On July 13th, 2014, my parents and I headed down to Chicago for the last day of the Windy City Smokeout to see the Eli Young Band, Chase Rice and Blackjack Billy. I was so happy that rain was not in the forecast and it turned out to be a beautiful summer day in Chicago!
First up was one of my favorite newer bands, Blackjack Billy! It seemed like they played a longer set than what they did when I saw them at the Rodeo Club out here in California and they seemed to get the audience going pretty well.
Blackjack Billy played a lot of their own songs along with some covers since they are still a newer band! Love that they covered "Dust On The Bottle" by David Lee Murphy!
My dad also took a few videos from this show and I got permission to share them from him. Here's Blackjack Billy singing "Blood, Sweat and Beer"!
Here's another video I took of them singing their song "Drinkalong", love this one!
Next up was Chase Rice! I have to say that I was not very impressed with him when I saw him at the Rodeo Club earlier this year BUT he redeemed himself in my opinion at this show. With a full band he is more energetic than he was acoustically which is probably why I wasn't very impressed.
He sang a lot of songs off his debut album that I'm still not very familiar with but I may have to go buy it now as a result of this show. He got the crowd singing along many times to his songs and even some covers that he did. There was a cover medley that he did that I got video of, not sure what the first song is but I recognize it. Then he breaks out into an old school Nelly song!
It seems that Chase Rice is not only influenced a lot by country music but by rock and rap music as well. He was quite the gentleman too when it came for him to sing some swear words he told the younger ladies standing next to us in the audience to put on their earmuffs! I also could not get over how much he kind of looked like Dierks Bentley with the hat and the sunglasses......(call me crazy).
That being said, can't wait to see him again at the end of the month opening for Dierks Bentley!
Time for the Eli Young Band!!
I never get tired of seeing these guys and was very excited to see them again in Chicago. Many years ago I saw them at Joe's Bar and was hooked!
Eli Young Band singing "Dust"
Love the drummer's faces too!
Here is another video that my father took of them singing a song off their newer album "10,000 Towns" called "Prayer For The Road". This song is probably one of my favorites from that album!
I can't even begin to pick a favorite Eli Young Band song but one of my favorites will always be "Even If It Breaks Your Heart".
At the end of the show for the encore, Blackjack Billy came back out to help them out singing "Gimme Three Steps".
Piggyback rides? LOL
I was also lucky enough to catch a set list in the front row! :)
I had such a great time in the Chicago area visiting my family and friends and these concerts were the icing on the cake! Even though these three days in a row of standing room only concerts was comparable to CMA Fest exhaustion, I would happily do it again!
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