Crossing an item off my bucket list!
This past weekend I got the chance to cross an item off my bucket list. It's something that has been on my list for quite some time and as each year passed, I became less and less sure I would be able to achieve it.
In case you haven't guessed from the opening photo, I got to see the great George Strait in concert. He was the headlining act of the Buckeye Country Superfest down at the Ohio State University down in Columbus.
This wasn't the first time that my wife and I have been to the Country Superfest, but it was the first time either of us have seen "King George". Even better than that, we got to share the experience with our nieces and @mrsbozz's sister.
You can see one of my beautiful nieces in the far left of the photo above.
She doesn't smile much, so I caught her in a rare moment here!
I'm not sure what I was doing with my face.
The lineup for the whole show was actually pretty awesome. It started with Warren Zieders who I am sorry to say we actually missed. My younger niece had softball all morning so after that finished up we had to quick rush home and get ready for the show. That put us at "the shoe" (Ohio States stadium) a bit late and therefore we missed the opening act.
We did get to see most of the second act which was Little Big Town. My wife and I had seen Little Big Town once already when they were quite new on teh scene. They opened for Sugarland and they put on a pretty good show, so we kind of knew what to expect.
They have had a lot more hit songs since the first time we saw them, so it was really great to catch up with how successful they are now. They had the crowd going!
We have been going to this event for quite some time and it is always a bit creepy to see the uniformed officers standing on top of the towers at one end of the stadium. Our first year it was state troopers. This year, it appeared to be members of the SWAT team or something similar.
Even though we were a bit late, the stadium was quite packed right from the get go. I remember last year it wasn't until the final act that people really started to fill into their seats. I guess the acts this year had more of a draw.
Besides George Strait, the other big act of the night was Chris Stapleton.
@mrsbozz and I have already seen him once, but he is always fantastic in concert. Just like Little Big Town, he has had a lot more hits since the last time we saw him, so it was really great to see him in action again.
If you are a fan of Chris Stapleton, you should check out some of his early work he did with a band called the Steel Drivers. It is really good stuff. It has a bit more of a bluegrass feel to it, but it is still some good stuff!
Besides his voice, one of the things I really love about Chris is the fact that he can shred on the guitar as well. He has a great rock/blues style that just gets you dancing and singing along.
Of course he closed the set with probably one of his biggest hits which is his cover of "Tennessee Whiskey".
Stapleton did a fantastic job of getting everyone ready for George Strait. It was just such a fantastic show and if he had been the main act, I think a lot of people would have been just as pleased with the show.
In fact, Little Big Town recalled during one of their monologues that they used to have Chris open for them and now here they are opening for him.
Apparently the airport is very close to the stadium because there are always helicopters, airplanes, and jets flying over the facility.
We always sit on the side of the stadium where the press box is. Because it sits so high and is on the same side as the sun in the afternoon, it provides us some protection from the direct heat of the sun. This has been a huge deal in other years where this event takes place in the heart of summer.
By the time it was almost ready for the main act, I was fascinated by these two guys who had to climb the tower to manually operate the spotlights. They had all the safety equipment and had to latch themselves for obvious reasons. It was really awesome to watch them in action.
George Strait took the stage shortly after 9:00 when the sun was almost down completely. As you can see, they had this small photo area that I shared earlier all lit up and it was kind of neat to see.
George put on a heck of a show and although he is getting up there in age, he still sounded great. He sang pretty much every song I wanted to hear and the band with him was just great!
At one point, Chris Stapleton came back out on stage and sang a couple of songs with George. One was Pancho and Lefty which is one of my favorites and the others were songs that Chris had actually written for George.
Chris told the story that back in 2010 he and his wife lost their house to a flood. He wrote "Loves gonna make it alright" which George Strait picked up and recorded. That song became a hit and Stapleton was able to build a new house with the royalties.
This was one hell of a show and I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday night on Memorial weekend. It was really fantastic. If you get the chance to see King George before he retires. I highly recommend it!
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I'm glad that you attended the concert and it is a good thing that you had fun...
Yeah, it was a blast!
Its always great when you can cross something of the list ! I'm not a massive country fan, so havent heard of these guys, but it looks like they know how to sell out a stadium !!! Sounds like you all had a great time !
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George Strait is the king of country. He has been around forever and is more straight laced. Not the outlaw that Willie was/is. Stapleton is just amazing. If you haven't heard him he is worth a listen. He has a bluesy country sound that might be just different enough that you like him.