Showtime had arrived at the Minnesota State Fair. The seats were filling up. The weather was perfect. Chris rolled the pre-recorded audio montage opener and the band members began taking the stage. At the conclusion of the short intro piece, guitarist Dan Agee seamlessly launched into the pick-up notes for one of Joe’s signature tunes, “Let’s Get Drunk and Fight”, and the show was underway. Being down front in the pit for this show allowed me to get more frontal shots of Joe and the band, in contrast to the Fremont, OH show, where I pretty much stayed on the side of the stage, behind monitor engineer Josh Reynolds. The other advantage to the pit was that I had unrestricted movement left and right, in front of the stage, without worrying about blocking sightlines for ticket-buying audience members. There were times, however, where I wished I could have backed up a bit more (to capture a wider view). So I ended up switching lenses more often, in order to get the variety of shots I was looking for.
The other down-side to being so close to the stage was the angle at which I had to shoot. For Joe and anyone else that was downstage (near the front), I was always shooting upward at a slightly awkward angle, creating a more extreme perspective to the shots. But this was still a pretty good vantage point, considering the options. (BTW, in my opinion, the ideal shooting spot would be about 20 – 30 feet from the front of the stage, dead center, and at stage height – pretty near impossible to achieve in any real concert situation.)
The other positive of shooting this show was the soft glow of twilight during a good portion of Joe’s set, which made for a little more consistent exposure readings, when combined with the changing stage lighting.
Joe seemed very relaxed and comfortable with the audience that night – engaging in some humorous banter with a few folks, and even snapping a shot of the crowd with his phone, so he could put it on Twitter. The audience was receptive, in spite of the fact that many of them were probably there to see the headlining act, Randy Travis.
After shooting almost 400 images at the show that night, I headed back to the bus to pack up my camera gear. Many of the band and crew members gathered outside the buses, as Randy’s portion of the show came to a close, to witness a sweet fireworks display presented by the fair. Afterward, most of us went back to the bus lounge to wait for Joe to finish up a meet & greet with fans outside. Some pizzas arrived on the bus magically, and we all helped ourselves. Joe returned to the bus, and soon after, a fervent discussion of politics, global warming, and health care ensued between Joe and drummer Wes Little. 
From the expressions of the other band members, this was not the first time for such a discussion, and probably not the last. I even managed to interject a few thoughts here and there when there was a break in the action. It was all in good fun, and both sides had some valid points. 
Eventually, the merchandise guy, Taylor, wrapped up his sales activities and arrived back at the bus. We were relatively close to heading out, when someone knocked on the bus door and asked if we had left something near the stage. Turns out, the folding, plexiglass drum shield somehow never got loaded into the equipment trailer, so Chris and Taylor went to retrieve it. Once that was taken care of, the driver unhooked all the utilities, retracted the expandable portion of the lounge area, released the air brakes, and headed out on the 12 hour journey to Detroit.
(Link to Part 6 below)