For the game and concert combination experience I enlisted my friend Cait. Talk about a hectic night! We scrambled to get to the Meet and Greet with Justin Moore because I forgot the tickets at home and when we were almost to the Bradley Center we had to head back to my house to get the tickets for the Milwaukee Mustangs game. Ahhh! When we went to pick up our meet and greet passes at Will Call we were told that there were no meet and greet passes and that we had to get orange wristbands at the entrance point for the Meet and Greet. We ran to where we thought the Meet and Greet was (we may have been misinformed about where the meet and greet was), but we were on the wrong side of the building! So of course we RAN back to east side of the BC (you know, where we originally were) and the woman with the wrist bands had left! We ran after her… caught up to her … and to our dismay, she said she had RUN OUT OF WRIST BANDS! What? I am the official concert reviewer!  I have to meet Justin Moore!  Thankfully she walked us back through the entrance and to the Meet and Greet line and thankfully we were allowed to meet Justin anyway!
 
In line there were a few familiar faces from both the Chris Young meet and greet in April and from the Trace Adkins private show at Rock Bottom in March. Unlike my previous meet and greets, when Justin came out there were ladies in the line that immediately started SCREAMING! I can’t believe no one had screamed before! His fans were beyond excited to meet him! Cait and I waited patiently and giggled a little as ladies were flirting as they met him in front of us and requested more and more pictures so their experience wouldn’t end.  Justin was incredibly polite and cordial, however because we were toward the end of the line our experience was much more brief than we had hoped.
After the meet and greet we headed toward our seats and watched the second half of the Milwaukee Mustangs game. Cait was delighted that while we were in our seats a t-shirt landed on us and she got some clapping sticks while at the game.  We also had the lucky experience to meet the young man who was celebrated at halftime on the field for his bravery while surviving a life-threatening illness; he happened to be sitting in front of us and made us laugh for the entire second half of the game! Unfortunately the Mustangs lost, but that meant we could all get excited for the concert to start!

Justin kicked off his show with some of his newer songs “You Won’t Take My Guns,” “How I Got to Be This Way,” and “My Redneck Side” to pump up the crowd after the Mustangs loss.  He then excited the crowd and dedicated “My Redneck Side” to us by revealing that he likes to play in Milwaukee and will always return to play here because there are “lots of rednecks in Milwaukee!”  The crowd went wild and continued to holler and cheer after that! The fans on the floor wouldn’t stop chanting “Hank It” after he revealed his love for the Milwaukee brand of redneck. The excitement from the crowd was so contagious that the dancers for the Milwaukee Mustangs couldn’t help but join Justin on stage and dance with him!

There were also a few touching moments throughout the amped show.  He obviously sang his hit “If Heaven Wasn’t so Far Away;” but during his performance he brought a little girl on the stage who graciously hugged him for dear life as he continued to belt it out.  His performance of his newest single “Til My Last Day” also revealed his softer side as he sang to the ladies in the crowd.

Justin’s ability to control the mood of the crowd was obvious as he switched back to some high energy tunes. He eventually satisfied the crowd’s appetite for “Hank It” and kept the ravenous crowd going with some of his hits like “Bait a Hook,” “Small Town USA,” and “Backwoods.”

The mutual appreciation between Justin and the Bradley Center crowd was apparent as he complimented his audience by calling us “fans of real country music” here in Milwaukee which will always keep him coming back. And his fans reciprocated the appreciation and the desire for his return by singing and dancing all concert long! I know the fans that celebrated his show and I all hope he keeps his word and returns to perform in Milwaukee soon.