My latest South Florida excursion is behind me. I left freshly painted walls as well as a hangover or two in my wake. I love being me!
Although it wasn't planned in any way, it so happened that Brad Paisley was playing at Coral Sky on my last night there. I've seen him two or three times over the years at the same venue. He puts on a good show, but I wasn't all a-twitter with the thought of seeing him again.
The crowds at his concerts trend much younger than most other country audiences. There are more falling-down drunks and dust-ups at his shows. The "more-falling-down drunks" part is really more speculation than research-based fact. It may just seem like more drunks. We had one go down right in front of us at last week's event.
It was one of those slow-motion events where he came stumbling along, seemed to get lost right in front of us, staggered back and forth a few steps and then started to go down. One of our group grabbed him, but it was like trying to trap a bead of mercury under your finger. He wobbled this way and that and then just sort of slowly fell backward as my friend continued to try to hold him up. As he lay in a heap before us, he found his cell phone and attempted to call some one. Eventually one of the venue staffers came up and ushered him away.
In any event, I like Brad, but I've seen him. But when the ticket is free and a bunch of pals are going, hey, ya gotta go.
I was particularly interested in seeing The Band Perry, which I've never seen in concert before. Have you seen Kimberly Perry? Of course I was interested in seeing them.
Although they've had some hits, the only song of theirs I was truly familiar with was "If I Die Young." I like it. I've seen the video and it's OK, too. But this is one of those bands that seems to have pretty good bones, but might go either way in the future. I wanted to get a look at them on stage and hear how they would fill 30 minutes around a couple of hit songs.
They blew us away. I must confess that until the concert, I had no idea it was two brothers and a sister that front the band. One brother is younger than 20. But these guys rock out.
They of course performed the two or three songs that have received some radio play, but also launched into Petty's "Free Falling" and Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls."
Kimberly Perry has every bit as much energy on stage as Kenny Chesney, and really gets the audience into the performance. Their 30 minutes was worth the price of admission.
And then Brad came out and put on the best show I've seen from him.
At one point he sang a duet with a hologram of Carrie Underwood and I would have taken a bet that she was actually there.
Paisley is one of those artists who you can't fully appreciate from recordings. I always forget what a spectacular guitar player he is until I see him on stage.
What a great night!
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