Country Concerts

            In case you didn’t know, and most likely you didn’t, Kenny Chesney’s “No Shoes Tour” was in Des Moines, Iowa last night.  I happened to have tickets to the show with my mother, and it in many ways may have been the best concert I have ever been to.  It took place at the Wells Fargo Arena which was the same location I saw Carrie Underwood a few months ago, and there were a lot of differences I found in them and liked more in one than in the other.

            Generally you go to a concert for the music so I am going to start with that.  Carrie Underwood has been my favorite artist for as far back as I can remember, but I’m not really that old so probably shortly after she was off of American Idol.  I love so many of her songs and I love her voice.  Unfortunately the night she was in Des Moines she was losing her voice so I was slightly disappointed in a few of the songs and she played a shorter set than normal.

            During Carrie Underwood’s Blown Away Tour she played a lot of her more recent songs that were not necessarily as known or popular.  I have all of her albums except the most recent one, but I still did not know quite a few of the songs she sang which was very disappointing to me.

             Now to talk about Kenny Chesney’s music, I do not always actively listen to country but I knew every single song he sang except for two of them.  This to me was able to keep me very entertained and I was able to enjoy all of the music since he was playing his more popular music rather than just his newer music.

            To get away from the music part of the concert, I’m going to talk about the set and costuming of Carrie Underwood which was just awesome.  She had some of the prettiest dresses, cutest outfits, and I loved her shoes.  She did a lot of costume changes and had awesome backgrounds.  At one point, Carrie even went on a stage over the floor part of the crowd.  Carrie also had some really good lighting that was never over powering or too bright.

            When it came to Kenney Chesney’s staging, well it stayed the same.  He also never changed outfits which I find a little more normal since he is a guy and all.  His original stage was never anything all that special though, he just had screens with pictures and videos playing throughout.  However, I did like how his stage had a spot that stuck out into the crowd on the floor in the middle.  His lighting, however, for a majority of the time was very obnoxious and over powering.  For me it was disorienting, and made it difficult for my mom to drive home later.

            The last thing I will discuss is the opening acts.  Carrie Underwood had Hunter Hayes with her.  Hunter Hayes was the other person I really wanted to see at the time so I was really happy when I found out they were together.  I knew a lot of his songs and he is pretty well known.  To put it nice and short, to have him there made me very happy.  Hunter was also very good and had very good staging.

            Kenney Chesney in Des Moines had two opening acts, in some places he has more.  I heard Kacey Musgraves and the Eli Young Band.  I had never heard of Kacey and she mainly sang songs by some other artists but she did have one song that is relatively new she wrote that I have been hearing quite a lot.  Eli Young Band has been around for about ten years and has a few songs that are pretty popular.  They even sing like my all- time favorite song and it left me almost in tears.

            All in all, both concerts were very good and I am glad I went to both of them.  I will have to thank my mom for buying the tickets and taking me with her even if the Carrie Underwood ones were my birthday present.  Last night’s Kenny Chesney concert was much better though than what I can remember from the one I went to years ago with my mom when our seats were occupied by people who couldn’t fit just in their seats, and after being put in other seats had beer poured on us…  I’m glad I went last night J

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