Hootie Hold The Blowfish: Darius Rucker

Darius Rucker, A Thousand Horses, Brett Eldredge, and Brothers Osbourne.That was the lineup, however we did not land in our seats until time to see Brett Eldredge. Only one album into his career, Brett Eldredge already has Country fans wrapped around his finger. Well, maybe not my gal pal, and of course my "whatever" attitude towards to country in general. But hey!!! it's better than my previous notion towards country which was "ewww get away!!!" I am always surprised by how many songs I recognize at these country shows. Brett Eldredge is not your typical cowboy, wearing a stripped sweater and black skinny jeans but he's got the hits, and the girls want to scream out his name, so he's doing something right. 

Then there's Hootie, or rather, Darius Rucker; the black guy in Country music. Totally not a race driven remark. I mean, he's pretty much the only black guy on Country radio. It's a breath of fresh air. Now Darius Rucker isn't a household name, but Hootie and The Blowfish were back in the day. Darius has found his nitch on the Country charts, and with the amount of radio play he's getting right now, he clearly jumped head first into the genre he truly belongs in. With his deep southern style voice. He's from South Carolina, so it's no surprise he'd fit in as a Country singer. Football player for the NFL, turned Rock singer, turned R&B singer, turned Country singer. 

And that brings us to Saturday night (August 1st). Irvine Meadows, Irvine CA. packed with stone washed jeans, big boots, and short shorts. And of course the red white and blue murica'. Darius Rucker sounded great and sang his heart out, and his band sounded terrific. The show was as visually nice to experience as it was to hear. With a few extra display screens panning between shots of the band and other visuals. Darius glistened with sweat as he poured what he had into the songs. You could tell he really enjoyed himself, you could feel the energy from the audience bouncing off of him. I must say that on a Saturday night, I'm not sure how many people were there to sit and enjoy the show VS. how many people were there to just drink as much beer as they could. Everyone was having a good time, and that's all that matters. There was the obligatory LOUD ASS GIRL behind me, who at one point thought that it was cool to put her foot on my chair and into my back. And oddly enough, I've never had more people shuffle by me in my row than this concert. Beer run after beer run. I'd like to see the statistics, I'm pretty sure beer sales go up a touch for these Country shows. 

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was going to be seeing Jason Aldean and Kenney Chesney. That show fell through for me because of a work conflict. However a review of that show should be coming soon from someone who did go. 

In other news, purchase tickets to see The Who last night. YEAH!

So Dan, that lovely rating system you started using for Van Halen.
Right!
I give this show
1 Hootie out of 0 Blowfish
10 out of 10 for Darius backing band, taking the wind out of the Blowfish. I wasn't going to say blow.
3 out of 10 sneakers.
10 out of 10 cowboy boots. and for the feminists cowgirl boots!
oh and a Yee out of a Haw.

-photos courtesy of OCRegister