Zac Brown band is still very active today. He has eleven shows scheduled between now and December 31. What is most interesting to me is the locations of these shows. They range from the south like Georgia and Alabama all the way to Michigan and California. I think this really goes to show his range in fans. He has a lot of pull with college aged and 20 something year olds, which is a great fan base to have. This fan base is so beneficial because they are willing to go to concerts more than most and you can find colleges anywhere in the country. He also works with his fan base buy having different types of shows. Looking at his upcoming shows some , like the one at Madison Square Garden in NY, are $100 dollars and some are much smaller venues and are only $25. I think this is important because he allows people to chose what kind of show they want to see from him.
When I saw them live it was a much smaller venue than MSG. It was only about 250 people and all around college age. It was a much smaller show and I feel like that really allowed him to show his personality. At one point during the concert he asked everyone to quite down for the next song, and he sang it without the mic. He had a great stage presence even without the mic, I was in the middle of the crowd and could hear him very well. His voice was so full, even without the mic, that it seemed like he never needed it in the first place. I was not a very big fan of his when I saw him live but most of the audience clearly was. He would sometimes stop singing for the chorus and let the crowd take over. It was a really great vibe from the crowd and him, he kind of fed off how excited the crowd was. At one point he even took a joint when someone held it up to him in the first row and took a pull from it before handing it back. It was funny to me watching it happen and the crowd loved it and went nuts. It was weird to me because I have been to much bigger concerts but his really seemed much more personal. While the particular concert that I went to was like that there are plenty of his shows that aren't quite like that. He has much larger shows where you see him talk to the crowd here and there. Maybe ask how everyones doing, very typical stuff like that. I think in order to really get the full experience you have to see him at a small venue.
Zac's band plays shows in so many different venues. He's been at the Grand Ole Opry to preform Chicken Fried, where we see him not really say anything to the crowd just let his music speak. He even goes on a fairly long jam session on the stage were they are just playing, which isn't in the original song. He has also done shows at the House of Blues in New Orleans, the Letterman Show, and the Country Music Awards. In these shows we see really great light shows as well. It really helps the intensity of the show with the great work they did on the lights. The show I went to was during the day and was not lit at all. It had a much more raw feel in both sound and look. He also did a fully unplugged show which I think is pretty interesting. It shows his talent and how his music sound in a different format. I think it also shows his versatility in sound which is good for an artist.
Another thing that stuck out to me about Zac Brown Band was there way of dressing. Zac Brown is almost always wearing a beanie, plain shirt or button down, boots, and jeans. A look thats a little different from most country musicians because of the hat. Instead of the very typical cowboy hat he is always seen wearing this beanie and having a big full beard. When I saw him it was a really hot August day and he was still there in a beanie and unshaved. His band itself varies they wear all sorts of outfits. Some wear outfits similar to Zac while others can be seen wearing a cowboy looking shirt or even a blazer and fedora. I think it helps connect them to their fans as well. They dress pretty typical of young adults, nothing too out of the normal most of the time. They have a way of not looking like a country band at all. Personally looking at them they look like an alternative or rock band, not so much country.
Although there were a few grammer mistakes here and there and I would have rather the videos been imbedded in the blog for aesthetics rather than links, the blog overall did a very good job of describing Zac Brown's stage presence and I very much appreciated the contrasting descriptions between him performing in a large venue vs. him performing in a small venue. My favorite part of the whole blog was that Calvin has actually seen Zac Brown live and in a small venue and could really describe in detail the feeling of the performance, and event that he sang without the mic for a song. These types of inferences I feel can not be found online so it was really nice that he had this firs hand experience to bring to his blog post.
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