Every Spring, our university has one giant concert that is free for students. We get to vote on the music genre, and since my freshman year here, we’ve had All-American Rejects, Wiz Khalifa, and Ellie Goulding.

This year I was stoked to see The Band Perry headlining our spring show! It’s no secret I’m a country-lovin’ girl, through and through. Last year, Ellie Goulding rocked our Skydome stadium and her performance was incredible! But country concerts have a much different atmosphere, noted by the amount of plaid, boots, denim and cowboy hats in the crowds last night.

Also, the two-stepping! Oh my gosh, I just love watching the couples dance on the floor. It’s so sweet and fun :) We were seated in the general admission stands, so no dancing for us this time. But we did get great seats, dead center in about the fourth row. We could read Neil’s t-shirt and see the violinist’s tattoos if that gives any indication of how close we were ;)

The opening act was an up & coming female country singer Ruthie Collins with a self-proclaimed love for “vintage.” Her voice was amazing and her songs were cute, but we said she sounded like a Disney princess. I think she said “Oh my goodness!” about 18 times in her 45 minute set. The funniest moment was when she said she grew up on a “Grape Farm”……….you mean a vineyard?

The Band Perry is so full of energy! Kimberly has some crazy dance moves and their set kept everyone on their feet the whole show. Especially when they covered Bruno Mar’s Uptown Funk. Even Queen’s Fat-Bottomed Girls was a crowd favorite.

But the best moment came during the encore. When the band said goodnight and walked off stage, we knew they  there was no way they were ending the show without “If I Die Young.” Sure enough, 3 seconds later they came out and with the first chord of their very first hit the entire audience sang out the chorus. The band didn’t even sing into their microphones, they just stood there and listened to us. It gave me chills!! They said it felt like one big country family, and they should just always play for college campuses like ours :)

The most appropriate song for the performance, though, was “Chainsaw.” Our school mascot is a Lumberjack, and we have a Logging Team. At every home Football and Basketball game, the NAU Chain Gang uses a microphoned-chainsaw to cut into a giant log for every point we score. The same chainsaw sound buzzed throughout the dome stadium when The Band Perry performed this number one hit and it was too perfect!

The five of us had such a blast singing along and dancing in the stands with a couple thousand other students. A good way to kick off the long weekend for sure! :)