he seems like a pretty cool dude, but we were so annoyed that we had to hear our least favorite current song,“Watching You.” Ugh! I can’t even stand to type that because then the song is running through my head! Yeah, yeah… I guess it is a good “message” but the lyrics are just so awful, cheesy, and just plain retarded, if you ask me. I mean, c’mon, it sounds like it was written for a preschool-age after-school show on Nickelodeon! Yet, we had to endure everyone around us singing:

“With a happy meal in his booster seat, knowing that he couldn't have the toy, till his nuggets were gone…I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you. And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are.”

Ok… so now, the real deal, Brad Paisley!!! Unfortunately, I have one complaint, his opening acts played just a little bit too long I think. Like I said, Taylor sang nearly 7 songs, Rodney played even more than that. Brad did play a lot more than both, but it still was not nearly enough, in my opinion!

He started right out with his newest, and most awesome, single “Online”. If you haven’t seen this video, you have to go to YouTube and watch it. He is so funny! We got to hear all of his hits and he sounds so amazing live. And Bobby was most excited to see/hear all his guitar playing live. Since most acts you see, the lead singer may have a guitar, but is only playing a couple chords and the guitar player (a separate person) is doing all the playing, but not Brad… he ended nearly every song with a guitar solo. And while I might not fully appreciate it, I was still very impressed.

He didn’t talk a whole lot during the show, but when he did, he really got the crowd going. Not only because he’s Brad Paisley, but because this was his home turf – he even called this concert a “home game” for him, since he is from West Virginia (and went to WVU) and even though the amphitheatre is in PA, WV is just a couple miles away. So there were tons of WVU fans on hand… and they were not disappointed because he sang “Country Roads” during his acoustic set. It was awesome, I can't wait to see him again someday!

Can you see the graphics on the screen in this next picture? This is when he was singing "Ticks". Before you knock it, this is my ring tone on my cell phone!

Here I am, after the show... just a little bit cold.