Rascal Flatts spent an entire weekend tearing OHIO up!  It’s Jay and Gary’s home state and the energy that they bring to the shows is always 110%.   Their first show was in Cleveland, then Cincinnati and they ended the weekend with a BANG in their hometown of Columbus.

I drove into Cincinnati early Saturday afternoon from Nashville to meet up with Fan Club members before the show.  Although it wasn’t a huge turnout we had a blast!  Most of the group had a meet & greet with the guys that night and between the nerves and heat we had plenty to joke and laugh about.

I must say that with two big sponsors this year Rascal Flatts are doing more meet & greets than I have EVER seen before.  One of the crew members told us that they had around 200 people to get backstage for a meet & greet that night!  That is crazy, ridiculous if you ask me!  No wonder they move us through like cattle!

The show was AMAZING!  Cledus T. Judd came out to “warm” up the crowd.  Then Darius Rucker hit the stage.  In the five years that I have been going to see Rascal Flatts in concert Darius is by far the BEST opening act I have seen with them.  He is high energy from start to finish, his crowd interaction is AWESOME and the little shuffle dance that he does is priceless.  I expect Darius to be headlining his own tour VERY soon.  His rendition of “Purple Rain” has more emotion and soul than Prince ever had behind the song.   Oh – and Darius I love the Cincinnati Reds hat you wore!  He autographed it at the end of his set and gave it to a little girl.

Once Rascal Flatts hit the stage everyone was hot, sweaty and stinky but it sure didn’t matter.  Arms were waving in the air, girls (and women) were screaming and it was time to ROCK it out!  I have said it a million times before and I will say it again, watching a live Rascal Flatts show NEVER gets old.  I don’t know if it was because they were home and had family there or what but the energy and time that they spent with the audience Saturday night made you feel like you were the only one in the audience.  They even wrote a special song that they only played at their 3 Ohio shows over the weekend.  Can’t recall if it had a name but it was about fishing and Ohio and being home.

The encore is by far the best part of this years summer shows.  They come back out on stage and sing “Revolution” which I LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear live.  Then they bring Darius back out on stage to sing “Hold My Hand” and “Life is a Highway”.  You can tell that they are having blast out on the road together.  The chemistry they have is great!

As always, Rascal Flatts is a concert that you should not miss.  You can check out their tour schedule at http://www.rascalflatts.com.  They have confirmed that Darius is going to continue on with the tour this fall.

On a side note:  Riverbend Security were a bunch of the biggest a$$holes that I have ever run into.  They wouldn’t allow me to take my camera inside (although there were hundreds of others with cameras EXACTLY like mine all around).  I wasn’t able to get many pictures.  A BIG HUGE SPECIAL THANKS to Amy who let me borrow her camera and is allowing us to use some of her pictures for the review. (The video below is for YOU girl!)

Keep an eye out on CMTT for a special Rascal Flatts contest coming soon!

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