Brad Paisley is a well-known country star who is known for his great Guitar skills. But he is more than that; he is a funny, down to earth, generous and kind hearted person.
On an early evening late in June, I fought traffic to get to Amphitheater in Chula Vista, CA to witness Brad Paisley’s Weekend Warrior World Tour. I had no idea I was in for such a treat. Brad had three opening bands which were amazing. The first one was Lindsey Elle. She had a beautiful voice and showed her guitar skills while she was moving all over the stage entertaining the audience. It didn’t take her any time to grab the audience’s attention and get them warmed up for the show. Next was Chase Bryant. He is another great country talent. He performed with such a high energy and got the crowd moving and fired up. I loved it when he took a moment and asked the whole audience to stand up so we all could honor and applaud the soldiers fighting over seas for our freedom. He gained a lot of respect from me for doing that. The last opening act was Dustin Lynch. He was so much fun to watch. He sang some of his well-known songs and he also toasted with the crowd and had a drink together with his audience. Then he picked a guy named Jaxon out of the audience and challenged him to chuck his beer. The crowd loved it and cheered him on together with Dustin Lynch. It was a crazy but very fun moment. After Jaxon had chucked his beer, Dustin proceeded to sing his song replacing the name in the song with Jaxon’s name. Also Dustin played a brand new song “Love me or leave me alone” which is from his new album, which he is putting finishing touches on in the next 2 Weeks. You could tell it was a song from his heart. People started grabbing their loved ones and slow danced to the song. Everybody was getting in the moment and listening to his new song you just want to grab the person you love and hold on as tight as you can.
Finally it was time for Brad Paisley to make his entrance. Everything was dark and you could only see red lights go back and forth which simulated the lights from the TV show Knight Rider’s car while the TV shows theme song played. Then it happened! Brad appeared in the center of a catwalk above the drum riser which led into his first song “Last time for everything” which went smoothly over into “Purple Rain” and then followed by “Old Alabama’. The crowd cheered and sang along. It was such a fun place to be. You could feel the fun atmosphere and you didn’t want to stay down in your seat. No you wanted to get up and have fun and dance to the music and cheer along with everybody else in the stadium. Brad is a great entertainer and a lot of fun to watch. The song “One Beer Can” came on and it basically showed on the screen what most kids do when the parents are gone. It was a funny video playing along with the song. It just got better and better as the evening went along and you could tell by looking around. People had smiles on their faces, were dancing, singing, cheering and clapping. It’s the type of evening you just don’t want to end. After playing the song “This Is Country Music” Brad Paisley signed his guitar and gave it away to a young boy in the audience. The crowd went crazy and cheered, applauded and whistled. The boy was so surprised and you could tell he didn’t really know how to react. Another highlight of the evening was when Brad honored several members of the Navy which were standing on stage lined up while he was playing the song “Love and War” by bowing down in front of them thanking them. As a surprise, Brad set up a working bar on stage and invited the Navy to sit and have drinks while enjoying the show. The evening just got more fun as it went on. Singing “American Saturday Night” Brad had Chase Bryant join him on stage and when Brad sang the song “I’m Still A Guy” Dustin Lynch joined and sang together with him. It was also great to see when at a later point Lindsay Ell joined Brad to sing the song “Whiskey Lullaby”.
One thing I would have never expected was a South Park version of Brad Paisley. I started laughing so hard when he played the song “Celebrity” and the South Park video of his version played in the background. The crowd also loved it very much and I was not the only one laughing. It was just great. Time just flew by that’s how much fun I had and Brad also showed his guitar skills by shredding his guitar right before the song “Mud On The Tires” came on. It was all in all a very entertaining and fun show. It had not one boring moment. I was so entertained that I really didn’t notice how much time had passed. Brad’s encore song was “Alcohol” and up to his very last note he played he gave it his 100% to make his show the best show he could have possibly given.
Michi / BackStage360