Brad Paisley!

Two Fridays ago (I know, I'm behind again), T and I went to see Brad Paisley! I've seen him before and I have so much fun every time.  He seems so adorably awkward and fun and normal!  And on top of that, he's a damn good musician, which not all rock stars are!  I thought I had mentioned his mad guitar pickin' skills before, but a look back does not reveal such a link.  The one with the best sound quality I can find is here, but the video's terrible and I've seen Brad play better.  Search around online and see if you can find a better link - I'll post it!

Further evidence of his awesomeness: I'm not much of a musical biography reader, but he wrote one called Diary of a Player about a year and a half ago that I'd like to read.

Still further evidence, as if you need it: it was Brad, live in concert, who convinced the long-time country music opponent E that it wasn't so bad after all!

The show started with Scotty McCreery, whom I heard singing "The Trouble With Girls" only from the refreshments line, but who seemed to have the crowd on his side.  We were in our seats for The Band Perry, whom we also saw last summer opening for Tim McGraw. The fun renditions of Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'" and Queen's "Fat-Bottomed Girls," and ended with what are probably their two biggest hits: "If I Die Young" and "You Lie."  Homegirl's got some lungs on her when she's singing live.

An homage to Queen

Brad played a good show, the first on the summer leg of his Virtual Reality tour.  He's a crowd-pleaser, so he played lots of old stuff mixed in with his more popular new stuff.  The set list is available here.  Kimberly Perry filled Alison Krauss's role in "Whiskey Lullaby," Scotty McCreery came back out to help with "Celebrity," and Brad was joined onstage by a great (but unfortunately virtual - get it?) Carrie Underwood for "Remind Me."

Goofing around with Scotty McCreery during "Celebrity"

Singing to the lawn seats

 

An interlude during "I'm Still a Guy," during which Brad asserts that:

"Women, you are trying to feminize us.

You find a guy who's tough, you like him,

and you march him down to the salon to get hair highlights

and you make him get a spray-on tan or something.

That's not even feminization, that not the right word.

It's castration, that's what's going on....

We can be real men.  We don't want to pluck our eyebrows.

We have certain times, they're our times and you can't interfere no matter what:

Like (?), and NFL football, and when football season's over, NASCAR season starts,

and while I'm thinking of it, we're gonna need Monday nights too.

And Saturdays - college football.

And on those days, you can do whatever you want.

Go with your girlfriends; get together and have a pillow-sleepover-pajama fight,

whatever you do.  We won't ask any questions.

And then we'll all get back together, you'll have had your time without us, and we'll have had our time without  you...

The point is, this world would be a better place

And I'm Brad Paisley and I approved this message."

Singing:

"These days there's dudes linin' up to get facials,

Manicured, waxed, and botoxed.

With deep spray-on tans and creamy lotion on your hands,

You can't grip a tackle box.

Yeah, with all of these men linin' up to get neutered,

It's hip now to be feminized.

But I don't highlight my hair, I've still got a pair,

Honey, I'm still a guy.

My eyebrows aren't plucked, there's a gun in my truck,

Thank God, I'm still a guy."

He played a two-song encore: "American Saturday Night" and that most fabulous of songs for the drunks in the crowd, "Alcohol."

I'm glad I got to go to this show,  since I missed him when he was here last summer.  Never again!

[I have another Band Perry video and another Brad Paisley video, but I can't get them formatted properly.  If I can make that happen, I'll upload them also.]