Jeff's review for Country Thunder, Twin Lakes, WI (07/20)

WOW! Again im amazed with how our girl performs live. What a show this was! You guys may end up getting bored with my reviews since she’s so consistently amazing!

Got to the show in time to see Miranda lambert perform before carrie. I have to say its really different watching someone perform and you don’t really know their music. It wasn’t until she performed Kerosene at the end of her set that I got into her performance. It was drizzling during her set and I was hoping it would stop in time for carrie, cos no way was I going to risk my camera to take photos in the rain.

At 6, it was carrie’s turn, and the rain was no more. It was an overcast day so no problems of sunburn either. What can I say. It was supposed to rain in Fowlerville and Pittsburgh, but it didn’t. carrie underwood brings good weather!

The stage here had an interesting set up. Right in the center, in between the 2 front center sections was a runway that extended from the stage all the way to the end of the front section! And boy did carrie work that runway out! She went up and down it on several occasions. I was 10 seats in from the center and goodness knows how many toes I trod on to rush to the runway to take some pics of her when she was working it! She mentioned how it reminds her of a fashion show!

One of the best parts was during the early part of her show, people who were lined across the runway stuck their hands out and carrie reached down to touch each person’s hand. I too stuck my hand out, and what can I say? It feels awesome to get touched by an angel . It’s a miracle my knees didn’t buckle lol

Carrie made some cute comments after performing BHC. She was like “guys please don’t be afraid of me! (I was thinking hey im not afraid lol) ive been getting a lot of bats in the mail lately, I don’t know what im going to do with them all, I guess give them to security I dunno.” She then went on to apologize about her hair.

The crowd was pretty subdued. I think because she had already done a solo show in green bay and opened for alan Jackson in Milwaukee just a couple of weeks back. So there weren’t that many people with carrie shirts on. Most were there for the main act at the end, keith urban.

However, she really got the crowd rocking with sweet child of mine, and she made another move towards the runway and I again trod on some toes I think to rush there to get a video clip the crowd went nuts for her when she finished. People around me were like “oh my God, is she awesome or what!?”

Carrie also got great applause for DFTRM and JTTW. She thanked the crowd and her fans, but she didn’t talk as much maybe since this wasn’t totally her crowd. She did all her songs from her usual set with the exception of IAICA.

So, now off to meet miss underwood. I don’t know, I’ve met her a number of times but I still feel nervous lol. I had gotten her a present (that is related to what I made for her when I saw her in Green Bay) and a card. So finally it was my turn to meet her. What would happen this time? She smiled at me and said “Hi!” I handed her the present and she was “awww thank you! Cute! Very nice! Thank you!” I then flipped the present around since that was the side I wanted her to see and she was “I remember!” i placed a bag on the table and she got keith to put the present in the bag. (keith must be wondering, this crazy guy, not only do I have to do extra work following carrie at these signing sessions, I got to carry presents from her crazy fans) one more thing I have to add. I don’t know if it’s the water up here in the Midwest, or it was the shirt she was wearing (she had changed out of her concert clothes and was wearing the blue and white tshirt she wore for her Kenny chesney show in Tampa, which is my 2nd fav shirt of hers, and white shorts), but she was breathtakingly beautiful and whatever I had planned to say to her went down the toilet. I just looked at her as she signed my picture. So it was just like a few seconds of silence between us as she signed. So when she was done she was “here you go!” I thanked her (brain managed to function to thank her haha) and carrie as polite as ever went “you’re welcome! Thanks for coming back!”

So, what a great show! The different stage setting certainly made the show so interesting, and also getting my hand touched by carrie… haha

After carrie was leann rimes. She just had surgery on her knee and this was her first show since the surgery. She was moving fine and didn’t look like someone who just had surgery. Let me say this. I am not really a fan of her songs when I hear them on the radio, and I have never bought a single CD of hers. But what a great live performer and vocalist she is. Man, that girl can sing. I would definitely go to another of her concerts if she came around my area.

Keith urban closed the show. He mentioned that last year there was a thunderstorm at this venue and the stage got blown over. About 35 minutes into his set, there was this huge bolt of lightning and it started pouring. I wasn’t prepared for the rain so I had to leave my seat to seek shelter, and then decided to leave. Keith urban is the anti-carrie lol

Pics and video coming up! Hey 19th row this time, can’t get 2nd row all the time Also got pics of Miranda, leann and keith urban

pics here

pics from 19th row!

Click above!

the present and card i got her
full body view


front view


back view


card

Jeff’s Review of Carrie singing the National Anthem (All-Star Game in Pittsburgh)

So I met up with Don as we headed out to the Roberto Clemente Bridge for the Red Carpet. We heard over the local country station Y108 that the players would be on the red carpet along with “celebrities”. So we thought maybe carrie would be there!

So we got to the bridge and saw the players on the red carpet, being transported by Chevys with their name on the vehicle. We couldn’t see any vehicle with carrie’s name so we didn’t expect to see her. We were left somewhat disappointed as that was the case, although I did managed to catch a candy bar that albert pujols threw to the crowd!

So we get into the stadium at five and saw the players take batting and fielding practice. Ok you guys don’t want to hear me talk about baseball right? Lol I got a lot of pics so if there are enough people interested I will upload them here.

So don and I start our carrie watch lol. Whenever a blonde girl appeared on the field we were straining our eyes (we had standing room tickets, so we were all the way back) to see if it was miss underwood.

So the pregame ceremonies start and all that, and finally don says “that’s carrie!” and sure enough there is miss underwood with keith and ann! Man, I don’t think don knew, but I was really nervous for her! I was wondering how the crowd will react to her. So my hands were shaking pretty bad so my pics didn’t turn out too good.

Finally, they were about to start the anthem, so miss underwood walks to somewhere between the pitchers mound and home plate. And they freakin made her wait for a long time as they intro’d various people. You could see she was nervous. And then finally she started belting out the anthem!!! There were a number of other carrie fans as guys and gals hollered her name out as she started singing! And when she hit those notes the crowd went nuts! I have it on vid, problem is that I was shaking real bad lol so the video is shaky, but you can hear the crowd reaction clearly and see st louis cardinals shortstop david Eckstein coming out of the dugout to talk to her! He followed her for some distance as she walked towards a path to what I guess is to her VIP box!

its just amazing seeing and hearing her perform it live! that girl is incredible, and im stoked with the crowds reaction

link to my video footage here!

My video footage of Carrie singing the anthem, plus before and after the anthem scenes!

Click above!

Jeff’s Fowlerville review

What an interesting show this was! Carrie was pretty talkative tonight. She talked a lot lol.

Some excerpts: (not word for word, its hard trying to remember so many things!)
“Weve been to a lot of places this summer and still have a lot to go to. So bleesed to be on the road to have a good time and having fun. We love each other and we love you guys”

“Its nice to sit back and listen sometimes. Im still working on this talking to the audience thing, I feel like im getting better at it but some nights im not so sure, so if I say anything kinda silly or ridiculous I do apologize”

“im looking at the gifts you all got me and I see there is a picture of simon cowell on one of them. Hmmm. He is judging me wherever I go.”

“in all the excitement I actually lost an earring, luckily we found it so its not so bad. [no response from the crowd] Ok, I know im bad at telling jokes.” (I think this was after SCOM, I noticed during the part where she disappears and lets the guitarists play on she went back and was talking rather animatedly with someone)

this is probably the first time it has happened at a carrie concert. The freakin power went out just as she started singing IAICA! There was stunned silence. After like 20 seconds the power was restored but the music had problems. So while they sorted it out carrie went:
“we going to finish the song doggonit! Someone probably tripped over a power cord. oh I don’t have stories or jokes to tell you guys. Hmmm. Once upon a time there was a guitarist named ed… ok. Hmmm when I was young I didn’t really travel so I finally got to go to seaworld for the very first time. We swam with the dolphins, got to touch them…”
and some of the band members were saying how this is part of the show and all that. Things got sorted out in the end.

Some notes on the show
1) I have 150 pics. I was so mad I didn’t bring my camera in Milwaukee for summerfest so it was revenge tonight. i will put them up maybe tomorrow.
2) Since I was second row right next to the center aisle, I had to people from the back rows knocking me slightly when they came forward to take pictures. The security had to keep yelling at them not to stay too long in front.
3) The security kept telling people to sit down to avoid blocking the people behind??? What the heck! I think maybe that’s why carrie didn’t get so many standing ovations.
4) During SCOM carrie was like “get up on your feet!” and finally the crowd got up lol. She brought the house down again.
5) Huge applause for JTTW. I didn’t care and I stood up to applaud. Some others followed suit but people mainly sat down and gave a really long applause. Carrie was like “ok ok ok!!!” and waving her hands to get people to sit down and settle down lol and she went on to introduce her next song.

In the line for meet and greet:
So after reading the reviews here I decided to go to the merchandise booth after SH. There was already a pretty long line. There was this mother with her girls behind and they were saying they should tell carrie how far they came to meet her. I started talking to them and saying how great carrie is and how she cares for her fans etc etc etc. we were joined by a grandmother and her grand-daughter (who is probably around 8), so the pimping of carrie continued from me. I mentioned I was in green bay 2 nites ago and they were amazed lol. So I mentioned I got carrie to sign the sign I made her. The grandmother was like “so what did it say? Marry me carrie?” and her grand-daughter was like “do you have a crush on carrie?” lol

Meeting carrie, what happened???
So, finally, on my 3rd attempt, I finally had a meaningful convo with carrie! I was like “hey carrie, do you remember the sign I had for you in green bay?” and she was like “what did it say?” I said “the bowling one.” And she laughed and said “oh yea!” I had her sign a pic for me and then asked if she liked it, she giggled and said yea. I thanked her. Finally a meaningful convo with carrie!!!

ETA: one more thing to add. the opener rockie lynne said that he met carrie and said that all the good things that people say about her are definitely true

one more thing to add:
i think the drummer lemar is from michigan. when i saw carrie in grand rapids, i remember seeing him coming out to the seats and brought a bunch of folks whom i assume to be his family backstage. today, i saw the same folks and they had vip stickers on.

ETA: one more thing i forgot to add... after she finishes playing the guitar with patience, she actually flicks the guitar pick to the crowd. she needs to practice that cos both times in GB and fowlerville the pick didnt even get across front row!

pics here!

Jeff's Fowlerville Concert Pics

Jeff's Review of Carrie with Alan Jackson at Summerfest, Milwaukee (07/08)

this is my second carrie concert in a row, and i went with don and sara again.

i was really excited to see this concert since carrie was opening for alan jackson, one of my favorite country stars.

a few notes:
1) i didnt bring my cam since there were signs all over saying that cams were not permitted. since my camera is pretty big and i have a case that makes it pretty obvious im carrying a cam, i decided not to take the risk. sara, being a lady with a purse, snuck hers in so she does have an awesome set of photos for you guys later. i am so mad cos in the end everyone was taking pictures! im bringing my cam in no matter what now!

2) AJ cracked a cute joke about carrie. i didnt quite get it so i'll leave don and/or sara to fill ya all in on that. [B]ETA: Shortly after taking the stage, Jackson quipped, "Carrie Underwood would be a great singer if she just wasn't so ugly."[/B]

3) carrie did almost a full set! her usual full set minus patience and the night before. the omission of both songs was a huge disappointment to me since TNBLGO is one of my favs of the album, and i really love love love her rendition of patience.

4) carrie got pretty huge responeses for SCOM and JTTW. she got a very long ovation for JTTW, and as usual she didnt know what to do! DFTRM and one more i think wasted also got a nice response from the crowd, which was clearly predominantly AJ fans.

5) the lady next to me had her hands over her ears throughout the concert! i thought maybe she found carrie too loud, but she did the same for AJ's set. or maybe becos i was singing too loud since i know carrie's and AJ's songs and was singing along!

6) AJ's set barely lasted longer than carrie's. carries was about an hour. AJ not more than an hour and 15 minutes. AJ puts on a really really great show, and he hardly moves around the stage. wow what a seasoned pro! everybody needs to see him live in concert at least once in their lives.

i'll leave it at this cos im pretty tired, and i have a 5 and a half hour journey back to michigan!

Jeff's Oneida Casino Concert Review (Green Bay 07/07)

wow. im in awe of our girl once again. it just boggles my mind how carrie keeps improving from each show that i see her at. wow

a few notes:

1) i attended this concert with don and sara (don has had some amazing luck at the casino. he's trying to win back his airfare now i think.)

2) no pictures from my side. we spoke to some of the security folks before the show and they were very clear they would not be permitting photos. don and i did not bring our cameras. they didnt check for cameras in the end but really cracked down on folks who took photos. sara decided to take the risk and managed like 10 photos i think before someone from the security crew shouted at her.

3) pardon me as im pretty tired lol so i wont go into too much detail here. green bay is 450 miles from home for me. thankfully i decided to split the drive over 2 days, but i hardly slept last night probably from the excitement

back to the review:
the 3 of us were already in line (this is a general admission concert) at around 430pm. doors didnt open till 7 and the concert started at 8. yea talk about 3 dedicated carrie fans! so the crowd was let in at 7 and by 750 was beginning to be restless. the organizers decided to distract everyone by showing the crowd on the big screens, which is something that never fails to excite a crowd. so people were waving their arms and putting up the signs they made for carrie. a couple of signs were zoomed in onto the screen. i had a sign with me and the lady in front of me was liek hey why dont you put up your sign. so i decided to wait till the camera was around my area before putting up my sign. and amazingly, they decided to zoom right onto my sign! the folks around me got pretty excited, haha, probably more excited than i showed lol, and right there and then, the band came out and carrie too with young and beautiful

ok, on her attire. she had a white tank top on and white shorts, and instead of boots, she wore like 4 inch high heels! she was hot i have to admit (wait i say that everytime haha). how on earth she was moving and working the stage in those heels is unbelievable. she did mention early on the show that its hard moving in those heels and that the ladies would understand how she felt lol.

carrie brought DA HOUSE DOWN with sweet child of mine. OMG the place was rockin to it!

my favorite performances vocally were TWII, DFTRM, wasted, the night before and JTTW. as usual, she thanked the crowd for making JTTW the success it is, and the crowd gave her a long ovation (it had to be standing, this was a standing room only venue) and again she was pretty shy and didnt really know how to react to the long applause. i loved how cherie smiled at carrie when the applause was seemingly never-ending. i think carrie needs to call martina mcbride to get some advice on how to deal with these long ovations

she also said other cute things like how the fans are her bosses and thanked us for putting where she is today. there was someone who wanted to pass her flowers, and carrie tried to reach out to take them, but couldnt reach them, so when she was singing she was like "sorry i cant reach them!" and got the security to pass the flowers to her.

also, the fiddler ashely had these darth vader looking sunglasses on. seriously, it looked so out of place in the band and there was a part where carrie and ashley were singing and looking into each others eyes, and after the song, carrie commented she had just "made fun of ashleys glasses since someone has to do it"

its really great to see the band get more comfortable with each other, the way they interact. i know i gave them some beef a while back but they are putting on a show themselves.

ok, no wback to my sign. i think it was during TWII when i decided to put up my sign for her to see. not sure if she saw it, but then she commented that "the crowd had many interesting signs for her!" (and there were many). at the end of her set, when she was singing IAICA, don suggested i put my sign up one more time, and i figured why not. so right at the end, i put it up again, and this time, she cleary saw it and laughed (you all know how sweet i think her laugh is). what can i say, that made my day lol

so after her set is done, we were like ok wheres the merchandise booth. we went out of the tent (the stage was in a tent) looking for it and couldnt find it. many of the folks were walking out and left the place, but we were pretty sure she was gonna do some autos. so we asked one of the security folks abou tht ebooth and they were setting up one inside the tent! so we went back in. and then the security folks announced "ok, please form a line here!" and we knew yea, carrie was gonna come out. as i said, many had already left so there werent eve 200 folks who were in line for the auto.

so the time came when it was my turn. i tried to appear calmer this time, but believe me my stomach was churning! so when i met her i asked her to autograph the sign i made and i placed it in front of her. she looked at it and said something like "oh the sign!" and giggled and mumbled somethings. or maybe it was her giggle that made me have brain cramps cos i really didnt catch what she said to me after that. so as you all know she has this amazing way of interacting with her fans by looking at them in the eye, and when she did that, i suffered from more brain cramps. i was thinking through what i wanted to say to her while in the line. well, none of that came out of my mouth. she looked at me and asked who she should make the auto out to. so i said "jeff" and she was like "j-e-f-f?". she has this adorable way of spelling i guess... more brain cramps. after that i thanked her, but crap, i didnt get to say what i wanted to say to her lol

for the curious, here is the sign