Lady Antebellum-A New Kind of Concert Experience

On Friday, December 9th I got to experience my first show on Lady Antebellum's "Own The Night" tour.  This concert was different and special to me for a few different reasons.  First thing is that I'm 4.5 months pregnant so going to a concert while pregnant was a new experience for me.  Second was the meet and greet lounge that they started doing for this tour.  And the 3rd thing that was unique was the stage set-up and where my ticket location was. 
I was lucky enough to score a meet and greet with Lady A before the show.  Most meet and greets are just a line of people that get to go up to the artist, maybe get something signed, then take a picture and leave.  Well, Lady A has decided to make it more special than that for their fans on this tour.  We were all taken to a room and got to have a seat in the rows of chairs that were set up.  They even had cans of pop and bottles of water on a table in the back for people to have.  While we sat there, a gal from GAC gave us a brief overview of what was going to happen and then their security guy, Marcel, came and gave us the rules & regulations of the meet and greet (no pictures or vid could be taken, Lady A wouldn't be doing autographs).  After waiting a couple more minutes Dave, Hillary and Charles came into the room and each took a seat on the 3 stools that were set up in the front.  We had a chance to ask them questions and they played a couple songs for us.  The first question was what were Hillary's wedding colors and Charles was actually the one to answer for her.  One of the next questions came from a gal that said she only had about 6 more months to live and meeting them was on her bucket list and she asked them what was on their bucket list.  After answering, the let her have the first song pick which was Dancing Away With My Heart.  The other memorable question of the meet and greet was if they were going to sing I Run To You during the show because the guy wanted to ask his girlfriend to marry him after the song was over.  That turned into them coordinating the proposal on stage during the concert since his tickets were in the inner circle.  The other song they did for us was Heart Of The World.  Charles said he was a bit rusty with the song since they don't usually do it live.  There were a couple mix-ups and they ended after the 2nd verse and chorus since none of  them could remember what came next. 
With the way they ushered us from where we were sitting to the picture line afterward, I ended up being the first one.  I walked up to them and said hi and Dave looked at my shirt and said "what do we have here?"  Then they were excited for me when they saw that my shirt said 'Baby's First Lady A Concert'.  When we went to take the picture I said I wanted a 'silly' picture and they happily went along with it which made for a memorable meet and greet picture for myself.  After the picture I got a hug from Hillary and was on my way back to get a spot on the floor for the concert.

The stage setup for the tour is phenomenal.  The closest that I've seen to something like it is when I saw Rascal Flatts a few years ago when Taylor Swift opened for them.  The main part of the stage is an O shape with a catwalk that comes off the front.  In the center of the O is a standing room area for fans during Lady A's set called the inner circle.  I was lucky enough to get tickets for that area.  During the opening acts, people with inner circle tickets stand off to the side in the standing-only general admission floor.  After the stage is cleared off after the 2nd opening act, people with the inner circle tickets are ushered in to the area.  Being in the inner circle was almost like watching a concert from backstage.  Some other fans have complained about seeing their backs the whole time and some fans have decided not to get inner circle tickets because of that.  Yes, you get to see them from the back for much of the show.  But they do a lot of interaction with the people in that area.  I also got some unique pictures that are unlike I've ever gotten at a concert before because of it. 
They started out the show by coming up from under the stage singing We Owned The Night.  That song and entrance seemed to set the energy and excitement for the next 90 minutes. 

They put on a flawless set that included all of their hit singles, as well as some new stuff from their latest album.  One of the highlights for me was getting to watch Dave act like a rock star while jamming out on his guitar while standing on top of his piano.

Something else that they are doing on this tour that I don't think I've seen anywhere else before, is letting the fans decide one of the songs that gets played during the show.  Voting takes place on their Facebook page starting a few days before the show.  Fans can also tweet their vote or text in their vote using the numbers given on the screens before the show.  The choices are all songs that haven't been released to radio and span all 3 of their CDs and were All We'd Ever Need, Love This Pain, As You Turn Away and Cold As Stone.  Although my vote was for As You Turn Away, it was Cold As Stone that won out in Sioux City. 

Probably the most memorable part of the show was getting to see the guy from the meet and greet propose on stage to his girlfriend.  During I Run To You they came and stood at the bottom of the stairs that lead from the inner circle to the stage.  I was standing right by him and was excited for him, knowing what was going to be happening next.  When the song was ending Charles came near the stairs and security let them up on the stage.  The woman had no idea what was going on.  Charles handed the guy his microphone so the whole arena could hear him propose.  And of course she said yes!

With it being December and Christmas is right around the corner, Lady A helped get everyone in the spirit by putting on some Santa hats and singing Blue Christmas.  Hillary's Santa hat had a tiara on it and Charles opted for some red glasses with some sideburns that hung off the sides.

When they exited the stage they actually came down the stairway into the inner circle.  After going back to do Need You Now for the encore the exited the stage once again through the inner circle.  Being in the inner circle was an amazing experience I'll never forget, but I am also looking forward to seeing them again in March when I have regular general admission so that I can see more of what was on the screens which were to my back the whole show. 
To close out this post, here are some of my favorite pictures from the night that weren't posted earlier-

Fair Time with Kellie Pickler

The thing I love about this time of the year is the county fairs.  There's the free BBQs, music, tractor pulls, demolition derbies, funnel cakes, rides and more!  The county fair I grew up going to never got any "big time" entertainment as far as music goes but I was always busy riding the rides or with my friends eying all the boys around that night anyway.  But some fairs in the area do pretty good with music entertainment come fair time.  And one of the ones that has been getting better as time goes by is the Wayne (Nebraska) County Fair where I had the pleasure of seeing Kellie Pickler this past weekend.
Another great part about these small town county fairs is that it is pretty easy to get a good spot if it is somebody you really want to see.  At the Wayne fair, they have one half sectioned off for sitting area for lawn chairs & the other half is standing only.  I easily got a spot right up front against the stage in the standing area, only an hour and a half before Kellie started (half hour before the opening act).
Despite being surrounded by quite a few young and impatient girls (the concert did get started about 20 minutes later than it was supposed to) I had a great time.  Kellie put on a great show from start to finish which was somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes long. 
Kellie came out right away singing one of her sassy hits, "Things That Never Cross A Man's Mind" and seemed to be in the fair mood by wearing a simple white tank top and ripped up jeans with a ponytail in her hair.  She packed in all of her singles, including her new one "Tough" from an album that she said would be out later this year.  Besides all of her singles, she tried out a few songs from her new album, but told the crowd that if they didn't like 'em to let her know 'cause the album isn't done yet!  She also did a few covers which included Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and Dolly Parton's "Jolene".  
Besides "Jolene" the only time she slowed down the song tempo was during "I Wonder".  She told the crowd that she hopes the song helps bring healing to anyone who may have went through what she went through, like it did for her when she wrote it.  Kellie came back for an encore of another Dolly cover of "9 to 5" and her first single "Red High Heels", which some young kids had been chanting for half way through her set.
At one point towards the end of her show she said that she didn't have anywhere to go right away and would do autographs and pictures afterwords.  As soon as the show was over there was a huge line since some went over in line as soon as she mentioned it.  I ended up being 3/4 of the way back in the line and as I figured there was a guy that came along and said only autographs, that no pictures could be taken with her.  Well apparently when she came out she wanted to stick with what she had said on stage and did pictures with almost everyone as well!  And what was great was that she even seemed to take a lot of time with people, almost as if it were a regular meet and greet before a show.  There was a little girl in front of me with her parents.  When they got up to Kellie, she asked the little girl how old she was, which she replied she was 5.  so then Kellie asked her if she was gonna be in kindergarten and when she said she was, Kellie was asking her if she was excited about it. 
When I had my minute with Kellie I told her that she should be on Ellen like once a month.  If you've ever seen a Kellie Pickler appearance on The Ellen Show, you know what I'm talking about.  Here's a couple of my favorite appearances-

She is just so hilarious every time she's on there.  When I told her that, she said she loves Ellen & that Ellen is one of the best people ever. 
Here are just a few of my pictures from the concert, including my picture with Kellie.

Taylor Swift opens up tour in Omaha

Seems lately that artists are starting their tours in Omaha.  Last year I saw Tim McGraw open up his Southern Voice tour here, and this weekend Taylor Swift started off the North American leg of her Speak Now tour.  I wasn't at the first show on Friday night, but I was at the Saturday night show. 
I have to say that I am a bit more disappointed in the opening acts compared to her previous Fearless tour.  Last time she had new group Gloriana with her, who had a huge hit single, Wild At Heart, out at the time and when the show came to Omaha, their debut CD had just been released.  And Kelli Pickler was the 2nd opener, who is also fairly well known & I have both of her albums and was familiar with all of her songs.  On this tour Taylor has multiple acts filling in the first slot.  In Omaha, that slot was filled with Frankie Ballard.  He put on a solid, but very short (5 songs) set.  The 2nd opener, Need To Breathe, is somewhat of a rock group.  They were good, but I'm not sure if anyone there had ever heard of them.  Their set was also fairly short for a 2nd opening act.
Taylor came out just before 8:30pm (concert started at 7pm) and played for 2 hours.  The best way to describe it would be "it's the Fearless tour but bigger." She wore 9 different dresses that I counted from the pictures I took and there were many moving parts for the stage setup. 
The show started out with her coming up from the bottom of the stage with a bunch of smoke.  Of course that was after a big red curtain that was surrounding the stage was pulled back.  She started it off with her song Sparks Fly while wearing a shimmering gold dress.

The first set change came before the songs Our Song and Mean.  If you've seen the video for Mean or perhaps her performance of it on the ACM's then you knew that the song was coming shortly.  A front porch looking set up was brought in on the main stage and Taylor and her band & dancers were dressed in old style country clothes.

Another one of the moving stage parts that was used was a large bridge that was brought down from the ceiling for the song Back To December.

Taylor came up from underneath the stage with a piano to play the song.  The bridge was lined with people with violins.  I'm not sure if they were actually being played or if they were some of her backup dancers pretending to play.

Perhaps the most theatrical song performed was Speak Now.  The song is about speaking up at somebody's wedding that the guy shouldn't marry the girl, but instead run off with her.  The song played out almost like a music video on stage with a minister, groom, a girl in a wedding dress with a couple bridesmaids and even church pews with "guests" in them, all played by her band and backup dancers. 

When the groom runs away with her at the end of Speak Now, Taylor actually walks to the back of the arena to a small stage where there is a tree she sits at the base of.  While Taylor sings a few songs, the first one of which she is playing a ukulele, the tree rotates around.

Another very visual pleasing song was Haunted.  Large bells were dropped from the ceiling.  Taylor and a couple others acted like they were hitting the large bells at the beginning of the song.  Later the bells were raised up and a person dropped out of each one of them on a bungee type cord doing all sorts of acrobatic tricks!

For the encore, she played Fifteen and Love Story.  For the song Fifteen a couch came up from under the stage.  She started out on it by herself, with her band joining her during the song.

The most exciting part of the show for most people sitting up in the upper sections of the arena came during the closing song, Love Story.  Taylor got on a small platform that looked like a balcony and made a large circle around the arena up in the air.  She went directly above where I was sitting.

It was an amazing show.  Even those who don't like Taylor's music have to acknowledge the fact that she knows how to put on a very entertaining event.  If you have the chance to go see the tour, I strongly recommend it.  Her shows are the kind that in the years to come you will tell your kids and grand-kids about!
Here is the set list from the show (taken from the review at Omaha.com)
“Sparks Fly”
“Mine”
“The Story Of Us”
“Our Song”
“Mean”
“Back To December”
“Better Than Revenge”
“Speak Now”
“Fearless”
“Last Kiss”
“You Belong With Me”
“Dear John”
“Enchanted”
“Haunted”
“Long Live”
Encore:
“Fifteen”
“Love Story”

And finally, to close out the blog, here are a few more pictures!