Gary Allan @ Joe's bar, Chicago

It doesn't get much better than seeing Gary Allan for free and thanks to Chicago's US99, Blue Chip Casino and Coors Light fans lucky enough to win tickets got another great show at Joe's bar. The line to get in stretched down the block and the place was packed early and after Easton Corbin's opening set Gary came out swinging with the title song on his latest album "Get off the Pain" released March 9Th. Playing a few more tracks off his new album including "Today" and "Kiss Me When I'm Down" and he attempted to run through his long list of hits like "She's so California" and "Watching Airplanes" even stopping one song near the beginning to play another, which tends to make things sound like a medley but thankfully Gary didn't fall into that and it was the only time during the show that happened.
Gary may not write too many songs himself but he is so good at choosing his material that its tough to decipher which songs of his were written by other people. He tries to use the same studio musicians on every album and has a very loyal band with him on tour that is very versatile on a variety of instruments. Much has been written already about the tragic events in Gary's life and three years later he has "No Regrets" but you always get the sense that the past will haunt him the rest of his life and that it goes hand in hand as a protagonist for the material he records. I have never seen Gary Allan live before and have been looking forward to that chance for a long time, he is one of the true artists on a short list of people i still listen to in Nashville and he also is well liked by Texas artists often sharing the stage with bands like Cross Canadian Ragweed. I had hoped for a longer show than the hour and ten minutes Gary gave us but all in all it was a fantastic high energy show that left me willing to see him again next time through.