State Fair - Jessica Simpson

A few weeks ago, I convinced Leila to go with me (not that it took much convincing!) to the State Fair, here in Indy, to see Jessica Simpson in concert. I thought we could probably get pretty good seats and to be honest, I'd heard she was not doing so good on tour and thought at the very least, it might be mildly entertaining. It ended up being a very good show! When we first arrived we had to hit up a couple of important stops....

A corndog for me.
And a hotdog for Leila.
It was so funny because right before the show was about to start, about 12 state troopers escorted Jessica's dad from the backstage area (which was just like 2 RVs) to right behind where we were - to a little fenced in area underneath the grand-stands. Everyone was rushing over to take a picture with him and I couldn't resist the photo op!

We actually both though the show was really good. Her new country album comes out soon and I'm not ashamed (well maybe a little) to say that I'll probably get it. Her stuff was a little better than her old pop stuff. Although, she just talked and talked and talked before each song. It got a little awkward because she was revealing some pretty personal stuff towards the end.

We had a really good time and decided to walk each other out to our cars at the end because it was so late and we drove separately. We saw a bunch of people crowding around back behind the stage and decided to check it out. We ended up standing there for a few minutes watching some of these major fans like crying because they kept thinking they saw her. In reality, she was way far away in a trailer. But after about 10 minutes, we were just about to leave when some state troopers came over to where we were all standing and said Jessica was coming out to sign autographs. We figured, what the heck, we're already here! So we hung out and she came out and signed autographs.
By the time she got to us in the line, they weren't letting us take pictures with her, and my camera died so this is the only up-close shot I have. But it was really cool. She came over and I didn't have anything for her to sign except a box of taffy that I had just bought to give to Chip for his birthday. So I said, "Can you write 'Happy Birthday Chip?'" And I'm not kidding, she looked at me and said "Chip....like C-H-I-P?" And it honestly took me a minute to answer! LOL!! Sooo funny!

But inside Chip's Addidas Notre Dame duffle bag that he got for his birthday he found the taffy box signed by Jessica Simpson! Happy Birthday babe!!

Brad Paisley

As Dad's Father's Day present, my boss at VWMC hooked us up with some suh-weeeet seats for the Brad Paisley concert. I have to admit, I was maybe a little more excited than he was because I've turned into a huge fan of Julianne Hough, who opened up for him.

In case you don't recognize her, she was on Dancing with the Stars with Helio Castronevez. Her country album is awesome. After her was Chuck Wicks, who I didn't really know at first, but he sings "Stealing Cinderella". He was really good as well and looks a lot younger than he sounds

And then, the big surprise (kinda of) was that Jewel was there! WOW! She is sooooo talented. It was amazing to get to see her in concert. She has a really powerful voice.


And finally, Brad Paisley came out and rocked the house. I have been on-site for his shows before, but never really paid attention. Which is funny, because I know most of his songs. So it was pretty cool to see him up there.

One of the coolest things about his show (being the techy that I am) was the video screen behind the stage. At one point there would be huge play, pause and, stop buttons on the screen and the guys onstage would "pretend" to hit them and stop and start the music. And they actually looked like they were buttons being pushed. Then, if you know the video game,"Guitar Hero", at one point they had two guys on either side of the scren who were supposedly playing each other during the song and there were crowd meters and everything. It even had the same note layout as in the game. Pretty cool. You can kind of see it in this picture...

Tim McGraw

Leila, Chris and I went to the Tim McGraw concert at VWMC back in May. I don't think any of us had ever seen him before. It was a good show! But it was soooo cold and rainy! I think we left before the last few songs because we were shivering. Here's a few highlights...

Chris was a little shocked by Tim's painted-on jeans....

Chris is bundled up for snow!!