Friday Night, June 2, 2006 - The night I first saw Kenny Chesney in concert. I have to tell you this was an awesome, awesome night. Quite frankly it was generally a pretty awesome day. I left Initech at noon, went to 2 Paws to change and grab the tickets, and then headed over to Lori’s house.
We left for Grand Rapids after doing some quick shopping at Sam’s for the cats. The weather was beautiful as we left, but we encountered a monsoon on the way to GR. Still and all, we made it to the Beltline Bar (Famous Mexican Cafe) and the rain had cleared. The food, drinks and conversation were excellent as always. I truly recommend them if you like Mexican. Tons of food, very fair prices. But I digress (distracted by food)…
Lori and I arrived at the arena around 6:15, and we found a spot in one pay lot just off of the arena parking lot. The beauty here was parking was reasonable, and the exit after the show was faster and easier than any exit I’ve ever had after a show at Miller.
So, by now I should have you wondering when the heck I’m going to talk about the show. What show? Oh yeah…THAT show…
I was stupid, but it was worth it. I ebayed tickets to this show. It sold out (well, technically TWO shows sold out) in about 15 minutes. Van Andel is not a small arena either. SO I resorted to eBay and since I was spending more than ticket price I decided to go for good seats. Needless to say Lori and I were probably within 25 feet (5th row of folding chairs with very little space between rows) of all the stars. We saw Carrie Underwood (she’s very good and will continue to grow in her stage presence), Dierks Bentley (the young ladies really enjoyed his performance) and then we had a short intermission (there was a shorter one between Carrie and Dierks) where they dropped curtains all around the stage. Lots of excitement later, a cold beer and a bathroom break, and it was ON!
He opened the show with Summertime (which is fitting and the current single from The Road and the Radio album)…and as the curtain dropped you could hear Kenny, but you couldn’t see him. He popped up at the top of a “stage” at the far end of the arena. I thought this was a very nice touch for those at the extreme back who would spend most of the show having to watch the large screens.
I don’t know how to accurately describe this show except to say that it was a night long party! It really did have the Jimmy Buffet party atmosphere. The audience was into every song, and I have to say my voice is still recovering. It was *awesome* to see his face during this show. He LOVED the Grand Rapids crowd. We were INTO IT and this just energized the whole band and Kenny. Seeing the man, this famous guy, actually emotionally moved by our participation was very cool. I have new respect for him.
Toward the end of the show the “surprise guest” came out just in time for “When the Sun goes down”. Of course it was Michigan’s own Uncle Kracker. I really got the sense that Kenny and Uncle Kracker are true friends. They just partied together and sang some Kid Rock and some Uncle Kracker stuff.
Then we got some good medleys of older stuff, followed by “Who you’d be today” which is just a moving song. After all of this, and singing along to every song, and everybody sweating and the temp getting almost unbearable, we got the encore “She thinks my tractors sexy” and it was over!
I can honestly say, I’ve seen Garth Brooks twice. I’ve seen Kenny Chesney once. Kenny is almost as good as Garth in the “crazy man on stage” area and *better* than Garth in the general Jimmy Buffet like Party atmosphere. I can’t wait to see him again, and I hope next time I get good tickets without having to auction off a kidney 
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