A (thankfully) overcast sky greeted an estimated 18,000 Brad Paisley fans at Cruzan Amphitheatre tonight. As promised the music began way before sunset with three opening acts on the Water World Stage. A lot of people showed up early to take advantage of the early bird performances.

At 7:25, Justin Moore kicked things off with some in-your-face country rock with Back That Thing Up. In his plaid shirt, white hat, aviator sunglasses, and Wranglers, Moore looked every bit a star. why, his belt buckle was bigger than a deck of cards! As an opening act, you couldn’t ask for more enthusiasm. He got the biggest reaction from his No. 1 smash Small Town USA.

As a crescent moon rose in the southern sky, suave, sexy Darius Rucker put on his Nike baseball cap and deliver a solid set, but I wish he’d play more of his country songs and fewer Hootie hits. And he may like Prince’s Purple Rain but for me, the novelty has worn off.

It isn’t like he doesn’t have plenty of material. His debut album was a stellar piece of work, and I would’ve been happy to hear anything off it. Heck, he could play the whole thing front to back and I’d be thrilled.

Rucker’s family was taking advantage of the last week before school starts — Dad brought the kids along and dedicated It Won’t Be Like This for Long to them, saying, “This song is for my babies. I love you all so much.”

Then it was time for the man of the hour. Make that hours. As in two solid hours of music.

Of course, this is the H2O Tour, so Paisley kicked things off with Water, his current single, climbing out of an imaginary pool, in a red T-shirt, white hat and jeans. Tons of video screens, lasers drawing pictures on the ceiling of the amphitheatre, beach balls bouncing wildly through the crowd, and a highly mobile Paisley kept crowd on its feet for most of the show.

And it was a friendly, enthusiastic crowds that had plunked down their money to see the superstar. I was struck several times by how loudly they sang. And how well! And when he called on them to do their part on American Saturday Night, they didn’t disappoint him. “Live from West Palm Beach,” he said, and in unison, the crowd answered: “It’s Saturday night!”

Stealing a page out of Keith Urban’s playbook, Paisley took his act out to the cheap seats this time — in this case, the lawn — saying that’s where his seats always were.
And when Paisley got romantic with She’s Everything, so did couples in the audience, joining together to dance or kiss, despite the heat. It was obvious how much that song means to so many people.

It’s also obvious how much Andy Griffith means to Brad. Not just because he’s obsessed with television show, but because he keeps Waiting on Woman in his act, with the video of Andy playing alongside his live performance. New this year was a clip of Griffith — who plays guitar — singing the Crawdad Song accompanied by Paisley on guitar.

Another song still in the set is the classic Alison Krauss duet, Whiskey Lullaby. Still one of the best songs ever.

Paisley’s guitar solos seemed a little scaled back from previous years. Still stellar as ever, there didn’t seem to be as many and they didn’t seem to last as long. More quality than quantity. And Paisley can coax any sound he wants out of that instrument.

Wisely, sometimes the video screens and all the special effects get turned off and it’s just Paisley performing. Those moments are priceless. That’s when you feel you’re actually in an intimate venue, that he’s performing for just a few fans.

No Paisley concert would be complete without a little animation. The biggest cheer came when an animated Godzilla flipped BP the bird.

You get the feeling from watching Paisley that he’s still having more fun than you are. He still tries to keep in fresh, to offer up new and better ways to entertain. The man truly has a gift and I’m glad that he comes back once a year to share it with us.