Bulls and (Free)Birds

I just uploaded photos from PBR Bullnanza and the Rowdy Frynds Tour to our Flickr site. For Bullnanza, you can check a bunch of great action shots that our house photographer James Crisp took. For Rowdy Frynds however, there is a plethora of sets (sub-folders) in event’s photo collection. There are all the load-in and set up shots that I took day of the event, photos of the preshow in the Shops at Lexington Center, a bunch of “From the Stands” photos I took from my seat, and lastly some amazing photos that our house photographer Michael Wright took of all three acts (James Otto, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Hank Williams Jr.). I know, almost too many photos to handle, but I have faith that you will have it under control.

As with all of our events we LOVE to see what photos the fans took. With your permission we even post them on our Flickr page under a fan photo set giving you full credit. Even if you don’t want us to put them up, we would still love to see them. Feel free to spam rupparenablog@gmail.com with a zillion photos you took from Bullnanza, Rowdy Frynds, or any other event you attended.

Rowdy Frynds Rycap

This past Friday the Rowdy Frynds Tour came to Rupp Arena. For those of you who attended, you know how exciting it was. For those of you who didn’t, you definitely missed out, but I will do my best to provide you with some great pictures to ease your mind.

As I may have mentioned in the past, I primarily listen to rock music, all across the spectrum. Although I don’t listen to Hank Williams Jr. I definitely know who he is and have an appreciation for what he has brought to the music industry as a whole. Lynyrd Skynyrd on the other hand is more southern rock and less country so I definitely know all their hit songs and love quite a few of them.

Preshow

The night started off with some pre-show music in The Shops at Lexington Center which was hosted by 98.1 The Bull. The music was pretty good and had a local band who played covers and some original music, but definitely got all the fans in the mood for the concert (pictures will be on our Flickr page shortly).

Starting off the show was James Otto who is an up and coming country/rock musician. He did a great job of recognizing and thanking Lynyrd and Hank and had some great original music as well as a spot-on Bob Segar cover of Night Moves. He did a good performance and definitely caught the interest of most of the crowd.

Lynyrd Skynyrd

Lynyrd Skynyrd is a recognizable name to anyone. If you don’t know of Free Bird (even if you don’t listen to it or like it), then you may as well not exist. Skynyrd is known for the southern style and extreme guitar solos. One of the amazing things is that they have seven people in their current touring group and three of them are guitarists. With most bands you usually have one guitarist who steals the show. With Lynyrd Skynyrd it seems like all of their guitarists (as well as the rest of the band) are equally talented and dedicated to their music.

Some of the songs they played were What’s Your Name?, That Smell, Gimme Three Steps, Simple Man, Tuesday’s Gone, Sweet Home Alabama, and of course Free Bird. I really wanted to hear Simple Man and Free Bird as well as Tuesday’s Gone (which I heard they didn’t play at some other venues). All in all it was an amazing performance with some of the best guitar solos I have heard and seen.

Hank Williams Jr.

Hank Jr. has a name that is recognized by many, both for his talent and the talent of his father. He had a great introduction video where it had Jimmy Kimmel and some others talking about the importance of the “Are You Ready For Some Football?” song, which Hank Jr. performs. Although his entrance wasn’t elaborate by any means (he just walked on to the stage waving), it definitely brought the audience to their feet and had everyone yelling to hear some of his music.

Hank did a great job of getting the audience pumped up and rounding out the night as a great concert. Although I may be a bit biased, I think Lynyrd Skynyrd stole the show. There were not really an weak points in all three performers, but Skynyrd rocked the house on so many songs and had everyone dancing and getting into the music. It seemed like they really put the rowdiness in the Rowdy Frynds Tour.

All the photos in this recap are ones that I snapped. In the next few days I will be adding photos from Bullnanza and from this event to our Flickr page. There will be lots of amazing photos taken by our house photographers and some ones I took from my seat. As always, if you managed to take any photos of either event then we would love to see them and put them in a Fan Photo set (giving you credit) on our Flickr site so anyone can check them out. Email any photos to rupparenablog@gmail.com. I hope everyone enjoyed the Rowdy Frynds Tour. It seemed like there weren’t any disappointed faces at the end of the night. To close, here are some various stats from the event: 2,620 gallons of beer were bought, 65 bottles of spirits were used to make drinks, and 517 gallons of soft drinks were swallowed.

Rowdy Frynds Load-in

Here are some photos I snapped of today’s load-in for the Rowdy Frynds Tour. There will be more uploaded to our Flickr at a later time, but for now this should be a nice tease for the concert tonight. Read more