Greenville Crawfish Boil: Its kinda hard bein' snoop-d-oh-double-g...

Friday night, Katie, my beautiful girlfriend, and I drove up to Greenville, SC, to attend the first annual Crawfish Boil. This was the first of many summer concerts I plan on attending and was really excited about some of the bands in the line up, namely Snoop Dogg. The line up included Mike's Pawn Shop, Hurt, Saving Abel, Gavin Rossdale (leader singer of Bush), Shinedown, and of course the Original Gangster himself.
Before arriving at the venue outside Greenville's BiLo Center, I wasn't sure I was familiar with some of the bands that were playing that night. Not knowing who the first four bands in the line-up were, I went into the concert with somewhat modest expectations. But after arriving and making small talk with other members of the audience, I learned that Gavin Rossdale is the former lead singer for the band, Bush. Also, after hearing the bands play, I recognized much of their music from the radio.
We arrived around 4:30, just after the first band, Mike's Pawn Shop finished their set, and it was hot! It must have been somewhere between 85 and 90 degrees sitting on the tarmac of the make shift concert venue that was the parking lot of the BiLo Center. Thank God for the clouds though. After Hurt finished playing an hour long set, the clouds started rolling in and provided some much needed shade from the uncomfortably hot sun.
Next in the line-up was a band called Saving Abel. I knew little about them, but as soon as they played their first song, I knew they were going to play a pretty solid show. They played for a while and about halfway through their set, they played a song I was familiar with from the radio, Addicted. This got me pretty excited. With a cool breeze easing the heat from earlier that day and some delicious fried crawfish and alligator to satisfy our hunger, Katie and I were beginning to have fun!

Next up was Gavin Rossdale, who was the lead singer for Bush a few years back. His performance was awesome! He played quite a few of the songs that were written with his former band, Bush, as well as some of his new stuff that provided for a very enjoyable experience.
At this point during the concert, the people were beginning to pack in and the booze was flowing. I was particularly amused by a man in a yellow shirt that was just hammered drunk and rocking out in his own world. It was pretty hilarious. You can catch a glimpse of him in the video of Saving Abel above. You can't miss him. By the way, the vendors at the concert were making an absolute killing selling 24oz beers for 7 dollars, corn dogs for 8, along with everything else being severely over priced. But, I guess it's a good marketing ploy getting people drunk and then selling them fried food at ridiculous prices. Good work!
Shinedown was up next and with the crowd eagerly anticipating their performance, the atmosphere was becoming pretty intense. People were really beginning to let loose. There were many screaming obnoxiously, typical of most concerts, and I decided it was appropriate to let out a "letsssgoooooooo!!!" in that high pitched girl's voice my brother does so hilariously. Anywho, when Shinedown came on the crowd went crazy. It was pretty exciting to see so many people get into the show, and at one point, the enitre crowd was jumping up and down. Check out this video to get a better idea of what I am talking about.

The final act of the night was the OG himself, Snoop Doggy Dogg. He was pretty much the reason I decided that the Crawfish Boil would be worth the two and a half hour drive from Atlanta to Greenville. He was supposed to come on around 9:45 and was running a little late. So, Katie and I decided to get as close as possible considering neither of us had ever seen a rapper in concert. We figured it would be worth it to fight the crowd to get a good seat for the show. So after about 15 minutes and the crowd getting antsy, Snoop-a-loop came out and the crowd went insane!

A funny side note to this moment in time: As soon as Snoop Dogg (known for his marijuana antics) came out, there was a strong scent of cannabis emerging from the crowd. Go figure.

Anyway, Snoop played an amazing show, touching on most of his best songs like Ain't nothing but a "G" thang, Gin & Juice, and many other Snoop Dogg Classics. Overall, It was an amazing night. After the two hour drive back to Atlanta that night, Katie and I were very tired but anticipating Sunday when we go to see Coldplay at Lakewood Amplitheatre in Atlanta. Below are some videos of Snoop and here is a link to some more pictures from the night! I will be sure to let you know how Coldplay is on Sunday. Can't Wait!