I was so excited for the Miranda Lambert concert and a bit overwhelmed when I heard that I was going to have the opportunity to meet her before her show (if you look at the picture of me with her at the meet and greet you can see the excitement all over my face!). The show was all that I was hoping for and then some!  In fact when I won this opportunity to be the concert correspondent for 2012 and Karen, Scott and Radar called me from Mexico to let me know, they asked me on-air who I was most excited to see and my answer was Miranda Lambert.  Of course this was before her concert was announced at the Bradley Center and I was really just hoping that she’d come to Milwaukee for a show.  Fast forward to about a month later and they announced on my way to school one chilly Friday morning that in fact Miranda Lambert was bringing her “On Fire” Tour to the Bradley Center along with Chris Young and Jerrod Niemann on Thursday, April 19^th.  I squealed with excitement! Thankfully I was by myself in the car and had not carpooled that morning!  The first thing I did was run up the stairs to my friend Eric’s classroom to tell him the news that Miranda was coming to the Bradley Center! AHHHH!

It was just fitting that Eric be my guest for the show because he shared in my excitement that morning and he is just as huge a Miranda fan as I am. In fact he described his experience as the most “ridiculously fun night” that he has ever had!  We started off our night at Red Rock Saloon for the FM106.1 pre-party and coincidentally ran into my friend Michelle and made some new friends while we were there. You could feel the excitement in the air for the show, not to mention the saloon was packed with fans trying to win last minute tickets and meet and greet passes. Even though we weren’t there very long we had some fun meeting Karen from the morning show and two of my concert reviewer predecessors; Annie and Jackie.

We scurried to get to the Bradley Center by 6:30 for the Jerrod Niemann meet and greet – I ran in heels all the way there! Meeting Jerrod was awesome! He was incredibly personable, like an old friend that you could meet out for a beer who just so happened to be famous. We chatted with him for a couple minutes and he sent us off with genuine thanks for supporting his music.  We then had to get back in line right away for the Chris Young meet and greet.  There was a noticeable difference in the balance of gender in the line for Chris Young; let’s just say there was a LOT MORE swooning ladies in his line with memorabilia for him to autograph.  The ladies in front of us must have been repeat offenders for Chris because he recognized them and they chatted about tweets that had been posted on Twitter.  It was great to have the chance to get a picture and autograph from him too.

We raced from the Chris Young meet and greet to Jerrod Niemann’s set.  I was surprised to see how many fans were already filled into the BC to see him perform.  Usually the opening acts only fill about a quarter to a third of the seats, but Jerrod filled over three-quarters of the Bradley Center as an opener! Eric and I knew he was going to be great since we had already seen him open for Blake Shelton last summer at State Fair.  Jerrod definitely got the crowd fired up for both Miranda and Chris! He started with “One more Drinkin’ Song” to endear himself with the Milwaukee crowd and continued to pull more and more people into his show.  His performance of “What Do You Want” made all the ladies in the crowd want to treat him better than whatever ex-girlfriend he wrote the song about. Unfortunately, we had to leave before his set was finished to get the Miranda meet and greet in time.  I know, I know, absolutely nothing to complain about, but still wish we could have done both!

Meeting Miranda was unforgettable.  I was so excited and wasn’t sure what to really say. I’m pretty sure all that came out of my mouth was “Hi. I’m Jen.”  I probably sounded like the biggest nerd because as I described earlier I was so excited and overwhelmed because she is one of my favorite country artists.  I did manage to ask her for an autograph, but felt like the kid in a “Christmas Story” when he is sitting on Santa’s lap and all he can manage to do is nod his head when Santa asks him if he wants a football instead of saying what he really wants to say. On the other hand Eric managed to be social and a little flirty with her because he has a huge crush on her – don’t tell Blake!

We hurried back to our seats and got there just in time for Chris Young to start his show.  Many thanks to the peeps sitting next to us who watched our jackets so we didn’t have to bring them with us to the Miranda meet and greet! I know the lyrics to so many songs I hear on the radio and sometimes don’t have a clue who the artist is; listening to Chris Young I had no idea how many of his songs I already knew! The crowd was cooing, singing and swaying along the entire time along with Chris’ ridiculously addictive voice.  My favorite performance of his was “You.” Seriously, what lady doesn’t want a man to get that feeling about her every time she is around?  Eric couldn’t decide what his favorite part of Chris’s set was; he loved both “Tomorrow” and “Voices” because they are both so sentimental and the crowd was so emotionally involved with both songs. I know that we are both even bigger Chris Young fans now!

Then it was time for Miranda…the show I had been anticipating for months…and did she deliver! Her use of the pink microphones and guitars made her message of girl power even stronger. Opening her show with “Fastest Girl in Town” and “Kerosene” fueled the crowd to new heights of excitement that the gentlemen couldn’t achieve with their sets!  She played a great balance of old and new and her dedicated fans, including the two of us, sang along the entire time.  “Only Prettier” and her description of the songs inspiration emerging from the competitive spirit between her and the other “little blond ladies” who like to win awards just as much as she does pumped us all up. Miranda did a wonderful job of sharing just enough background behind her songs to reel the crowd in and allow them to understand her. She made us laugh when she described writing “Baggage Claim” when she was “pissed off” because now that she is married she “really knows what being pissed off is.” She also shared her experience when she was “Blake’s date” to the Grammy’s this year and she sat next to Lady Gaga. This led into an amazing country version of “You and I” that I couldn’t help, but yell along to! Love that song and Miranda’s cover was so fun and unexpected! 

Her command of the stage and connection with the crowd was evident throughout the entire show as she was able to easily control the energy levels of the fans the entire time. There were quite a few touching and personal moments as well. “The House that Built Me” brought tears to my eyes simply because it reminds me of how lucky I am to still have access to all the memories of growing up. During “Over You” she reminded us that music has the power to heal and requested that we all just take the time to listen to music when we are down.  Even more touching was when she walked out on the catwalk and sang “More Like Her” on her knees which somehow made the large venue seem quaint.

She ended her set with an encore of “White Liar” which got the entire crowd fired again and then by bringing Jerrod and Chris back out on stage to finish the show with her. Absolutely loved how she related to the crowd by wearing one of Jerrod’s tour shirts that read “Real Women Drink Beer” and described her love of beer and cheeseburgers.

The show was so much better than I had hoped for and I wished the night wouldn’t end! It flew by and there were so many songs that I wanted to hear that she didn’t have the time to sing. I am definitely ready to see another Miranda show just in hope to hear more of the songs I love so much!!!