Photographs by Sean Chin.
My 2015 tradition of doing something new and different continued last night with my first New-Country gig.
Right off the bat, country music is not really my thing although I have seen Lucinda Williams and Loretta Lynn in the past. The packed Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto gave me an experience on a completely different level.
Appearing on stage following a very loud medley of pop hits including “Uptown Funk”, “Shake It Off”, some Pitbull, etc., the three main players, Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood, that are Lady Antebellum arrived to accompany their 5-piece backing band in front of an impressive stage set-up, one that was more Daft Punk than Dwight Yoakam. In fact, I could swear that was the old pyramid stage that Daft Punk used on their 2007 tour.
Opening with “Long Stretch of Love” off their most recent release, 747, the three worked the vast stage, a catwalk that extended through the floor and then some, delivered a memorable night for the packed house that gathered the most families I’ve ever seen at a gig.
For most of my gigging years I’ve seen bands that have bordered on disdain for their audience, so to see the mutual love-in that was the audience-band, band-band and even band-opener relationships was something unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
With the deafening roar of the crowd, the constant declarations of love from the band, even laying on the stage to give fans selfies to make their friends envious, there was little doubt as to why everyone came under an almost evangelical spell.
The band sounded great, their visuals were surprisingly amazing and both band and audience had energy to boot to turn the place into one dance-crazed hoe-down.
At one point the band made their way through the crowd performing a mini-set on a small stage between the 300 and 400 sections of the venue throwing in a cover of Ed Sheeran’s “Thinking Out Loud” and a snippet of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On”. Even opener Hunter Hayes got in the action appearing early as a guest playing mandolin. An encore that featured their ubiquitous 2010 hit “Need You Now” shredded the last of the crowd’s vocal chords.
Much like the punks at Comeback Kid in January, these country fans approached the evening like it was their last chance to party. Also unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, the amphitheatre was packed for Hunter Hayes, and probably was for Sam Hunt who opened the night and ran through a sea of fans.
Hayes’ set was surprisingly rocking, and probably would go over well with core audiences of Creed and Nickelback. The young heartthrob was comfortable on the mic, guitar, mandolin and even piano and at times would dissolve into short, almost psychedelic jams. The crowd also knew the words to all of his songs, energetically offering the assist on vocals. More mutual love.
There was much impressive about the evening, defying my expectations on what the evening would be. I had a blast, was blown away at the love-in that started early and only gained fervor, and found a new understanding of my new-country friends.
Thanks to Live Nation Ontario for media access.
