Paintin' up our Lips Like an Angel, Kickin' up our Red High Heels, Thinkin' 'bout Tim McGraw & Checking for Ticks

Tickets won in a "Buy it Now or Make offer" bid on eBay: Below face Value
Parking: Free
Two ridiculously overpriced beers in plastic bottles: $14
Getting one of your Red High Heels signed by Kelli Pickler: Priceless

For weeks now Spring and I have bee talking about how much fun it would be to go to another concert. We're both big Brad Paisley fans, so that one was high on our list. Unfortunately, we missed the beginning of ticket sales, and figured we wouldn't be able to get anything as close as we would like.

Then the other night I decided to check out tickets on eBay, just on a whim. I bid on one set, but lost by five cents, which was really frustrating. I figured there wouldn't be too many others on there worth taking my chances on, but with Spring on the phone and my fingers on the keyboard, we came across another one that we figured was worth a shot. It was a "Buy it Now or Make Offer" deal, which I had never done before. We discussed it, agreed on the offer we would make, and the deed was done. A few hours later, we had our answer when the seller agreed to take our offer, and we were thrilled. Right side seats, ten rows back from the stage. It just doesn't get much better than that!

The biggest dilemma after that was whether or not we would be allowed to bring our cameras in. Unable to find a concrete answer anywhere, we figured it was worth a shot (pun intended) and the worst that could happen was that security would stop us at the gate. After loading up our gear, and trekking across what seemed like miles of parking lot, the moment of truth arrived. The security guard checked my bag, verified that I wasn't bringing in a video camera and let me through. Whew! Spring was next, and passed through just as easily. With only 15 minutes to spare, we were at the rain-soaked venue and ready to rock.

Our seats were spectacular, and after Spring made some adjustments to my camera for me (yes, I'm going to learn how to do it myself some day, really!) we were ready to enjoy the show and take lots of pictures.

Before Brad Paisley could take the stage, we were entertained by Jack Ingram, Kellie Pickler and Taylor Swift, all of whom are very talented. I enjoyed all three of them, and found out that I knew more of their songs than I thought I did. Spring tried really hard to get a picture of Kelli's shoes, but just never could get it done. She did, however, get Kelli to sign the red high heels Spring wore to the show after the concert was over!

Brad Paisley burst onto the stage and was simply wonderful. The set-up was really cool with light up signs that had words scrolling across at some times, and bugs, mud and beer steins for various songs. A big screen behind the band showed close ups of the concert, and even a Speed Racer-type video during the instrumental set.

We sat by several really fun people who had back stage passes and told us all about getting to meet everyone and how nice they all were. Of course, we were jealous that they got to go back stage but we enjoyed hearing about it. We did ask them to give Brad one of our business cards with a note on the back. Spring really wants to shoot an cd cover one of these days, and we figure any chance we have to get that information into the hands of performers, we will take.

It really was a fun night, even though Spring was feeling pretty rough before it was over. We have a race to cover tomorrow night in Pittsfield, IL so I hope she's feeling better very soon.

We hope you enjoy the pictures. There are three pages on here, and lots more we didn't use. Spring still has some on her little camera that I know she still wants to get on the site too. We'll get there eventually, so please keep checking back.