Oh No You Didn't....

Caution - Concert Recap Ahead!

Y106.1's 2008 Country Fest has come and gone, and I have to say it was a great show! We got there early to attend the "pre-show" party at a local bar, Buckheads Saloon in Milwaukee which was just a short walk from the venue. They had a taco bar pre-show and then were giving away front row seats and some meet and greet passes so we figured we would check it out. We also got treated to a pre-concert show by up and coming artist Adam Gregory CMT.com : Adam Gregory : Artist Main . He put on a fantastic set, and had a deep voice that the crowd really enjoyed. After his first few songs, the radio station did the drawing thing - nada, zip, zilch. That is alright though, we already had fab tickets.

We got to the Bradley Center and a Y106.1 staffer stopped us and asked us if there were only two of us in our group. Yes, 2 - myself and my husband...strange. She asked if we would like meet & greet passes for Craig Morgan - hmmm...let me think, umm...YES! Awesome, so we headed over and got in line. I did ask her about Jason Michael Carroll passes, but by the time we got to the venue, they were wrapping his up and all the passes were gone.

Small group, maybe 20 people for the meet and greet with Craig. Craig's photographer took the pic of Craig and hubby, then went to take a pic of Craig and I and he said "the internal memory is full". Ummno, it can't be. It has a 4 gig memory and I wiped the card before the show. Yes, it says it is full. Oops! I forgot to put the memory card in! Meanwhile I am standing next to Craig scrounging for a memory card and chatting - feeling like a total dork. Craig was awesome about it, as were the other fans. Asked him how it was going, how he liked Milwaukee, at one point he started whistling like he was bored - hilarious. He has a great sense of humor and is a very patient man. Got the memory card in and then the pic and done, thanks Craig!

Headed back to our seats since Jason was opening. I had brought along a photo album for him as the result of a previous conversation and was all but convinced that it was coming back home with me (gosh, a photo album filled with JMC pics? Oh no!) Jason came on and while he had a very short set (maybe 5 songs) it was awesome. Got to see the new guitar player Richie and the rest of the awesome band.

He played "Where I'm From" and told us it releases next month as the first single off his upcoming CD. So looking forward to that, I can't wait to hear the studio cut! Once they finished up they started taking down the equipment, and I thought - hmm, if we go over there we will be maybe 10 feet from the stage - I bet we could holler and toss my photo album to one of the band members (it is a small 4x6 dealy). So I talked to hubby and he said sure, he would do it.

Now I need to say this venue is like your average concert/ sports/all-purpose center (we were at the Bradley Center where the Milwaukee Bucks play). So lots of floor seating, and then seating up all sides of the venue. Unlike other venues - you cannot get to the floor from the other seats. We were in the 2nd row of raised seats, literally 2 feet from the floor, and 25 or so from the stage. There is a wall that separates the floor seating from the rest and it stands around 4 feet tall. We have never been there before, so we are not familiar with their (I will say it nicely) guidelines for behaviour. So my hubby asks me quick about the band members names again - and I rattle them off thinking nothing of it. So he gets up, goes over to the nearest aisle and down to the front and JUMPS over the wall. EEK! That can't be good - what the heck is he doing???

He walked up to Eller and chatted a minute or so and gave him the photo album. We had talked to Eller at length about the pics at a previous show, they were requested and were now delivered. Eller was great about it - thanks man, hand shake. Security??? Not so great about it. Apparently jumping that wall is a big "oh no you didn't" on their list of extreme offenses. So I see my husband walk by me on the floor following the security guard...and hubby doesn't even so much as glance at me. What the heck? He made it back to his seat about 15 minutes later, after lots of talking and explaining. The security guy was paranoid to say the least and had kicked my husband OUT. "What are you doing?" "How do you know him?" "Haven't you been here before???". Well you see, it is like this - we have this very small bomb, and we know him because we are stalking him. When he turns the 16th page of the book, a small poof will happen, a little sparkler will fizzle...and he will be horribly scared. Oh wait - that isn't it. It is a photo album - we know him because we have been to 10 shows. No, we have never been here before, if we had would we risk being ejected? Probably not.

Sooo - Jason's short set was awesome, we delivered the "loot", and we scored meet & greet with Craig Morgan.

Will finish up the recap in the next post - coming: Craig Morgan and Trace Adkins recap and pics.