Virtual Reality

After really enjoying Brad Paisley's most recent album over the past several months, I was excited to dust off my cowboy boots and head downtown to see him in real life! Two of my mommy friends and I left the kiddos with the daddies and had a fabulous (and rare!) girls' night out. The night begin with a delicioso dinner and disturbing lively conversation at Vesta Dipping Grill. We missed the majority of the first opening act (Scotty McCreery... gag), but we did see all of The Band Perry's (I'm now a big fan!) opening performance.
We used the downtime before the big act to snap a couple pics...

Katie, a fellow displaced Southerner! 

Photography courtesy of the sweet, 

yet highly intoxicated girls behind us.

While waiting, we killed some time people watching... we were quite intrigued by some outfit choices, but my fave was a Santa Claus-like fellow who wore ginormous binoculars around his neck which he used for watching people in the crowd as if they were rare birds. We also got acquainted with the four drunk coeds who were sitting behind us/falling on top of us. (We got to know them a lot better as the night progressed.)
Once Brad took the stage, we had a ball singing along to the songs we knew, hearing some new faves, and texting during the songs that weren't quite our cup of tea can of PBR (seems like a more appropriate expression given the setting.) The energy really exploded when Brad began singing I'm Still a Guy. As he sang the first verse, the opening acts and their bands began lining the sides of the stage and in unison dropped to a 'Tebowing' position.  The Denver crowd immediately knew what this likely meant and went bananas as Tim Tebow took the stage and sang a line or two with Brad.

Tebow. 

Cool as a cucumber in his hoodie.

Brad had promised more than one surprise would be in-store for the night, so we he began singing the opening lines of Remind Me, his popular duet with Carrie Underwood, we all began wondering if Carrie could possibly be another surprise guest. As he sang the first verse, we saw the shadow of a woman walking across the back of the stage; I assumed it was a backup dancer or maybe even the female singer from The Band Perry. When the time for Carrie's verse came, a spotlight shined on the back of the stage. 

There. She. Was. 

The flowing blonde hair. 

The perfectly tanned and toned legs.

The VOICE.

Isn't she simply glowing?!?!?

When I noticed that I wasn't getting a great shot with my camera, I assumed it was because she was standing towards the back of the stage or because so many cameras were flashing at one time or because I had messed up the camera settings. So, I tried again...

Strange. 

No matter how she was looking on my camera, Carrie looked phenomenal on stage and sounded amazing. I decided to capture a bit of the duet on video.

Carrie was a crowd pleaser, for sure, and -as you can tell- the duet sounded extraordinary. The chemistry between Carrie and Brad was evident by the way they longingly gazed at each other. I couldn't imagine the concert getting any better, but I did cross my fingers that the band Alabama would make an appearance during one of my favorite Brad songs, Old Alabama. (This didn't happen.) 

During the end of the encore, we found it odd that Carrie didn't return to the stage for a final bow. This got our wheels turning, and we asked a woman in front of us if she thought Carrie had really been there. The woman replied, 'I know she was. My daughter went to this same concert in Minnesota, and she was there, too!'

Light bulb. We knew, of course, that there was no way Carrie was appearing at every show of the tour. But, we'd just seen her with our own eyes and heard her with our own ears. Hadn't we? Before we even made it out of the colisium, I found myself googling what seemed like an absurd phrase: 

Carrie Underwood HOLOGRAM

And, there before our very eyes was website after website detailing the use of a hologram during the Brad Paisley tour. We were dumbfounded, and I took it upon myself to begin shouting the news to random concert goers. (I didn't think it was fair for them to continue in their blissful ignorance.) Who knew holograms had so greatly evolved?

Truly Outrageous.