Carrie with Kenny Chesney, Grand Rapids, June 3

pics are up here http://jeff734gr.blogspot.com/

WOW! That’s probably the best way to describe this evenings concert. Kenny Chesney really does put on a great hi-energy show, and he has chosen 2 great young country stars to open for him.

I was really impressed by Dierks Bentley. He looks pretty ready to headline his own tour soon, and he will win an entertainer of the year one of these days. I don’t have his albums ( I think hes released 2?) but I do know his singles that were released. My favorite was “What was I Thinking”, but the crowd favorite (well, most of the crowd were 20 something ladies) I think was “come a little closer” lol

Kenny was great, and showed why he has so many entertainer of the year awards under his belt. and he really does know how to work a crowd… he even got me jumping and singing “Ive been living in fast forward… Hillbilly rock star out of control”. Haha, I should have gotten someone to record me doing that and then send the vid to my parents. They’ll get a surprise to put it nicely!

But of course, you guys are here to read about our little miss underwood. I am so happy for her that she gets to tour with these 2 awesome performers. This is my 4th time seeing her live, and yet im still amazed by her big voice. Seriously, after a short set of 6 songs, I became deaf (happily deaf I may add). Talk about a big voice that easily fills an arena, and that is miss underwood’s voice.

Being the crazy person I am, I created a new playlist in my ipod so I had my own carrie and Kenny concert on my 2 hour road trip. I put in all my fav songs of theirs and the playlist ended up 2 hours long lol

So the show started at 730 with carrie coming out in an interesting attire. White tank top, black shorts/skirt (couldn’t see, I was seated 20 plus rows back, plus I was probably too mesmerized to notice anyway), and knee high black boots. I have to admit I thought she looked really cute! She did not appear to be uncomfortable at all, and didn’t seem nervous to me. Mind you this arena has a capacity of more than 12,000 and I couldn’t really find an empty seat in sight. (Both nights were sold out)

When she came out, ALL the fans stood up! In fact, if youre attending a Kenny concert in the future, be prepared to stand up the whole duration! Kennys fans really know how to have a great time. Throughout carrie’s set, there were sections of kennys fans dancing!

She first started off with Wasted, which again sounds 1000 times better live than recorded. All the glory notes were hit superbly and effortlessly. I hope she releases an album of her live performances one day.

Next up was BHC, I don’t recall her exact words, but she mentioned something along the lines like this is for all those who have been cheated on. She did her cute little flirty dances around some of her band members!

She then said “this is my current single” and of course I knew it was DFTRM, my fav song off her album. What can I say… her vocals are absolutely flawless on this song. I think the crowd felt the same way too, as it got the longest and biggest applause among her six songs, and this isn’t even really a song to fire up a crowd. kennys fans do recognize a great vocal performance!

She then said her next song “was her first single and thanked the crowd for requesting it to help it reach #1”. She also asked the audience to sing along if they knew the words. Im not sure if there were folks singing along, cos her voice drowns out everything lol. Again, she is spoiling me with another great vocal.

Next was Some hearts, and she was pretty cute in her hip sways and moves haha. You know the part near the end where she is about to hit that high note and she starts clapping her hands above her head? Many of the folks in the audience followed suit! They really were a great crowd!

Carrie finished her set with IAICA. She was like “this song is about my hometown. Maybe you guys could sing ‘grand rapids, michigan’ instead of ‘oklahoma’!” at one of the lines near the end of the song, she replaced one of the ‘oklahoma’s with ‘grand rapids’, which of course was positively received. She got a great applause as she ended her set.

I heard one of the 2 ladies next to me say to her friend “she really can sing!” in between carrie’s songs and her friend nodded her head. Of course at the intermission I had to pimp carrie a lil and she nodded her head. She was generally unexcitable as she just stood there without moving at all during dierks and kennys set either. In fact, she left halfway through kennys set???

Overall, a great show. Carrie’s vocals never cease to amaze me, and I was really impressed by dierks as a performer. Kenny was great and id like to thank him for giving carrie the chance to tour with him. The fans knew how to have a great time, and were very well behaved.

Perhaps the only disappointment is that during Kennys encore where he sang “she thinks my tractor’s sexy”, only dierks came out to sing with Kenny. Maybe it’s the song choice and the lack of chance for carrie to rehearse with them. Imagine carrie singing a line like “I think his tractor’s sexy” and pointing to Kenny? lol