7/28/07-Brad Paisley/Kellie Pickler/Taylor Swift/Jack Ingram Concert
Hershey, PA
First of all, this concert is the best one I've ever been to in my life. Every other concert, I've been stuck so far away from the stage that it wasn't fun. But thankfully, my friend Kyle (who went to the concert with me, Jen and my mom) bought the tickets and we got TWENTIETH ROW!!!!!! It's the closest I've ever been to a stage!!!!
We all had shirts that we'd made the night before (mine had a picture of Kellie and Taylor on the front and Brad on the back; Jen's had two pics of Kellie and Kyle had Kellie on the front and Taylor on the back), and we got so many compliments on them, it was crazy. Before the show, there was this mini-stage set up outside the door for people to go up and sing a Brad/Kellie/Taylor/Jack song, so me and Jen got up and sang Red High Heels! Well, we told the guy to put RHH on, but he accidentally put on I Wonder at first, so me and Jen were just like whatever, we'll sing it. But then it stopped and he put RHH on! It was so much fun!!!!
Once we got inside, we found a merchandise stand to buy stuff, and it was really crowded so it took like half an hour to buy the stuff, but it was worth it! I got a Kellie t-shirt, a Taylor t-shirt, an autographed picture of Kellie and a non-autographed picture of Taylor. Then we went and found our seats, which were SO CLOSE TO THE STAGE!!! Me and Jen were like freaking out cause we were only about ten rows from the catwalk!! There were actually three catwalks, one on either side and one in the middle!!
Jack came out first, wearing a Hershey t-shirt and he was really good! He sang 'Hold On', 'Maybe She'll Get Lonely', 'Lips of an Angel', 'Measure of A Man' 'Wherever You Are' and 'Love You'. I was really excited when he sang 'Maybe She'll Get Lonely' because I'd just bought the album a few weeks ago and it was one of my favorites and he said it was their first time playing it live! Before he sang 'Lips of an Angel', he announced, "This next song is for all the cheaters in the room…don't cheer, I don't want you to get in trouble!" and when he sang 'Love You' he brought his mic on the catwalk and played the whole song out there. It's such a fun song and I love it!
Then Kellie came out.
Holy crap, I screamed SO LOUD!
Me and Jen were freaking out. Before each act comes out, they shine their name on the back curtain, so like there was music playing and we were like, "Is it gonna be Kellie?!??!?!" and then we saw her name and a red high heeled shoe shining on the curtain and we just started screaming! She came out and holy crap she is ADORABLE!!! She was wearing a purple/blue top and jeans with silver high heels and her hair was short and straight. She sang 'Gotta Keep Moving' and went right into 'Things That Never Cross A Man's Mind'. Then she sang 'Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You' and wow, it was SO GOOD!!!! Then she talked about how much she loved chocolate so she was happy to be in Hershey. She said, "I've been here once before, on the Idols Tour, and Hershey gave us two 5 lb chocolate bars, one for the girls and one for the guys, and I stole the girls' and hid it under my pillow!" She is so freaking CUTE!!! Then she said that it was Taylor's home show and how she calls Taylor her big sister because she's so mature and she (Kellie) is loud and obnoxious. Then she sang 9-5 and it showed pictures of her meeting Dolly Parton on the screen! Then she came out to the end of the catwalk and sat down to sing 'I Wonder'. She said, "This song is about, and I'm sure you all know, because they talked about it on Idol, about the relationship I have with my mom; there isn't one." And I just got so sad. She then sang 'I Wonder' and I cried. I'd always felt so sad when listening to the song, but I'd never actually cried until I heard her sing it live. It's such a beautiful song, but it's so sad that Kellie had to go through what she went through. She got a standing ovation (although me and Jen stood throughout her entire set), and people started cheering before the song was over. Then she finished her set with 'Red High Heels' and even signed a pair someone in the front handed her to autograph. She is such an amazing singer and person; you can tell she's such a sweet and down to earth girl and I'm so glad I got to see her live!
Next was Taylor. I was really excited to see her, coming from the same place she lived for a long time, and she didn't disappoint. They gave her a really big introduction because it was her hometown show, saying that she had her record label's first platinum album, the first female songwriter to write every song on her CD and had two number one singles. So naturally, everybody went crazy when she came out! She was wearing a light blue dress (the same one she was wearing in the picture on my shirt!) and her blue cowboy boots that say Taylor on them. She opened with a little bit of 'Lose Yourself' and went right into 'Our Song'. I could tell that she was really excited because the crowd just kept cheering for her. She sang 'Teardrops on My Guitar', and introduced it by saying, "This is my second number one and I wrote it about a boy named Drew." So of course, everyone started screaming!!! She thanked everybody for buying her album and mentioned that, "It's now a platinum album!" and thanked everyone who bought it that week because it was the number one album in the country. "And if you haven't bought it, or want to be my new best friend, I signed about five hundred copies before the show and they're out at the merch stand, so go buy one!" Then she sang 'Should've Said No' after saying, "So basically there was this guy who cheated on me, and he shouldn't have, 'cause I write songs…" Then she said, "When I tell you guys to, can you all put your cell phones or anything that glows? Cause it'll make this place really pretty!" And then she sang 'Tim McGraw' and when she sang the bridge, she said, "Can I please see all cell phones?" and holy cow it was gorgeous!! The entire arena was lit up! She said, "Do y'all think you can sing this song for me [insert screams here]…I'll take that as a yes!" She had us all sing part of the chorus, too, and me and Jen sang really loud, and for the part she always changes, she said, "when you turn Pennsylvania radio on…" !!! She ended her set with 'Picture To Burn', informing us that "I try to be a nice person, I really do, but if you cheat on me, lie to me or are mean to me, I'm gonna write a song about you!" Everyone was screaming so loud for her and you could tell that she had so much fun!
After about twenty minutes, they played a video over the screens of people singing Brad songs and CARRIE WAS ON IT and I just randomly screamed really, really, really loud haha. Carrie fan forever! Then there was a countdown part of the video (Carrie was number seven!) and then the huge curtain dropped and there were SO MANY LIGHTS!!! Brad's stage is incredible!!! He came out of this elevator like thing and opened with 'Online'. He sang a bunch of his songs, but the ones that stuck out to me were 'Celebrity' because they played his video while he sang; 'When I Get Where I'm Going' showed pictures of people that died (Johnny and June, Steve Irwin); Ticks, with all the ticks crawling across the screen; and 'Whiskey Lullaby', which he sang with a video of Allison Kraus on the screen. Brad was so good and so funny, and during one song he was playing by himself, a little boy got held up by his dad or something right in front of Brad, and Brad went, "I think he wants an autograph!" and stopped the song intro that he'd been playing to sign for him! He's so nice and funny and I loved watching him!
We left early to see if Kellie and Taylor would sign, but they didn't. So I went back to the merch stand and bought one of the signed Taylor CDs, and my mom bought a Brad tour shirt. We hung out until most of the people left and then we went back to the hotel. It kinda stunk that they didn't sign but I was just so grateful that I'd gotten to see Kellie and Taylor live; I'm so happy with everything that happened and Kellie is so amazing <333
7.28.07-Best Concert Ever!
Pictures:
front of our shirts
and the backs!
Jack Ingram
Kellie Dawn <3
I Wonder
"...your little girl is off to Tennessee...
Standing ovation
Taylor Swift
"...it's now a
PLATINUM album!"
singing 'Whiskey Lullaby'
Linear Mode
