Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Lets Play Catch-up... Brad Paisley vs. Aerosmith

So I haven't blogged since I got married. Let me tell ya, things are going great. Deborah Lynn is the best thing that has ever happened to me! I've been so busy enjoying living my life with her I didn't have time to blog... but now its time to get back to it!

Why the sudden return to blogging? Well, its because I am in Chicago on a business trip, and I was forced to leave Debbie at home. So I blog to kill time...

So whats the topic de jour? Well, not surprisingly its music. recently I had the privilege to attend two amazing concerts. The headliners? Brad Paisley and Aerosmith.

Brad Paisley

I originally agreed to go to Brad Paisley because he is one of Debbies favourite country stars. Happy wife is a happy Dave, so I bought tickets, and took my wife. I expected the show to be boring... I was in for a surprise...

First of all, the opening acts (Taylor Swift & Rodney Aikens) were entertaining. They both put on a great show, was entertaining and funny, and played solid music that sounded great. They set a high bar for Brad... which Brad leaped over with 6 feet to spare.

Brad is an amazingly talented guitarist, and he used it to rock out for the entire show. He played several guitar solos, including a marathon 10+ minute blister-fest that contained some of the best sounding guitar I have ever witnessed live.

Brads stage decoration was a large stack of monitors that constantly shown graphics and animations appropriate for each song he played. It was an impressive show. Brad definitely won a fan out of me.

Which leads me to...

Aerosmith

A week and a half later I dragged Debbie out to see Aerosmith. This is the third time I've seen Aerosmith live, and they blew the socks off their other performances. They played some 90s hits, and a couple songs from their recent blues album, Honkin On Bobo. Then they played a solid lineup of their oldies - solid rockin blues rock. Joe Perry went on several improv solos that were simply amazing. He played his guitar behind his back. He played it by having the drummer drum on the strings, and he played it with Steve Tyler fingering the chords from behind his back - absolutely amazing.

The energy was cranked to 1000% for the entire concert. It was nothing but pure excitement. Steven Tyler gets more crazy, and Aerosmith gets louder every time they go out on tour. The older they get, the better they get. They are truely the gods of rock, and there is none higher. If your a rock fan and have not seen Aerosmith live, you are cheating yourself out of an experience you will never forget.