Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
With the grand reopening of live music in America already pushing ahead full-steam and it almost feeling like COVID-19 is over and done, Spinning Platters home base of San Francisco is presently a little bit behind that national trend. The Independent SF, the free Stern Grove Festival, Punch Line and Cobbs comedy clubs, and Cornerstone have each recently reopened, with Bottom of the Hill, Shoreline Amphitheatre, The Fillmore, The Warfield, The Regency Ballroom, The Chapel, August Hall, Fox Theater, and The UC Theatre all looking at August or September.
For the past several months, our rock photographer has been in Florida, a place that never completely stopped gathering for concerts. Although the vast majority of our coverage is throughout the Bay Area, with the past 16-month drought of any live event here, we have been extremely thankful to have been invited to attend and review a variety of shows down there in Florida. Even more exciting, most of these musicians (Foreigner, Styx, Sammy Hagar) have never before been showcased at Spinning Platters, and we are thrilled to be able to add one more artist and genre to this recent diversity, country music icon Brad Paisley!
There has been a huge increase recently in the amount of tours being announced nationwide. On May 4, Brad Paisley added his tour to that list, with dates beginning in Florida and ending three months later in California. With the allure of previewing this major tour for our local country fans before it reaches the Bay Area, we were delighted to be able to photograph and review the start of this U.S. tour.
COVID-19 policies actually still do exist and are different for every promoter, venue, city and state. Some are intensely enforced, others are not, and some were put in place merely to comply with local statutes. Brad Paisley has always been a voice for a safe reopening. To borrow a quote from the press release of his tour announcement, he “feel[s] very passionate about the chance we have for normalcy right now with the vaccine… The more of us that Take the Shot the safer it will be for all of us to gather.”
And gather they did! Although tickets were still available at the box office as the gates opened, there was easily at least 12,000 people there. With the only masks in sight being on a handful of employees, local stagehands, and at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino giveaway tent, it appears likely that a large percentage of Brad’s audience heeded his encouragement of the vaccine. In fact, he was so engaged with his fans that social distancing from them was another thing of the past.
Throughout the 20+ song set, Brad fist-bumped everyone that surrounded the 30-foot walkway built from the stage (with no barricade separation), he pulled up a couple so the guy could propose to his now fiancée, he had a bar onstage for random VIP guests to enjoy, he autographed and handed a guitar to a young girl in front row (and said of her “this is how we get the next Taylor Swift”), and had 6 military veterans stand next to him as the American flag was shown on the giant video wall as he thanked them for their service (before sending them to the aforementioned bar for free alcohol!). He brought out opening acts Jimmie Allen and Kameron Marlowe and sang a duet with each of them. In-between songs he continued to talk about how great it was being back together with everyone at a concert.
Aside from what Brad does for his fans, the most important thing here is that he is a very talented guitar player. Really! Remove the cowboy hat and he could be John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Ed Sheeran, or maybe even Trey Anastasio. He tried to be Eddie Van Halen with an acceptable rendition of the intro of Hot For Teacher, but perhaps the breakneck speed of heavy metal is a bit out of reach for Mr. Paisley!
San Francisco Bay Area fans can gather with Brad Paisley on October 1 at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. Shoreline doesn’t really have the space to build a 30-foot walkway, but we are certain there will be some sort of thrust from the stage going into his crowd. Thankfully though, the stage is about 6-feet lower than at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, so it should be easy enough for Brad to gather with as many of his Bay Area fans as possible!
Click on any photo below for a slideshow of full-size images.
Setlist:
1. City Of Music
2. Riverbank
3. Freedom Was a Highway (Jimmie Allen cover, performed with Jimmie)
4. Perfect Storm
5. Water
6. Online
7. Then
8. Waitin’ on a Woman
9. Last Time for Everything / Purple Rain
10. Hot for Teacher (Van Halen cover, not full song)
11. Mountain Music (Alabama cover, not full song)
12. I’m Still a Guy (performed with Kameron Marlowe)
13. Crushin’ It
14. This Is Country Music
15. American Saturday Night
16. Celebrity
17. She’s Everything
18. When I Get Where I’m Going
19. No I in Beer
20. I’m Gonna Miss Her
21. Remind Me
22. Ticks
23. Mud on the Tires
24. Today
Encore:
25. Alcohol
See more photos of all of your favorite Rock musicians at Alan Ralph‘s photo portfolio.
