In the past week, both the BigXthaPlug and Jon Pardi concerts have taken place, and it’s safe to say that I have some thoughts on them. After going to both, I wanted to share the experience with those who didn’t attend but might have been curious about what they missed.

To start, both of the concerts were very similar in the opener category. The openers for BigXthaPlug were Ro$ama and Yung Hood and for Jon Pardi, it was Priscilla Block. Personally, I did not know of any of these artists prior to listening to them perform which was not convenient as they sure did take their time up on stage. For reference, we arrived at 8:20 to the BigXthaPlug show which was supposed to start at 8 and he didn’t come on until around 10 pm. Similarly, Jon Pardi came out around 9 pm, the show started at 7 pm, and we arrived at 7:30 pm. The openers for BigXthaPlug were confusing because there were around three people up on stage in addition to the actual openers who played and DJed both unknown and very popular songs. They also kept mentioning that BigX would be out soon but it was never actually true until an hour later. Priscilla also played a lot of songs and did many storytimes of her failed love life which was….interesting!

In the location and stadium category, Jon Pardi took place at the Credit One Stadium on Daniel Island whereas BigX was at the Music Farm downtown which was much much much smaller. We had purchased the general admissions ticket for BigXthaPlug which basically was first come first serve. I was able to make it pretty close to the stage and still had trouble seeing due to the amount of people packed in such a small area. At Credit One I sat on the right, upper side of the stadium and was very content with the view. Although I was pretty high up I was able to see the whole stadium, stage, and performers. However, there were some clear conflicts with other people’s seating as halfway through the show security guards came to escort individuals out who were in the wrong seats. Despite this, I liked the area where I was sitting and would get tickets there again.

Finally, the performance category was a major determinant of my overall rating for both concerts. Beginning with BigX although he took a while to come on stage he evenly distributed his songs out mixing in very popular ones with less popular ones which made it easy to sing and dance along if you weren’t familiar with every single one. However, despite the lights, there was much going on on stage other than him walking around and singing. Jon Pardi on the other hand did have a screen that played some videos while he was singing, lights, and fire that shot out during certain beats. While this is true Pardi saved all his most popular songs until the VERY end which was unfavorable as I couldn’t get to hear the last one in an effort to beat the traffic getting off of the island.

Overall these concerts had their ups and downs but were all worth it in the end. I look forward to more local concerts and hope that if you weren’t able to experience these two, you will catch the next ones!