PHOTOS AND REVIEW BY NICK SPACEK
The last "young country" show I saw was about 10 years ago, and when Tracy Lawrence suggested that the crowd turn Sandstone into a roadhouse, five fistfights broke out pretty much immediately. Kenny Chesney's Sun City Carnival tour rolled through the Sprint Center Saturday night, and the venue went from arena to roadhouse. It was a rowdy crowd, but a respectful one. Country music fans know how to drink, though, and by the end of the show, I was standing in a puddle of beer the size of a small pond.
The show, overall, bore no resemblance to the country shows I've been attending for the past decade. I've seen Willie Nelson and George Jones, along with locals like the Midday Ramblers, and those shows are pretty much a band and a stage, and that's it. The Sun City Carnival was a spectacle that bore more resemblance to an '80s Van Halen concert than anything else.
Lady Antebellum didn't have much in the way of stage spectacle, but they were the openers, and thus don't qualify for LCD screens of any sort. Their repeated references to Kansas ("Hello, Kansas!" etc) didn't exactly endear them to anyone around me, but by the time they'd kicked in the footlights with their opener, "Lookin' For A Good Time," people'd pretty much stopped caring. The tune's a Springsteen-esque rocker, and the mid-tune segue into AC/DC's "You Shook Me All Night Long" got folks to pay attention and make some noise, as did the cheap pops of "You all ready for KENNY CHESNEY?!?!" Lady Antebellum followed a formula that would be repeated throughout the night, and started off with a rocker, followed it up with the same, and then slowed it down, just to bring it back up at the end. The uptempo numbers got the folks moving, but slower songs like the Tesla-flavored "I Run to You" could barely be heard over the low murmur of conversation. Closing with "Love Don't Live Here" left the audience wanting more, however, and the crowd seemed primed for Miranda Lambert.
Miranda Lambert was intro'd by some hip-hop, and came out ready to rock. She strutted and sassed her way through her set with a confidence that grabbed the audience by the ears and didn't let go. It was odd to see her out there twangin' it up with a mohawked bass player and a band that seemed more likely to be backing Chris Daughtry than Lambert, but everything came together with a sound that was somewhere in a special place where Tom Petty, Reba McEntire and Kasey Chambers meet.
It was rather surprising that Lambert chose to play so many covers, however. I wouldn't have been surprised had Lady Antebellum done so, but as Lambert was coming on before Kenny Chesney, I was taken aback by not one, but three covers. Her choices were solid, and "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" got the crowd going, too. The sing-along to the Joan Jett tune saved her a bit from the fail that occured on "Famous In A Small Town." And, with the exception of a new tune that was very CCR, her best song of the night was a cover. Lambert's juke-joint version of the Faces' "Stay With Me" was introduced with the words "I'm going to shake my North Texas-sized booty, y'all," and was soulful, a little dirty, and just plain knocked my socks off.
It's a good thing there was a little booty-shaking, too, because the men in the audience would be deafened by shrieks about fifteen minutes later. I can't help but think that the two female-fronted acts were chosen because Kenny Chesney knew that all the ladies would be screaming for him for the better part of an hour and a half, and wanted their husbands and boyfriends to get an eyeful of their own before he came sailing down from the rafters -- literally.
After an opening video filled with people enjoying themselves in a Brazilian Carnival, Chesney sailed over the crowd seated in a chair that flew low, as he sang "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy." Bonus points for equipping the chair with cameras so the audience could double freak when they saw themselves on the huge screen behind the band. It was like something out of a Motely Crue video or WWE pay-per-view.
Making the audience freak seemed to be the whole point of this show. Chesney's band had to number nearly 20, featuring the usual backing band along with a four-piece horn section, keyboards, and percussion guy on congas. Every member of the band not seated behind an instrument walked out onto the catwalk that extended a third of the way into the crowd at least once. Chesney and his guitar players strutted their way out there like the Blue Brothers more than once.
Although, really, Chesney could have come out with a five-piece band and no big light show and the audience still would have gone crazy. Every song was a sing-along. Nobody can touch country music fans for sing-alongs. It seemed like I was the only one who didn't know the words, and I felt a little left out. Thankfully, like most three-chord verse-chorus-verse numbers, I clued in pretty quickly and was also able to say that when it came down to it, "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Problem."
Chesney hit all the hits. The man knows what his audience wants, and didn't try and play a bunch of new stuff or go into long-winded intros. Most song introductions were a couple sentences at most, usually something along the line of "I wrote this song during a true time in my life," and then the opening chords of something like "Big Star" or "Out Last Night" would start, and the crowd would go crazy, and he'd grin, and then the song would get kicking.
The audience left happy, I left surprised, everyone seemed a little sauced, and it was like I'd sneaked into a neighborhood block party. People were a little surprised to see me there, and were pretty certain that I wasn't from those parts, but ended up letting me stay and have some fun with them, anyhow. Thanks, y'all.
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Oh KC Cowgirl.....Well if you went to Sprint Center that night I'd say you must have been more than a little let down. But it might also explain the poor sounding music...whatever it was they were piping in for the janitors to listen to. Chesney was at Arrowhead. Better luck next time-:) Might want to get a Garmin?
Kenny Chesney in concert 2011! Check out the tickets now available! http://tinyurl.com/4qlx5um
Every show I've seen of Chesney's always seemed like the last one! He does not impress me! If he didn't wear that hat....would those women really scream for him?? If he didn't build up his arms and wear those sleeveless t-shirts...would they even look at him twice....I don't think so. He has 2 props...a cowboy hat and a guitar! His one range singing is a bore!
I went to this concert and fidgeted in my seat through Lady A, and Miranda Lambert and left after the 3rd song by Kenny...I LOVE this guy and was so terribly disappointed at the sound system at the "state of the art" Sprint Center! The band's music was so much louder than the singers voices, I had to strain to figure out where they were in the songs. Ticked me off royally as we paide good money for tickets and I know Kenney Chesney puts on a good show from what I've seen clips of and what people have told me. COMPLETELY disappointed. I did buy a T-shirt though! :-) Those beers were $8.00 a piece...suprising so much ended up on the floor.
Good review-I could almost feel the anticipation of the women for this guy. Not my kind of music, but he knows where the money's at!
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