Friday night in Oshawa was, well...one hell of a party.
Brantley Gilbert and the fellas rolled into Oshawa for the 2nd of 3 stops on the Blackout Tour in Ontario and the folks that packed the GM Centre did not go home unhappy. Well maybe a couple but that's only because of the massive hangovers they knew they were going to have in the morning.
Athens, Georgia native and now Mason Jar Session Alumni kicked off the night off with a spirited 3 song set. For those of you that don't know Mr. Davis all I can say is click here.... this guy has more talent in his baby finger than a lot of the country pop artist that are currently getting radio play on both the sides of the border. Brian hit the stage with his guitar and unbelievable voice to a half full crowd at 7 pm but those that were there, were being treated to a fantastic performance.
Next up Florida's own Michael Ray. Now I had a chance to catch Michael last October when he opened for Kip Moore on the Wild Ones Tour. However that was a small club show and didn't have the massive stage set up that this tour allowed and let me tell you Michael world every square inch of that stage. Working the crowd and singing his balls off to a now 80% filled venue. His 30 min set was backed with great songs and you could tell when he kicked into his most notable song, his #1 Smash Kiss You In The Morning the fans were just eating it up.
I even asked the guy sitting beside me if he knew who Michael was before he started his set and he didn't but when that one came on he was singing right along. My personal favourite from Michael's set was Real Men Love Jesus. His voice on this song was absolutely amazing.
Then it was time for Canaan Smith to take the stage. Canaan has played Boots and Hearts on a couple of occasions and also made a stop at the Mod Club in Toronto last year with Dan & Shay so its easy to say the country music fans in Canada know this guy. Canaan had a solid set cranking out killer songs like Hole In A Bottle, American Muscle and my favorite of the set One Of Those. His current album Bronco is a fantastic album and would suggest grabbing it here.
Then it was time for Country's Bad Boy Brantley Gilbert. Now for those of you that say Country music is dying to the POP Country genre haven't been to a Brantley show. Seriously this guy brings a ROCK show to every venue he plays. And the Blackout Tour is nothing short of a full blown rock show (Ok so no pyro) but he has everything else you could think of. From the intro playing some of rock's most notable songs and then opening song the crowd was pumped to have Brantley at the GM Centre and Brantley looked pretty damn happy to be there to.
When the show kicked off with Read Me My Rights and then just blew up from there with the crowd singing right along to songs like Dirt Road Anthem, My Kind Of Party and my personal favourite Kick It In The Stix these boys just knew how to keep the party going. Just over an hour in, things slow down and Brantley and the rest of the band bring out the acoustics and really make it feel like you're in the living room enjoying a great intimate performance. The great part of this tour is Brantley really shows how diverse his songwriting / performance really is.
The Blackout tour with all the talent has to be one of the best shows I have seen in a while. In today's marketplace concert goer's are looking for best value and with this line up I honestly don't know you could find a better one. This was like a mini festival jammed into 4hrs. We want to thank GM Centre for having us and of course the Blackout Tour for making it North of the border. And for those of you heading to an upcoming date in the US. You won't be disappointed....
Corey Kelly / @CoreyKelly76
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Well if your reading this you must really be bored... So I was born and raised in a small town and have a thirst for good Canadian Whiskey and amazing Country Music.
