Ashley Goes Country

Two Fridays ago, John and I went to the Nutter Center at Wright State University to see Dierks Bentley and Miranda Lambert in concert on their Locked & Reloaded Tour. John disclosed to me the day before the concert that if it hadn't been the day after Valentine's Day, he would not have agreed to go. Lucky me! The tickets were pretty cheap, only about $37 after the fees. The seats were okay but for that price, they were fine.

I had a lot of trouble deciding what to wear to the concert. Not wanting to go too literal with my choice, I skipped all plaid shirts in favor of a tank top and flowy cardigan. I didn't stick out but let's just say, I've never seen so much plaid flannel and camo in one place before in my life. Lesson learned! We missed the opening act because we had to park pretty far away but that's okay. It was Thomas Rhett and we heard most of his set waiting in line for the bathroom, and to get over 21 wristbands and then to buy our $7.00 Bud Lights. (P.S. Man, Bud Light is terrible. I do not miss drinking beer on a college budget.) Turns out I actually did know one of his songs. He played his hit at the end of his short 20 minute opening.

Shortly after we found our seats, Dierks Bentley took the stage. He is great live! Played all of his hits, had a good light and video display to accompany his show, and looked pretty cute too, of course. John found himself singing 5-1-5-0 the next day and said he was ashamed that he liked the song and that he actually really enjoyed all of what Dierks played. Well well well.

Guess what? The iphone camera doesn't take very good pictures when you're far away and there are lots of smoke and lights. But, the video did pick up some good sound. I tried to post it for you but Blogger wouldn't load it. I'm batting 1,000 today!

After Dierks played, there was a set change and then Miranda Lambert came on.

She put on a good show but surprisingly, I liked Dierks better. I was more excited to see Miranda initially but a lot of her lyrics were kind of hard to make out. The microphone was too close to her mouth and distorted some of it. I knew all the lyrics anyway but I wish it had been a bit clearer. She did have a surprise for the audience though, husband Blake Shelton came out to sing his new single with her. That was pretty cool. Now I can say I've seen him live too.

Miranda and Blake - guess I should have cropped this

And just like that, it was all over about 3 hours later. This was our first time at the Nutter Center. It's a decently sized venue but the seats are tiny and close together. Not surprising for an arena though. It was pretty hot in there too with all the people. And as usual, the Ladies' room needed twice as many toilets. Never a line for the Mens', obviously. The crowd was really into the show, especially the two girls next John who draped their arms over each other's shoulders and swayed along to all of Miranda's songs pretty hard core. They were feeling it. And then John's pant leg was feeling the beer that sloshed out of their cups. Nice. Except for that, and having to park really far away and take a shuttle back to our car, it was an awesome night! Dierks and Miranda both played a good mix of old and newer songs, which I appreciated. John wins lots of points for agreeing to go but as I suspected, he ended up enjoying himself for at least part of the night too. Wonder who I can talk him into seeing next?

If the Locked & Reloaded Tour heads to your town, you should definitely go!