Kelsea Ballerini Concert

Image found here

I had never seen Kelsea Ballerini in concert before, and I like a lot of her songs, so I wanted to see her live. I waited to buy tickets at the Anthem box office to save costs on fees, but I should have waited until the day of: the show never sold out, and general admission tickets were selling for only $20, when I had paid $50 for the same thing just a few weeks earlier. AND I had such a hard time finding someone to go with me! My go-to country concert friend had to work, but I still bought the tickets knowing he couldn't make it. That may have been a mistake: he's my only friend who likes country music as much as I do! Eventually I did have a friend begrudgingly agree to go with me. I didn't realize how hard it would be to give away a ticket for free!

After my friend and I grabbed drinks, we stood pretty close to the stage and waited for the show to start. Georgia Webster was the opener, and we both liked her! She sort of had Taylor Swift vibes, in that she's young, singing about young love experiences, and she's a pretty blonde (go figure). She had great stage presence and was working the crowd, which I thought was impressive given her age (she just recently graduated from high school!). Here are some of her songs:

X's (about going to a club underage and having X's on her hands)

Tell Your Mom

Push & Pull

Not Sayin'

Tattoos

After last week's Maddie & Tae concert (read that blog post here), I thought this performance would have two openers. But Kelsea went right afterward! Of course the stage production was great, with three big screens showing lots of cool and colorful images, and a rising platform in the back (which was very helpful for anyone having a hard time seeing over tall people). And her costume changes were great; so many sparkles! Here are some photos I took over the night:

Here are some songs she played that I had never heard before (but my friend and I really liked them):

You're Drunk, Go Home

If You Go Down (I'm Going Down Too) (This song made me think of The Chicks' Goodbye Earl song.)

Love is a Cowboy (Speaking of the Chicks, she merged this song with a ballad of Cowboy Take Me Away, which I thought was very well done!

I Quit Drinking

What I Have (I love songs about gratitude and thankfulness!)

Graveyard (She said that with so many albums and songs, she can't perform all of them. So for this tour of ten cities, she was going to pick one random song to perform at each location, and this was the one chosen for this show.)

And here are some of her songs that are my particular favorites:

Peter Pan (This song came out when I was still online dating, and it resonated with me: many men in DC have Peter Pan syndrome because they never want to grow up!)

Heartfirst

Yeah Boy

Half of My Hometown (I do like this song, but it's been a little overplayed on the radio recently...)

Miss Me More

Love Me Like You Mean It

Dibs

Homecoming Queen (She performed this as a duet with Georgia.)

Legends (I assume this was her final encore song, but my friend and I left a bit early.)

My friend said she had a good time, so I'm glad she gave this concert a chance! I don't think I have any other country concerts coming up. I was hoping to go to Sunday in the Country, but I think it's going to rain, so that wouldn't be any fun. But I will be going to a few plays, so stay tuned for more blog posts about my theater adventures!