Happy Anniversary KSR!  What a way to celebrate…thanks for inviting us.
Arriving at the Horny Goat for the first time was a treat.  I never realized how big, spacious, and beautiful the atmosphere was.  Great place to pack in a few hundred FM 106.1 listeners!  When we arrived, I finally got to meet the Morning Crew.  Radar was stunning (as usual), Scott was very personable, and Karen was just as beautiful in real life.   My girlfriend, Deb, isn’t a huge country fan (unlike myself) and I wanted to introduce her to country the right way….to MEET Dustin Lynch!  After meeting up with some old friends (great seeing you, Shelli) we grabbed some drinks and waited to see the first act, Bella Cain.  I have not heard much about them before, so I was in for a surprise!  That group opened the Horny Goat with a BANG!  The band sounded great.  The variety of songs/music they played really rocked the crowd out.  The group really got the crowd moving.  They were so energetic on stage and really interacted well with all of us.  Bella Cain…you took the party by the horns and everyone loved it!

We took a small break outside.  It was really nice to see that they had ‘fire pits’ to stand by and keep warm.  Everyone around was talking about how much fun this night is going and how the bands sounded so good.  Looking around, I didn’t see many people wearing Dustin Lynch wristbands (we were given these for the meet and greet).  I was surprised when we were instructed to meet by his table on how many people actually had them.  We were led upstairs where we got to meet Dustin and have our picture taken.  I was immediately attracted to his eyes….they are sooo blue!  After  our picture, we quickly headed downstairs to finish listening to Maggie Rose.

Last up….Dustin Lynch!  His performance was awesome.  He definitely knows how to work with the crowd.  He was all over the stage playing his guitar and making lots of eye contact to the fans.  You can see that he loves to sing and enjoys playing for his fans.  His performance was huge, yet intimate (if that makes sense).  There were hundreds of people surrounding us, but when you would watch him sing, he would make eye contact like he was singing just to you.  It was surreal….Some of my favorites were Cowboys and Angels, Hurricane, and who can’t sing along to She Cranks My Tractor.  The show from start to finish was an experience to remember!

FM106.1…you definitely know how to throw a party for the #1 morning show on the radio.  Congrats once again Karen, Scott, and Radar.  Here’s to the past 15 years and 15 more wonderful years to come…CHEERS!

Well, being my first concert of the year...I was sooo excited!  I decided to take my girlfriend along. This was my first time at the Rave, so I was very nervous! The concert was off to a slow start, but once Gary Allan started...holy goodness!  The crowd just erupted with excitement!  I was so excited to hear many of his songs.  When he stated that his new single "Pieces" was sung for the first time by the whole band, I was wondering what was to come.  WOW!!!!!  That song hit the highest of any first time a band would play together for the first time!  I was in heaven!  The whole time Gary was on stage it was a time that I couldn't believe that I was there to share!  Thank you for the experience and I really hope to have much more to share within the year!

As usual I want to share my concert experiences with people who I know will truly appreciate the opportunity and whom I care about deeply; unfortunately this time it was very difficult to decide…how do you pick between your BF and your mom?  As this decision wasn’t easy, it also wasn’t based on who I care about more, it was based on who loves Kenny more and who loves Tim more.  As you could probably guess my mom loves Tim, in fact she told me that if I got to meet him during this experience and she didn’t get to join me that I had to express my mother’s love for him.  Mom didn’t join me in Chicago for Kenny and Tim.  Paul’s love of Kenny and his music far outweighs mom’s love for Tim’s looks and his acting. As if this experience couldn’t get any more exciting for the two of us, we found out 2 days before that we were going to meet Kenny Chesney and that there may be different tickets waiting for us at Will Call when we got there! Holy Upgrade! We went to the front row of section H which was directly in front of the soundboard and the “second stage!”

Even through the crazy Chicago traffic we got there just in time to see Jake Owen perform his heart out to the crowd with so many of his hits like “Yee Haw,” “Eight Second Ride,” “Barefoot Bluejean Night” and “Alone with You.”  Jake really seems to have gained a higher level of confidence when he performs even since last fall when I saw him open for Keith Urban at the Bradley Center or maybe it was the combination of the huge venue already filled with fans to see him start a 4:30 and all the ladies screaming in the audience.  Either way Jake really got the party started!

After Jake we were delighted to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals were performing! She belted her heart out for a half hour straight and earned hundreds of new fans while on stage.  She was incredibly thankful and gracious to be out on such a life changing tour. Grace and her band did a great job of combining rock n’ roll, country and a bit of gospel all at once! I love it when artists give everything they have on stage and leave without regret! She must have been feeling an emotional high after her set!

Then onto one of the “Brothers of the Sun”! It’s Tim Time!!!  Everyone in crowd went crazy when Tim McGraw came on stage! He started with the first hit from his newest cd “Felt Good on My Lips!” Unfortunately (but not that unfortunate) we had to step out for a bit for the Kenny meet and greet so we missed quite a bit of Tim’s set, but what we did see was awesome!  Thankfully we made it back for the rest of Tim’s 21 song set, especially for “Live Like You Were Dying,” “Cowboy in Me,” and “I Like It, I Love It.”  Tim did an incredible job working the entire stage and getting the entire stadium involved. During the part of Tim’s set that we were able to see which included “A Heart Don’t Forget,” Paul revealed to me that it was this song from Tim that turned him onto country music in the first place. Good work Tim!  For his individual finale Tim played his new hit single “Truck Yeah” which made the crowd become unbelievably louder and is when I believe I completely lost my voice!

Back to the Kenny Chesney meet and greet…We anxiously waited in line and chatted with other greeters who were almost as excited as Paul.  Kenny was extremely gracious at the meet and greet; he let us use our own cameras so we immediately had the pictures with him in our possession and he signed autographs for us which I have learned becomes more and more rare as stars become more and more famous.  Thanks Kenny!  I introduced myself as Jen from FM106.1 in Milwaukee and told him that I got to write a review of his show, I think I may have flustered him a bit! Me? I flustered Kenny? Awesome!  Then Paul came up to join us for a picture and could barely introduce himself because he was so overwhelmed with excitement!

Kenny’s part of the concert was high energy from start to finish! Because of the generous upgrade of our seats we ended up being right in front of the second stage that Kenny emerged from at the start of his show! He started with “Beer in Mexico” (as Paul predicted) and then flew directly over us onto the main stage. Once on the main stage his 26 song set continued with all his hits old and new from “Back Where I Come From” and “Turn this Car Around” to his newest radio hit “Come Over.”  My favorite songs to hear/ see were “Somewhere with You” and “Reality” because our group of friends who went to see him at Lambeau Field last summer like to tell each other that we’re in the Reality video since it uses footage from his Lambeau concert!  Paul’s favorite performances from Kenny that night in Chicago were “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem” and “Live Those Songs.”

As if the concert couldn’t get any better Kenny and Tim still had to perform together!  There was no break either! They just went right into their combined part of the show!  All of a sudden Tim was emerging from the same stage directly behind us that Kenny came out of! As the two of them were singing “Whatever Makes You Feel like a Rockstar,” Tim came running and singing right past us! Holy amazing seats! Together they also sang Kenny’s hit “She Thinks my Tractor’s Sexy” and Tim’s hit “Indian Outlaw.”  Finally they ended the show with one more song and Jake Owen came out and joined them too! What a night! I don’t think it could have been any more mind-blowingly incredible!

As soon as Zac Brown Band was coming to Summerfest this year I knew who I wanted my guest to be! I wanted to share this concert experience with Paul. I am a member of the Zamily and have been for three years so I knew it was going to be a great show.  Now I do have to mention that July 5th was one of the hottest days all summer and luckily by the lake it was a little cooler, but not for long! After two straight hours of ZBB fans dancing in the Marcus Amphitheater it was well over 110 degrees in there!

ZBB kicked of their set and got the hot crowd on its feet with one of my new favorites “Keep Me in Mind,” and “Knee Deep” which are always jukebox favorites when we go out! The crowd was hooked so Zac and the boys continued to play a mixture of songs both old and new. One of the new songs they played called “Jump Right In” allowed the boys to get the crowd even more involved; they taught us the chorus and gave us the signal to “jump right in (to)” the song when we were supposed to!

Unfortunately because it was so hot out, I missed a couple songs for what I thought was going to be a quick run to the ladies room, but I could still hear them! Ladies in the lines wouldn’t stop dancing or singing along to “No Hurry” which made me laugh and enjoy myself even more because there was no stopping the fun and excitement of the crowd during this show!

This being my third time seeing Zac Brown Band in concert I wasn’t really expecting anything to surprise me, but they did! ZBB did country covers of Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely” and of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion!” They then played my favorite Zac Brown compilation of “Free.” There’s just something about that song that makes me want to grab onto a person that I love and makes me feel like we can get through anything.

The hits just kept coming and fans couldn’t help but dance and sing along to “Toes,” “Who Knows,” “Whiskey’s Gone,” and “Colder Weather.”  For some unexplainable reason I always tear up and get a little emotional during “Colder Weather” and my emotions didn’t stop when they made all of us proud with “America the Beautiful” the day after July 4th.  This roller coaster of emotions continued from national pride to local pride when the guitarist stepped out to the front of the stage wearing a Green Bay Packers shirt.

The Zac Brown Band party continued for 2 straight hours and even then they weren’t able to play all their hits.  Honestly ZBB would have needed at least another hour to cover them all which would have taken their show to way past midnight!  They ended their jam session with “Chicken Fried” and wouldn’t allow anyone to leave early! I am telling you, the entire show people were dancing and singing for two hours without a break and the temperature just kept rising! What an incredible experience and I am so thankful I got to share it with Paul! We are definitely going again the next time ZBB comes to town for my show number four!

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!

I love sharing my concert experiences with friends and family who truly appreciate it! For Eden’s Edge, Eli Young Band, Little Big Town and Rascal Flatts I asked my cousin Erin to join me and she confirmed with whole-hearted excitement. The fact that she got to meet Rascal Flatts was the cherry on top of that sundae!

The highly anticipated evening started out great! Because we had our meet and greet passes for Rascal Flatts we entered the Marcus Amphitheater by the red seating area and got to go down by the stage immediately!  This was by far the closest I have been to one of the stages since I started this concert reviewing adventure in February.  Because we were a little early for the meet and greet we were allowed to sit right by the stage until security was ready to take us to Rascal Flatts.  We were so excited (look how close we are in some of the pictures)!  And then Eden’s Edge came out! We thought for sure we were going to get to see them from the front row! Eden’s Edge started their show with a bit of “We Are Young” by Fun which immediately got every person in the room singing along. They sounded great!  I was thrilled that we were going to be able to watch some of their set because I find myself singing their hit “Amen” all the time in my head (especially when one of my students has an “ah hah” moment) and of course belting it out loud when it comes on in the car…but we didn’t get to watch them unfortunately.  We were ushered out to where the tour buses were parked in order to wait for Rascal Flatts.

Of course being the positive person that I am I looked on the bright side and convinced myself that if we were meeting the boys from Rascal Flatts this early that we were definitely going to be able to make it to see the entire Eli Young Band show, right? …Not so much…I’ll explain in a bit.

While we were waiting outside we got some fun pictures with the tour buses and I got a quick pic with Karen from Little Big Town! Awesome moment for me, especially since we didn’t have the chance to meet and greet with Little Big Town like we had hoped! She was so sweet to stop and take the picture with me while the band was being rushed from the tour bus into the amphitheater.  Let me tell you, that made waiting outside a little better!

Then we waited some more underneath the amphitheater.  Then we were walked back inside the amphitheater and up 4 flights of stairs to what seemed to be the top floor (all very odd).  We waited in this room for at least 20 minutes…it was hot…people were not happy…some people forgo their chance to meet the Rascal Flatts boys because they were tired of waiting…and because Eli Young Band started! So disappointed! I missed most of Eli Young Band because we were waiting for the Rascal Flatts meet and greet for 40 minutes.

Being in the amphitheater though we got to hear and feel most of the Eli Young Band set; yes feel, the music is so powerful in the amphitheater that you can feel it through the floor! So even though I was disappointed I didn’t get to see them perform “Even if it Breaks Your Heart,” I did get to hear it and feel it through the floor and walls.  I have no idea how many fans were actually in their seats when Eli Young Band was performing, but when they were done with that song I heard a mass of cheers!

Back to the meet and greet! When we got to meet the boys from RF it was such a whirlwind! We were rushed in and I don’t even think I introduced myself…hmmm. For all of my previous events I’m always like, “Hi! I’m Jen!” with a smile and a bit of a laugh because of course they are going to remember who I am! I know Erin’s favorite part of the meet and greet with Rascal Flatts was her brief exchange with Jay. After she introduced herself he said, "Erin, how on earth are you wearing a sweater?" she replied, "well, I just had a baby so wanted to hide anything for the picture." he said, "well honey, you don't even look like you just had a baby!" and I said. "That’s because I'm wearing the sweater!" :)   In the whirlwind that was meeting Rascal Flatts, I don’t even know if a single one of the 5 of us in our picture are looking at the camera; I know Erin and I weren’t ready when the picture was snapped! I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the picture turns out!

Then back to Eli Young Band…we left the meet and greet and entered back into our original spot down in the front of the Red section to see the end of EYB’s set.  They were finishing up a song and then ended with “Crazy Girl!” Sweet! We didn’t miss this one! Mike Eli began describing the song with genuine appreciation for the crowd and the fans who continually called radio stations around the country requesting “Crazy Girl” by “that one band,” for making it the hit that it has become and helping to launch them into a great tour.  Everyone in the room sang along as they sang it for us (even the big, beefy security guards were singing and I’ve definitely never seen that before). It was a great moment, made me sad I missed the rest of their show, but I was grateful that we were able to experience that song.

Onto Little Big Town! They came out guns blazing with “Little White Church!” Love that song! It totally reminds me of every serious relationship I have been in since high school! I love it that even the men in the crowd were singing along with Kimberly and Karen as if they had it sung to them before by an angry woman! I wish I would’ve snapped a picture of the gentleman wearing the tour shirt that reads “I may be cheap, but I ain’t free” because he was rocking out and dancing just as much as I was!

After getting the crowd fired up they went into some of their slower songs and it made me realize how amazingly spectacular LBT harmonizes and how well they all work together as a band.  Each individual in the group makes the next sound stronger.  No worries they didn’t stay slow for long, they pumped everyone up again with Pontoon! Perfect summer song for Wisconsin fans to relate to, especially for the fabulous weather.  All of their voices amazed me as well.  Actually every group throughout the entire concert did have such wonderful and powerful voices, but especially Little Big Town.  They sounded exactly like they do on the radio – no need for weird studio voice changes or effects here! They are awesome! LBT also revealed that for fun they like to take pop songs and see if they can change them into country songs and they shared their version of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” with us! They took the crowd back to their songs with “Boondocks” and gave every fan a sense of pride about where they grew up as well.

To make the night even better we got to see the fireworks from the Marcus amphitheater! I was so excited for the concert experience tonight that I totally forgot about fireworks! They were so perfectly timed with the Marcus shows that it was as if they were both celebrating Little Big Town’s amazing set and amping the crowd for Rascal Flatts!

Rascal Flatts kicked off their part of the country extravaganza with their new chart topper “Banjo” and there wasn’t a fan seated in the amphitheater! Everyone was dancing and singing along from the start! I loved the stage effects that they started off with too; there was a sort-of cage of lights surrounding each of the 3 guys that had sound sensors in them and when they each sang their part the lights surrounding them would light up!  Rascal Flatts was definitely out to make their fans happy tonight! I have heard them in interviews before and they have mentioned that sometimes fans leave their shows a little upset because they don’t always get to hear their favorite Rascal Flatts song.  To accommodate the fans they put together a request segment of the show in which audience members could request their favorites and the boys sang the main verse and the chorus of each of those songs! So thoughtful! Another great part of their stage set up was the personal pictures of the band members that would scroll by during the slower more personal songs; the pictures really allowed their fans to connect with them on a more personal level. 

My favorite part of the whole concert (this was Erin’s favorite part too) was the grand finale when they sang “We’re An American Band” by Grand Funk Railroad!  Rascal Flatts decided to end the show by sharing the stage with all the bands on their tour!  The boys from Rascal Flatts started the song and when they started the chorus Little Big Town came out and sang the chorus with them, then LBT took over for the second verse.  During the third verse Eli Young Band came out and sang it and eventually Eden’s Edge joined as well.  All four groups rocked the stage and ended the song together all the while in the background were pictures of their rehearsals for this very event being shown!

I am still amazed each time I see another country act by how truly talented these artists truly are.  I don’t think there is any other genre in music right how that is bursting with this level of true talent.  I am sure I will continue to be amazed as this adventure continues! 

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.

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!!!

The first time I heard the song “Storm Warning” I thought this song is great and of course I mistakenly assumed that it was by an artist much older than 20 year old Hunter Hayes.  When I realized how old he actually is, I was shocked by both the maturity in his lyrics and his talent. For this show my cousin Katy came into Milwaukee from the Madison area.  She was also surprised by the number of songs that he had created so early in his career and by how well he commanded his audience.

 Hayes exudes incredible potential for someone so young; during his two plus hours performance he played at least 3 different guitars (there were 5 on the stage for him), the piano and three songs acoustically.  His appreciation for his growing fan base was evident when he described how when he was here in Milwaukee only two months ago at the Rave he was in the much smaller room and now he was lucky enough to be playing in the large ballroom.

Not only did Hayes cover his two songs “Storm Warning” and “Wanted” which are getting airplay right now on FM106.1, but he covered all the songs from his debut CD and then some.  How exciting for his young fans to hear all the song they love, live and in one night!

The audience was also enormously appreciative of his quick return to the Rave.  Every note and every lyric of every song was sung by the young, adoring fans.  He excited them multiple times running across the room to another stage set up in the back so that a different group could get a front row serenade. Hayes also wooed the crowd with songs from other artist like “Keep Your Head Up” by Andy Grammer and “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars.

Everyone ate it up! Even the moms and dads who brought their daughters to the show were dancing and having a great time!  At the end of the second encore no one wanted to leave; security had to start asking large groups of fans to exit. 

The meet and greet for Hunter Hayes was after the show and those of us with passes were directed to another room at the Rave where the backdrop for the pictures was set up.  It also happened to be the same room that he had performed in the last time he was here in February.  What a contrast in venue sizes! I can see why he was so proud and grateful to his ever growing fan base here in Milwaukee.  Everyone in line was highly anxious and excited to meet their favorite artist!