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"It’s good to be home in Milwaukee, my friends!" was the theme of Vassar’s night before a standing room only crowd at the Briggs & Stratton Big Backyard on Wednesday night.
And man, what a hot piece of man. Sunglasses. Tight, white T-shirt. Painted-on jeans. Did I mention the tight, white tee?
By all accounts, Phil Vassar is one hell of a male specimen. Add to that that the dude can really sing; and, well, you can see (or at least understand) why he has a huge contingent of adoring female fans … of all ages.
I’ve passed up opportunities to see Vassar in concert over the last couple years. I’m not quite sure why. His music is great, but I just didn’t feel it. My expectations coming into Wednesday night’s concert weren’t exactly low, but they weren’t exactly high either.
As soon as Vassar opened his mouth to sing, he had me. But then, in truth, he lost me.
His 18-song set plus one encore song was energetic, full of sauce and a little bit crazy. He filled up the concert with Vassar classics like "Real Love," "That’s When I Love You," "Just Another Day in Paradise" and "I’m Doin’ Alright." He also threw in some covers of songs he’s written for other artists, including "Bye Bye" for Jo Dee Messina, as well as "For a Little While" and "My Next Thirty Years" for Tim McGraw. Finally, Vassar performed one new song from his not yet released album.
It’s all good music. A lot of it’s great, really great.
Vassar’s super talented with a voice that could melt chocolate. But honestly, a lot of the music begins to sound the same – especially live when Vassar’s piano skills are heavily emphasized. Plus, the band had a couple really long instrumental bits.
To Vassar’s credit, he had the rowdy, ready-to-party crowd with him from the very first song. They sang. They cheered. They chanted. They danced. They fell off benches. He had them. He jumped around the stage like a 21-year-old. He took requests from Twitter. And they loved him.
His adoring audience is a long-standing one – even if a lot of the people in the crowd weren’t born when Vassar started writing music and hit the country music scene. He’s been writing songs for greats like Jo Dee Messina, Tim McGraw and Collin Raye since the early 1990s. Engelbert Humperdinck even recorded one of Vassar’s songs ("Once in a While") in 1996. When his self-titled first album came out in 2000 and produced three Top 10 hits, his career took off.
Despite his years in the business, Vassar kept it real on Wednesday night. Even if it some of it started to sound the same, it was still a great concert. He’s still a great artist. And, well, he’s just hot ... all around, just hot.
In all of her experiences, time was focused on writing which has been a passion since junior high school. A series of food service industry jobs both before and after law school taught her that bringing out the human side in any story is key to great storytelling and good writing.
A die-hard east side girl, you'll usually find Lora down by the lake or on the Oakleaf. She's an avid photographer, and sometimes storm chaser.
Hobbies include biking, gardening, cross country skiing, swimming, blogging, and of course working on her fictionalized autobiography--fictionalized, because whose life is really interesting enough to fill 400 pages?
She's in IMDb. Look her up.
