What a show!  This time I gave my friend Ariane the concert event dream of her life (it’s okay she earned it, we’ve been friends since middle school) and got her out of the house for a night!  These three groups know how to treat their fans right.  First off we met all three groups before the music even started! We didn’t have to miss any other artist’s set because of a meet and greet for another group! Yay! And like I said all three groups were gracious enough to meet us before their show! How awesome is that?!?

The concert started off with Thompson Square singing their hit “I’ve Got You” and I was excited from the start; I love that song! They followed that up with their new songs “Getaway Car” and “Glass” which is dedicated to hungry kids around the world through their support for the Child Fund International organization.  There is nothing like a group using their fame for good to make you feel all mushy on the inside. Also very exciting for the Milwaukee crowd was that Kiefer was wearing a Harley Davidson t-shirt throughout the entire show – way to represent! T2 ended their set with my favorite “Are You Going to Kiss Me or Not?” and you could feel the love and tension between the two of them on stage, I just wanted them to kiss!!! I also love that song because I used to sing it to myself when my honey and I would go out on “dates” and all I wanted was for him to kiss me and in the end - it took four months! Great things are worth the wait though!

Taking on the middle set of the amazing show was Darius Rucker who in my opinion could have had his own tour with the type of show he put together! He told the crowd that this was the last night of their tour and it seemed this being the last night allowed him to give 110%! It was unbelievable! Not a soul in the Marcus Amphitheater was seated during his entire set! He started with some of his solo career country songs “Love Will Do That” and “Alright” to get us all going.  Then to warm the crowd to him even more he explained that his son had to break it to him that he has a new favorite NFL team – the Green Bay Packers! The crowd got even crazier!  He played so many great songs old and new; “It Won’t Be Like This For Long,” “I Only Want to Be With You” from Hootie and the Blowfish” and then “Joker” from Steve Miller Band! Darius was such a crowd pleaser that no one wanted his set to end! And we still had Lady A coming up!

As a fan it was quite apparent that these three groups developed a strong friendship on the road, they were all so grateful to one another and were all very playful throughout each other’s sets.  When Darius had to end his set he chose to cover Prince’s “Purple Rain” as a tribute to the children of the 80’s.  As a joke Charles from Lady A surprised Darius and came out on stage dressed as Prince and sang the rest of “Purple Rain” with him!  Then the crew set up a bar on stage and even Hilary came out with her dog! All I can do is guess, but I am pretty sure Milwaukee got the best show of their tour because they were giving it everything they had left and everything they had learned out on tour.

We still have the Lady Antebellum show after Darius! I wasn’t sure if they could top that excitement because he was incredible, but they did an amazing job keeping fans up on their feet the entire show too!  Lady A came out loud and strong with “We Own the Night,” “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” and “Our Kind of Love!”  They had to come out strong because the energy of the crowd was so high after Darius and the 30 minute dance party that was going on between the two acts.  To slow it down a little they dimmed the lights, making the room seem very personal, and sang “Dancing Away with My Heart.”

Lady A has so many hits that there are just too many to mention all the songs they sang, but I am positive they pleased every person in that audience by singing his or her favorite. Charles, Hilary and Dave showed their gratitude and excitement for the fans, their crew and their families throughout the entire show, recognizing that they would not have been able to achieve their dreams night after night without the support of all three.

The comradery between groups continued as Darius then decided to play a joke on them by hanging a “Gamecocks” flag from South Carolina on the large, red piano they used for “Just a Kiss.” At one point the silliness reached new heights with everyone on the crew hitting hundreds of Ping-Pong balls at Charles, Hilary and Dave as they were performing and uncontrollably laughing at the same time!
The show ended with Thompson Square coming out and joining Lady A for “Midnight Rider” and then Darius joining everyone for the Doobie Brother’s “Black Water!”  The entire show was mind-blowing! These three groups could not have worked harder to please their fans and I just hoped everyone in the audience enjoyed it as much as I did!