Wow, where do I start . . . I was blown away at the recent Brad Paisley Virtual Reality Tour (Xcel Energy Center – January 14th). Here is my review and story of my experience.

*SPOILER ALERT*
If you are planning to attend Brad’s show and want to be surprised, stop reading now. Brad has a few surprises in his show that I will be discussing in this post. I will also be including some links to some youTube videos others have posted along with the set list for the night.

CAMOUFLAGE
Brad came out swinging with a great intro to the show. He did not waste anytime in blowing the crowd away with some graphics on the big screen behind the stage. It was also a sneak preview to the laser light show that he would incorporate throughout the show. He noodled a bit as light light show played and then the spotlight hit Brad for the intro to Camouflage. The crowd erupted, everyone was ready for the show.  I pieced together some youtube clips of the opening of the show:

THIS IS COUNTRY MUSIC
He started “This is country music” acoustically on the center stage (with his electric on his back). After the first verse he proceeded to pull a Sharpie from the mic stand and signed the Acoustic Guitar and handed it to a VERY lucky fan. The look on her face as he handed her the guitar was priceless. I’ve always admired his appreciation for his fans.

CELEBRITY
When playing Celebrity, Brad had some assistance from Scotty McCreery (singing the second verse). Big headed Brad also made an appearance in the background video and on stage. The one thing I enjoy about Brad’s shows is his efforts to make each show a little different so no matter how many times you’ve seen his show (for me, this was #4), it’s never the same show. With the background video, he made reference to Scotty Mcreery as his Love Child.

LETTER TO ME
After an extended solo for THEN, Brad walked to the back part of the venue and played an acoustic set of “Letter To Me” and “Mud on the Tires”. In between songs, he talked with the audience and thanked everyone for coming to the show even during these hard economic times. With everyone spending their hard earned money to see the show, he wanted to make sure everyone got their money’s worth. I am happy to say that he delivered.

WORKING ON A TAN
With the intro to this song, Brad made use of technology to entertain the crowd. It started with a snowy winter scene on the big screen. He had some dialog about the winter and then he stated . . . “watch this”. Picking up a nerf football and threw it at the screen. Where the ball hit, it shattered the winter scene to reveal a sunny, sandy beach scene with the start of Working on a Tan.

WHISKEY LULLABY
The orignal song was a duet with Allison Krause. For this version, Brad brought out the Band Perry and Kimberly Perry did a great job. I was able to capture a video of this performance that I will post soon.

NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
This was definitely the geeky portion of the show. Before he started playing, he started to introduce the band, starting with his drummer Ben Zear who is a St. Paul native. After Ben’s introduction, William Shatner interrupted dialoging with Brad, asking for his help. The song started with Captain Kirk commanding “Warp Speed”. As Brad played, the audience was treated to a Brad Paisley animation with a Star Trek / Star Wars theme.

REMIND ME
This song helped everyone understand the theme of the tour (Virtual Reality). Remind Me is a duet with Carrie Underwood. As the song started and Brad sang his part, you soon see a silhouette walking across the screen in the back. Although it obviously looked like a graphic going across the screen, you started to wonder . . . is Carrie here? The silhouette stopped and stood next to the drum set. At this point, it started to look like Carrie was there as she sang her background part. As soon as Carrie began to sing her main part, the silhouette lit up and sure enough it was Carrie on stage. The crowd went nuts.

Once you realized that Carrie wasn’t there in person, you were blown away at how realistic the image of Carrie looked. The lighting was perfect which gave the 2 dimensional image a 3 dimensional feel. The small details helped sell the realism. There was a spotlight that followed the silhouette as it walked across the stage. Not too close since direct light would expose that it was just a screen image. Once the silhouette was lit, the strength of the spotlight was increased along with the background lighting.

WATER
Another key moment for the Virtual Reality Tour. Toward the end of Water, Brad pulled his Tele behind his back and climbed up what looked like a pool ladder, next to a screen that looked like a dunk tank. Once at the top, he centered himself on the platform, and dropped his Tele into the “water”, raised his arms and jumped in.

A large splash was displayed on the big screen and then you see the image of Brad in a pool of water. He began to swim underwater to the other side of the stage. This was the start of the encore set.

American Saturday Night
What an appropriate song for the night. As the band came back to the stage, I noticed the guitar tech standing next to a Fender amp that seemed a little out of place in the row of Dr. Z amps. As the band started to play, suddenly here comes someone else on stage toting a guitar. After stepping out of the shadows, I immediately recognize that it was Brian Setzer. Fun fact that I didn’t realize, Brian currently calls Minneapolis home. After watching a youtube video of this performance, I noticed that I totally missed Brad’s introduction of Brian to the stage.

Brian assisted with some fills and Brad and Brian also traded off during the solo section. Always great to see two great guitarist on stage. These two recently collaborated for the CMA Country Christmas special.

Alcohol
As all of the other Paisley concerts I’ve seen, the grand finale . . . Alcohol. For the finale, The Band Perry, Scotty Mcreery, and Brian Setzer assist with the song. There was also other guests on stage, assuming Radio contest winners or something like that.

Once again, a great show. The effort that he goes through to ensure everyone walks out feeling they got their moneys worth is greatly appreciated.

Here are some photos of the show:

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(22 Photos)

In order to get such great seats to the show, I became a member of the Brad Paisley fan club.  I’m sure this worried my wife a bit with my slight obsession with Brad Paisley.  Some other benefits is a chance for a Meet & Greet with Brad.

A few days before the show, I was checking my email when I saw one from bradpaisley.com . . . CONGRATULATIONS, YOU’VE BEEN SELECTED FOR THE BRAD PAISLEY VIP TOUR!!!  Wow, I get a chance to meet Brad.  Right before I start to read the email, another email comes in from bradpaisley.com . . . hmm.

I read the most recent one:

Wait, what happened to the CONGRATULATIONS.  After taking time to actually read the emails, I then realize that as a consolation prize for not getting selected for the Meet & Greet, you still have a chance for the VIP Backstage Tour.  I can’t complain.  The email says to meet promptly at the side stage @ 6:40.

Once we arrived at the Xcel Center, nervousness sets in as there is a TON of people waiting to get in and the doors don’t open until 6:30 . . . is 10 minutes going to be enough time?  No worries, was able to find our seats and get settled in with 5 minutes to spare.

more to come . . .

This is a place holder for my post.  I just needed to jot down ideas for posts so that I don’t forget.

As I try to learn more about photography, I figured the best way is to put something out there for others to view and possible receive some feedback. After seeing some facebook posts from Randy Oyarzabal Photography and a featured iPad app from 500px, I decided to sign up for an account.

Many of the users on 500px are great at their skill and many times their samples can inspire. I enjoy seeing the world through others eyes and wanted to try to contribute. My account started with 2 uploads of the pups. Out of all the photos that I’ve shot, these were the ones that I felt had great detail, lighting and ones that I could be proud of. Below are links to the two photos my 500px portfolio started with:

Here is an embedded photo from 500px.com:

Kiya by Jeffrey Davis
This was a great example of depth of field where the primary focus was on Kiya and the background was blurred to put more of an emphasis on Kiya. It was also my attempt at playing with shutter speed and action shots. There were about 15 other shots that were blurred or shots taken too early or too late or the composition just didn’t seem right. Kiya is naturally hyper so these shots were attained by hitting a tennis ball for her in the yard.

Puppy at heart by Jeffrey Davis
Taylor is our older dog. As old as she is, she still has moments where she looks like a puppy. As the sun was shining through our patio door, she sat with an innocent look and I felt the natural light helped mask much of her grey fur. I grabbed the camera and cranked up the aperture and took a few shots. This was the result.