Friday night’s concert event at the Comcast Theater in Hartford, CT featured three acts at very different points in their career. The music was great, the artists clearly had fun, and the mixed crowd seemed to enjoy themselves too. What was branded to me as a country concert seems to have been something entirely different where Lady Antebellum is concerned. The cross-over success to the pop market of their emotional songbook seems to have struck a chord (pun intended) with a fair range of audience members. Rockabilly couples, families, teenage girls, middle-aged women, country fans, and pop listeners were all present at the concert, and each act delivered quality performances.
Husband and wife duo Thompson Square took the stage first, driving through their adorable first hit “I Got You.” The duo does well with songs about togetherness, making the most of their real-life love story with “Getaway Car” and “Are You Gonna Kiss Me Or Not,” though the giant inflatable lips were a bit much. The set was lively even through their current hit, “Glass.” Has “Glass” played on Grey’s Anatomy yet? Because it may well get there. The set felt very short, even for a band that has only released one LP - it would seem that their name is bigger than their catalog.
Darius Rucker is the most experienced of the performers and takes the stage with a casual comfort that only a seasoned performer can exude. Even his t-shirt and jeans is less of a costume and more like his own wardrobe, and if his Nike hat is product placement, I don’t think anyone could care. He’s just too cool. The way he handled the rhythm actually made me think of a playful otter, twisting and surfacing in just the right places, making his way through the music like swimming through water. With five number one hits from his solo country career, he’s done better on the charts as a solo country artist than he ever did as front man for Hootie & the Blowfish. That’s not to say that Rucker has tried to outrun or outshine his past in anyway - Rucker revisited the Hootie-hit “Hold My Hand,” taking it at a slower tempo and hitting a smooth groove. His earlier inclusion of “I Only Wanna Be With You” in his set list rather proves that the only difference between a pop hit and a country hit is an electric banjo. Rucker’s musicians are exceptional, and he's even got a down-home name for them, The Carolina Greyboys. Their cover of “The Joker” fit perfectly with his recent country hits; no wonder he's had such a seamless transition between genres.
Rucker’s set was fantastic, but Lady Antebellum is the headliner, and this is the We Own the Night tour, after all. I get cynical when an artist or band arrives at the level of seemingly unbridled success that Lady Antebellum has, but most of their music is quite excellent. Despite the fact that most of their songs use the same three to four chords, the melodies are strong, and what makes this trio work is their friendship and their ability to create lavish harmonies together. I’ve always thought Dave Haywood looks like one of The Monkees, Hilary Scott is the daughter of singer (and one-time Reba McEntire duetist) Linda Davis, and Charles Kelley’s brother Josh hit mainstream music first with his single, “Amazing,” so they’re destined for music careers. Charles Kelley must be the music industry's answer to Ryan Gosling (not that Gosling can't sing, in fact he can), any picture of him on the projector screens is ready material for a “Hey Girl” meme. While his white shirt is not actually tight, you can tell he’s sculpted - I kept thinking of Emma Stone in Crazy, Stupid, Love: “It’s like you’re photoshopped!” Whereas Gosling maintains an element of gawky, Kelley clearly thrives on the adulation of the crowd and is adrenaline in cowboy boots. It’s even adorable when he flubs the lyrics to the group’s “Just a Kiss.” At 6’ 6” he’s the tallest man on stage all night so if his personal magnetism didn’t catch your eye, his height certainly would. I’m sure leading lady Hilary Scott was enjoying herself, but she doesn’t quite radiate the energy that Kelley does. Lucky for Haywood, the band has stuck together as a trio and he manages to carry an equal share in the staging and remains central to the group, if not the vocals. Lady A, as they are affectionately known, writes most of their own music, and while I can’t say exactly which songs they wrote, only one of them struck me as disingenuous, and that was “Honky Tonk Women.” What has made Lady A popular is their avoidance of cheesy backwoods stereotypes, their modern country style without a trace of redneck. “Honky Tonk Women” violates that precedent.
Otherwise the concert was a night of rambling fun, especially when all three acts joined together for one big number. It’s a jam session, simple and thankfully not overproduced. Once their guests departed, Lady A had time for one more song - but when that song wasn’t “Need You Now,” most of the crowd knew there would be an encore. The megahit was given the dramatic treatment; the bass and drums reminded me of “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” It’s the only costume change for Hilary Scott, but the song is just as good as ever, soaring in the massive arena.
It may be Lady Antebellum’s We Own the Night tour, but if you ask me, the night truly belonged to Darius Rucker. All the same, check out all three bands online. Thompson Square’s funky twosome really shines on “I Got You,” Darius Rucker’s “I Got Nothin” is my favorite of his, and Lady Antebellum’s newest single “Wanted You More” offers a powerful chorus that played really well on-stage... but if you don’t believe me, try to see for yourself sometime.
- Thompson Square: “I Got You”
- Darius Rucker: “I Got Nothin”
- Lady Antebellum: “Wanted You More” on NBC’s The Voice
- Lady Antebellum: tumblr - check out their dressing room cover of “Good Life” by OneRepublic
No comments:
Post a Comment