Water Tour Was Neither Rained Out Nor All Wet: Brad Paisley

Press PLAY to sample one of Brad Paisley's concert hits featuring his animated character. 

The evening was slightly cool and moonlit.  USANA's summer country concert series in Salt Lake City came to a close – or rather a grand finale – with the Brad Paisley H2O concert. One night when I couldn't sleep, I found myself in front of the computer at 3 am perusing the set list for recent Brad Paisley events, and instantly I knew the upcoming Paisley concert would be a rollout of some 20 sing-along hits from the country top 100.

The sizable, cowboy hat-wearing crowd cheered when they heard “Water,” Paisley's 17th #1 single hit, which is the centerpiece song behind a Gulf Oil Spill relief concert in which he is involved on October 17th. He also favored his Utah fans with “American Saturday Night,” “Online,” and “I'm Still a Guy” as animated scenes flashed on high tech video screen behind the band. 

 A highlight of the concert was when Paisley, surrounded by police and body guards, left the stage for a section of the 300 seats which are well above the VIP seats. “I used to sit in the cheap seats so I know the feeling well,” he said. He played there for at least two songs before heading back to the stage.

 

Joining or appearing to were Alison Krauss and Andy Griffith. Superimposed video onstage made me look twice to see if Allison Krauss was really there. Amazing.

“Ticks,” and “Alcohol” (what a combination, right??) closed out another encore performance by Paisley. By the time “Alcohol” began playing, the stage was filled with extras, including warm up bands featuring Darius Rucker and Justin Moore as well as members of the audience and Paisley's look-a-like character, who visited the makeshift bar onstage. When the house lights went on, the air was moderately cold outside, but once again Paisley had warmed his Utah fans with a night of hotter than hot music.

Disclosure: I was a volunteer at this concert. I received NO compensation for this review.