Seth, based in Kansas, travels for work, and when he comes to California, or more specifically L.A., he contacts me and we’ll go out, at least for a beer. This time he gave me a heads-up and asked if I’d be interested in seeing Brad Paisley. What would have been a strange choice any other time, if we ever would consider it, which we wouldn't, but to get out and meet up and have a reason to see a show, there wasn’t much reason not to. I looked up Paisley tour dates to see where he was playing and didn’t find anything, or at least nothing outside of the Midwest any time in our season. But whatever it was, I could go along with it. Turns out it was a concert as part of a week of presentations made by a client of Seth’s company (or Seth was the client), and they made a big night for a party and entertainment. So I was Seth’s guest. It was at the sports arena, familiar for being where FYF used to be, now made up like a fancy picnic for clients or would-be clients. Lots of free food, particularly pricey barbecue but almost any other kind of casual dish possible available, and an open bar (which would be more enticing to me if I didn’t have to drive back to Orange County after it and if I knew the current state of my tolerance for alcohol). Seth also had to watch it for talking to his own clients there that he had to make nice with. The Paisley performance was almost an afterthought, just some entertainment to tie it together, maybe give a reason to talk about it later, so we wandered over to give it a chance. Paisley playing in California could have been an uncommon thing, since a lot of country acts don’t get out of their best markets in the Midwest (at least away from the blue of Cali), but it was a lot of non-Cali folks transplanted for the week, and Paisley would have been just their thing no matter where they were. He certainly had fans there, probably not more than if he’d played his own show, but also not one to pack out the stadium. Since it was such an exclusive event it was maybe a quarter full, and even that not fully full, and the stage was set up near the closer in-zone, facing away from the field, shrinking the exhibition space to a sliver, but more than enough for how many were there (and actually wanted to see it, but to be fair it was most). We gave it a shot. The guy was big enough to be a titan of modern-day country music and that had to account for something. Neither of us had much to do with that genre (though I at least could go alt-country, if there’s any connection there in the first place), but I understood that out of that pack Paisley was one of the best, at least as a songwriter, and maybe there was some appeal there, if he didn’t side too close with the pop-country I could barely tolerate (the same as regular pop, for similar reasons). As it turned out there were songs about fishing and drinking (at least from the home videos that somehow qualified as a video backdrop -- long from the artful visuals of Tool) and that wasn’t much for us, when we could do our own drinking. So after a few songs -- more than enough -- we retreated back out to the area outside the stadium and had our fill of food and drinks without having to compete with those seeing the show. We hung out, which was good enough for us, and did get to hear a rowdy rendition of Paisley doing “Hot For Teacher” (though missed him doing “Purple Rain” just before, which would have been nearly unreconiziable if it was done right, and an abstract choice for that crowd and in the middle of the set, but could have been some adventure that could have made it worth it). Then shortly after our conversation -- particularly about the genius of Marcy Plaground -- caught the ear of a lady who shared our music tastes and maybe age, and we hung out with her for the rest of the night, and that was good enough for our evening of social mixing and entertainment.
Brad Paisley’s set-list:
“Ticks“
“River Bank“
“Perfect Storm“
“Online“
“Then“
“Waitin' on a Woman“
“Last Time for Everything“/“Purple Rain” (Prince cover)
“Hot for Teacher“ (Van Halen cover)
“Mountain Music“/“Old Alabama“
“I'm Still a Guy“
“Crushin' It“
“I Can't Change the World“
“American Saturday Night“
“Celebrity“
“She's Everything“
(Unknown) (Acoustic)
“No I in Beer“
“I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)“
“Mud on the Tires“
“Today“
“Alcohol“
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