Brad Paisley Amplified Life for Abbotsford on his 2020 tour

Smaller cities and towns across Canada are absolutely loving that Brad Paisley’s “Life Amplified” tour is by-passing all usual the major market stops.  The show at the Abbotsford Centre is about as close to the big city as he’s getting and you can bet the crowd was appreciative of all the customized little details. A lot of care and attention went into acknowledging the area … even the Fraser Valley Knights hockey team was represented with the mascot and some of his video footage played on the big screen.

Alberta native MacKenzie Porter started off the night her single Drive Thru, played through her number 1 songs and a few other hits of her own before wrapping up her set a Whitney Houston cover along with an abridged crowd sing-a-long version of John Denver’s Country Road.

 

 

When she was introducing the band there was an extra loud cheer for her sister Kelsey on the acoustics.  There’s obviously a lot of talent in the family of this Medicine Hat natives, given former Canadian Idol winner Kalan Porter is another sibling!

 

The anchor shaped catwalk that stretch out from the stage made for 2 circular style fan General Admission pits to get up close and personal with the performers.  It’s becoming a growing trend with tours and festivals but surprisingly hasn’t quite hit full steam yet in Western Canada … and the crowd was definitely missing out!

 

MacKenzie Porter spotted a fan recording with his phone so she confiscated it to sing INTO it all while spinning around on stage to include the crowd in the footage before returning it.  There were also a lot of hand shakes and high-5s to be had!  During Brad’s set, albeit planned, he went as far as signing a guitar along with a very poor drawing of the maple leaf (A++ for effort though!) and giving it to a young girl in the crowd up against the catwalk.  When the crowd exploded into cheer over seeing who got the guitar, Brad commented, “That’s how you make a Taylor Swift right there!”  Then he went on to say, “Learn how to play!  Worst case scenario … eBay!”

 

Brad had 3 microphones set up on the stage itself with another at the end of the catwalk.  Even though the one on Stage Left (the audience’s right) wasn’t used much, it was made up for with standing on the catwalk shredding the rifs for everyone on that side of the arena.

 

 

“When I heard I would  be opening for Brad Paisley, I literally peed my pants!”  MacKenzie Porter jokingly declared to the crowd during her set … similar sentiments of excitement and appreciation came from fellow Albertan Brett Kissel who made after another not-so-surprise appearance.   Kissel talked about getting a similar opportunity 6 years ago when he was still starting out.  Brett performed 3 songs with Brad after Paisley took over a full minute to introduce the #KingOfTheNorth before coming on stage.  They performed 3 songs together before Brett dropped a big “unofficial” announcement on the crowd, where no names were mentioned, just finger-pointing, about a possible show date for Canadian artist coming in November.  There must be SOME truth to it all since Brad re-iterated it and didn’t mince words when he said Brett was coming back for his own headline show at the Abbotsford Centre!

 

Brad made sure to take the time to give a shout out to Ron Sakamoto of the Sakaoto Agency for being such an amazing group of people who took the chance on him for his first shows through Canada “waaaayyyy back” … Naturally Sakamoto this year’s tour as well.

 

The encore brought out both MacKenzie Porter and Brett Kissel again.  Brett put on his fan-boy hat and started recording Brad using a beer bottle as a slider on his phone … how do we get to see THAT footage? … a question I’m sure most of the venue was wondering!!

 

… after the Whiskey Lullaby (with those red plastic cups to salute the crowd with) Brett and MacKenzie stepped aside and all the spotlights n the venue went into overdrive … Brad moved quickly up and down the catwalk as the music built up just in time for him to throw his signature cowboy hat out in the crowd before walking off to end the show.

 

For more information on MacKenzie Porter (www.MacKenziePorter,com) and Brad Paisley (www.BradPaisley.com) as they tour, visit their respective websites and check out their social media accounts

If you want to stay up to date on the potential show (and tour ?!?!) information mentioned by Brett, get on that mailing list at www.BrettKissel.com