State Fair: Joe Nichols & Sugarland

Finally! I got through all the photos I took last Sunday at the Illinois State Fair! What a chore that was!! I guess that's the price of a nice day out and a great concert and the ease (and low cost) of digital photography.

We got to the fair a couple hours before the show was to start to have a chance to walk around and check things out and get some fair food. Well, kinda fair food....I got a BBQ sandwich from 17th St. Bar & Grill, a Southern Illinois favorite. Even though I wouldn't consider it true fair food (how can it be without a stick???), it was awesome! Great flavor and very juicy! We thought about getting something on a stick, but the vendor that had all the crazy stick / fried food had a huge line...so we skipped it.

After walking around for a while, we decided to take a load off, and ride the sky tram.

It was a nice relaxing ride with a cool perspective.

As you can see, the sky was a little questionable. There was rain in the forecast, and we were seeing dark clouds pretty much all around us at varying points throughout the afternoon. It rained like crazy in Peoria, but, luckily, it held off for the fair/concerts. :-)

After that, we started heading towards the grandstand for the concert. The seats were very good, except for one slight thing...almost directly in front of us was the video crew. They weren't really in the way, but the cage around them was a little distracting, but not terribly.

The opening act was Joe Nichols. I didn't know many of this songs, but a couple, and he did a couple Hank Jr. covers. All in all, he put on a good show, but definitely not headliner material yet. I believe he won the horizon award from some country music organization this year...so, he's still pretty new with plenty of chance to grow.

After Joe Nichols, the headliner Sugarland took the stage. They were incredible!!! Very high energy show!! They only have two CD's, but managed to fill all the time they had with their hits, and a few covers.

The first time you see or hear someone live, you always wonder how much they will sound like their studio stuff and how much is doctored or how many tries before they select the clip for the CD. Sugarland sounded very much like their CDs, which is always nice. I'd definitely go see them again!

One last thing; I would like to thank Louis for letting me borrow his Canon 70-200 F/2.8L lens. I have the F/4 version which basically means his lens works better in low light situations. All concert shots were taken with the borrowed lens.