Poets and Pirates

Last Saturday Night, Rachel and I went to see Kenny Chesney in Concert at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles. Mom got us tickets for Rachel's birthday in the 5th row. They were INCREDIBLE seats!!! Thanks Mom!

Although it was extremely hot (93) that Saturday, the humidity was under 30% and our seats went into the shade after only about 90 minutes of the concert. The concert started at 4:00 PM and went until about 11:15. Now that's a party!

Unfortunately, my camera batteries died early during Kenny's performance. Below is a short video clip that gives a sense of the atmosphere. First of all the stadium was packed. Secondly, everyone was into it. He does a really nice job selecting his opening acts (they are all people who are full of energy and who get the crowd going before he ever gets on stage). In the video he is singing "Summertime". Beach balls are whizzing around everywhere, and the fans are into the song. It was really cool.



Keith Urban was the act before Kenny. Those of you who are country music fans out there are probably asking, "Why in the world was Keith Urban the opening act for anybody. He is a former Country Music Entertainer of the Year." Well, you are right. We are just lucky that he is taking his new fatherhood seriously. Since he and Nicole just had a baby, he is making a few appearances (probably to get some sleep) on the Poets and Pirates Tour, and luckily Philadelphia was one of the stops he made. It was his first concert since the baby was born. He was NOT rusty. The guy is electric, and so are his musicians. He is one of the true musicians in country music, as he bangs out some of his own guitar solos. It is impressive when the band's headline lead singer is also arguably the best musician in the band. That is definitely the case for Keith Urban.

If you were like me, when you saw that Sammy Hagar, former lead singer for Van Halen, had joined the Poets and Pirates Tour, you were probably like, "Huh?" I was. I now know why he was on the tour. The guy is a trip. It is obvious that he loves entertaining. He is a complete clown on stage. You can tell that he truly enjoys being out there. He had a tiki bar on stage and would occasionally call for a drink from the bartendresses, who were manning it. He would take a sip of his drink and then give the rest to someone in the audience.


Even though Van Halen was named for the lead guitarist and drummer, it is obvious that Sammy wrote a lot of their songs during his stent with the band, as he performed several of their hits. He opened with "I Can't Drive 55" and kept the crowd going for about an hour and a half.

Out of all of the entertainers on this tour, Leann Rimes was the one I was least interested in seeing. She is unquestionably the most vocally talented of anyone on the tour (or just about any tour for that matter), but her style of music does not typically appeal to me. However, I must admit that she had more energy than I was anticipating, and I enjoyed her portion of the show, too. Towards the end of the show, she threw on the Philadelphia Eagles jersey shown in this picture. That got the crowd (who did not boo anyone - Surprise in Philadelphia) riled up.

Gary Allan was the opening act. He is actually one of my favorite country artists and fits the Pat Green mold for Kenny's opening act - a high energy, partying performer, who has a regional cult following. Gary has a strong following of Californian Country Music enthusiasts. He also wins Rachel's "Persaverence Award", as he nailed down the smoldering 4 PM opening spot wearing jeans (the next 2 performers were in shorts). It did not seem to bother him.

REFLECTIONS - Can I See Your Southern Card?

I have often told people that rednecks do not only exist in the south. In fact, some of the biggest rednecks I have ever seen, live north of the Mason-Dixon line. Take Reed's, Bill's, Clark's, Patrick's and my buddy, Preston from St. Joseph's, MI. He is the only human I have ever seen have a dip in while drinking a pitcher of beer (he did not remove the dip, and yes, he was drinking directly from the pitcher).

The young ladies below further back up the statement that "You don't have to be southern to be a redneck." Nothing screams "redneck" more than three girls in bikini tops and daisy-duke shorts holding up a "Priceless" sign.



But again, that last statement may not be entirely true... Alas, nothing screams "REDNECK" more than a rebel flag flying above The Philadelphia Spectrum (ahh the irony... the Spectrum is the former home to the Philadelphia Flyers, one of the least "southern" yet most "red-neck" institutions ever created).

Now that I have provided empirical evidence, let's all agree to Kennedy's Theory of Redneckism: "All Rednecks do not live in the south". (The rebel flag RV was toting PA plates, and Preston was definitely a native of Michigan).

With that, I will introduce Corollary 1. This is actually a transitive property of Kennedy's Theory of Redneckism: "Just because you are a redneck does not mean you are from the South."

The perfect illistration of this corollary came about 2/3 of the way through Kenny's set, when he announced to the crowd that he was going to cover a special song that night since the crowd was so fired up. When he proceeded to sing David Alan Coe's "You Don't Have to Call Me Darlin', Darlin'", Rachel and I were ecstatic. After all, Kenny chose to cover the #2 song in the hearts of all true southerners ("Sweet Home Alabama" being the first). As we began belting out the lyrics to the first verse ("You don't have to call me Waylong Jennings. You don't have to call me Charlie Pride. And you don't have to call me Merle Haggard anymore..."), we noticed that we were essentially the only people in our section that knew the lyrics!!! If you sang this song at any bar, pub, football tailgate, NASCAR race or any other venue with over 100 people, folks would be standing on tables and chairs wailing at the tops of their lungs. In Philadelphia, you get CRICKETS CHIRPING. Nothing...Nada. Blank stares and silence. It was a rather awkward moment.

But, you will all be proud to know that Rachel and I let the other 50,000 + fans know that there were at least 2 southerners in the house, as we belted the song out to completion (Complete with multiple "Let me, Let me, Let me, Let me" during the chorus. If you are one of my northern friends reading this blog, I can explain to you later).