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CMA Music Festival 2013 – Stadium Concerts Coverage – Sunday 6/9/2013 – Podcast 252

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Posted on 7/20/2013

As we approached the last night of the CMA Music Festival 2013, we were sadden to see it all come to a close, but we were even more saddened to experience the sets that were shortened due to the threat of the bad weather which was approaching downtown Nashville, TN. This Sunday night Concert Blast staff consisted of Mike Arnold, Tom Thompson. And our guest Will Perry, as he substituted for the ill Brian Hasbrook.  Listen to this podcast and/or read Mike Arnold’s blog on the coverage of this fun, but disappointed evening as we covered (in order) Brad Paisley, The Band Perry, Jake Owen, and Carrie Underwood.

Written by Mike Arnold
As we headed to the stadium for the last night of the CMA Music Fest, I noticed my voice was beginning to get weak and the weakness continued throughout the evening (as you will hear in the podcast).  That’s what happens when one decides to cover events from early morning to the early morning hours of the night with very little sleep.  However I managed to stay the course.

Brad Paisley

(Starts at 1:41)
As we walked across the downtown pedestrian bridge toward LP Field (the football stadium), we watched the introduction of Brad Paisley on the huge jumbo-tron inside the stadium.  Brad was scheduled to take the stage at 8:30pm, but he was about 20 minutes early.  Although we didn’t like this, were glad it wasn’t The Band Perry or Carrie Underwood that took the stage early.
We watched Brad on the screen perform a portion of the song, “Karate” on the screen as we were walking toward the stadium.  Once we got inside the stadium and were walking to the special media gate to get us and our equipment checked in, we heard the first surprise of the evening coming across the PA System as Brad said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Charlie Daniels!”  Charlie came walking out on the stage with his fiddle to play a portion of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia”… and we still weren’t inside the field area yet!
We recorded a quick intro to the show so we could get to the field area to record some live clips, take some photos, and cover the concerts. We finally made it to the field while Brad Paisley was performing, “Beat This Summer”.  Ok now we were settled and were in the groove for the night, but before we knew it, the set was over!  WHAT??? Two songs? We felt Brad was ripped off big time (along with the fans), but we learned that the CMA officials were wanting to get the night over before the rain hit the field.

The Band Perry

(Starts at 4:37)
It took about five to ten minutes for the crew to change the equipment to prepare the stage for The Band Perry.  We were excited to see their set and were hoping they were going to perform more than two songs!  The Perry siblings took the stage in their own energetic style which was contagious for the 60,000 plus fans enjoying their music.  The opening number of their set was “Done”.  Throughout the song Kimberly was constantly talking to the fans, “Come on Nashville!” “Clap your hands!” “Can you hear me out there?”

Before beginning the second song, Kimberly mentioned that they are all trying to perform as much as they can in order to get all the acts on the stage before the heavy showers hit the area.  Then she expressed to the CMA fans their appreciation and love for them.  The Band Perry then started up with another their next song, “You Better Dig Two”.  Unfortunately that was it for them.  I was looking forward to their version of Dolly Parton’s song, “I Will Always Love You”.  Kimberly told me at the press conference they had worked that song up and was planning on performing it at the stadium show.  So now it looks as if everyone will only have time for two songs.  Oh Well!

Jake Owen

(Starts at  8:43)
It didn’t take long for Jake Owen to take the stage.  Once they announced him, the band started the opening song and Jake walked out on the stage barefooted, wearing his blue jeans, with an electric guitar strapped on.  The band did a fine performance of “Anywhere With You” with some of the audience members singing along during the chorus.

Once the song ended. Jake took his guitar, threw it high in the air to his guitar tech, and walked off the stage without saying a word, but if we read his body language correctly, he was MAD! We were all confused and thought he was going to sing the next song without his guitar.

CMA Fest host Storme Warren slowly walked out on stage saying, “I know, I know, I know!”  We were all wondering, what’s going on?  Then Storme repeats it again, “I know, I know!”  That’s when the “Boooos” started up!  Nearly everyone in the stadium was upset that they allowed Jake Own a time slot for only one song.  We were upset about it too!  And the Boooos continued from the CMA Fest fans.

Storme Warren spoke up again, “It’s for your safety!” (in a sarcastic tone – listen to the podcast). More Boooos!

Storme continued, “It’s better to be safe.  I know you’re bummed, but we are gonna make it up to you cause Carrie’s gonna play more than one song I promise you.” More Booos!

Storme yells in an enthusiastic voice, “Carrie Underwood is next!”  Mixed yells and Boooos!  After about 20 seconds, the fans were chanting, “We Want Jake! We Want Jake!”
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Tom Thompson brought out a good point on our discussion.  He mentioned if The Band Perry and Jake Owen were your top acts to see and you stayed that extra night (Sunday) to get a hotel room, purchase food throughout the day and night, and took off from work so you could see these acts and then they perform only one or two songs, then you would have a reason to be upset!

To make matters worse, the two kids from the ABC TV show “Nashville” came out to perform two acoustic songs.  These are kids!  They didn’t sound bad, but they are not the country music stars that the fans paid a lot of money to see.  If they were going to cut something, it should have been their set… but I realize that the show “Nashville” is on ABC, the same network that is producing the CMA Music Fest on TV (“Country’s Night To Rock” – Monday August 12^th).  It’s still not fair!  Some of the fans were blaming Carrie Underwood, saying that she demands to perform more than 2 or 3 songs.  I blame the ABC Network.  They’ve had rainstorms during the stadium concerts before.  Several years ago they had to clear the field for a couple of hours and then continued the concerts later, which lasted until about 2:30am.  The fans would have stayed because this night had a lot of the more popular acts.

Carrie Underwood

(Starts at 15:30)
Carrie Underwood took the stage in her usual short shorts, strutting around while showing off her beautiful legs… no complaints from the Concert Blast staff!  She started her set with “See You Again”.  We thought that was an odd song to start a show with due to the slower tempo, but she made up for the tempo in her second song as she blasted through the Guns and Roses hit, “Paradise City”.  I’m not that big of a fan of the song, but watching Carrie perform this song in concert displayed her as an energetic performer that could explode a small building with her powerful pipes!  She won the crowd over with her performance of this song, but I would had preferred to see her treat us with another Carrie hit.

When the song was over, Carrie was nearly out of breath from her energetic performance on the humongous stadium stage.  She was dancing and moving non-stop all over the stage while singing and by the time the song was over she fell on her knees trying to recoup in order to address the crowd.  Carrie finally yelled, “Well Good Evening!” … and the crowd roared!

Carrie continued, “We’re gonna play as many songs as we possibly can before it starts raining on us, so… Whoa, Deep Breath!” (as she continued to try to catch her breath).

The band started playing another slow tempo as they go into the song, “Remind Me”.  After a verse we heard this deep male voice taking over the lead vocals.  When the man appeared on the large screens on each side of the stage, the fans screamed with approval as Brad Paisley continued to sing with Carrie on this duet.
After the song Brad waved and disappeared off stage.  The band instantly began another tune, which the crowd recognized and screamed in excitement.  Carrie yelled, “Sing it if you know it everybody!” and the fans definitely sang along with Carrie on the song, “Before He Cheats”.  There was a point when Carrie didn’t sing and the band toned it down as she led the CMA Fest fans through a portion of the chorus.

As the band faded away the ending of the song, Carrie said thank you and goodbye as she waved while walking off the stage.  Host Storme Warren walked out on stage to tell us that Carrie refused to play just two songs.  We got four from her and everyone was pleased with her performance.  By this time the CMA Fest crowd had forgiven the officials who made the decision to cut the prior sets. The nightly fireworks were booming in the sky as the fans were leaving CMA Music Festival 2013 stadium shows for the last time… Oh yea, the rain hit the Nashville area about 1:00am.  There was plenty of time for everyone to perform full sets!

We enjoyed what we received, but we just didn’t receive enough.  Tom and Will both said that Carrie Underwood was their favorite for the night and my favorite was The Band Perry.  After discussing their performances, they agreed that The Band Perry might have been their favorite if they had got to perform as long as Carrie did.  We all felt sorry for Jake Owen for being allowed to perform only one song, which upset a lot of people (including us!).  This year’s festival was another fun week as usual.  We got to see a lot of CMA Fest and Concert Blast fans again this year (the Virginia fans, our favorite dancer, Mark the NYC firefighter, Amber from Indiana, Christina from Nashville, Lexy from Luxembourg, and many others) and as usual we met a lot of new fans this year (from Canada, New Jersey, New York, Indiana, California, Australia, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee, and other places).

We want to thank the following people; Our media friends and media staff at all the stages, Lexy, Jenny (our Sheryl Crow look alike friend), and Randi for hanging out with us at different events and enjoying dinner with us, our security supervisor friend Ben for guiding us on what we can and cannot do (and where to stand), the CMA Association for selecting Concert Blast to cover this event again this year (our largest coverage to date),  and our friend Will Perry for standing in for Brian Hasbrook and Tom Thompson as a guest host when needed.

Of course our Concert Blast Sponsor for the CMA Music Festival 2013, The Old Spaghetti Factory.  Let’s work together again sometime!  We also want to thank you who are reading our blogs, listening to our podcasts, and looking at our photos… Until Next Year, God Bless!
Written by Mike Arnold

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Tags: blog, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Charlie Daniels, CMA Music Festival 2013, concert blast, concertblast, Jake Owen, Mike Arnold, podcast, reviews, The Band Perry, The Old Spaghetti Factory, Tom Thompson, Will Perry