I was going to swear off "big name" country tours with the three tiered acts, after seeing Tom Russell a few years ago, as well as Kris Kristofferson. Well, I guess I broke that last year seeing George Strait(The King of "Country" music) and Brad Paisley(another throwback, though with modern traits). But Miranda Lambert is another modern talent, who has great songs and the merit that most artists in the Country Music stable don't have.
Lambert's On Fire Tour announced a Columbia date at Mizzou Arena and my brother was interested in going and I took the day off(or asked to have that be my off day). I wanted to get GA standing at the front, but Zane would have rather had seats. So, I played the waiting game and wound up getting third row seats(which actually wound up being 2nd row) and were about half way in the first section on the left side. They turned out to be pretty good seats, and a good view when the singers went to the extreme left platform. There ended up being quite a few empty seats, including two to my left. During one of the changeover's between acts, I ran to the bathroom, which was completely empty if that tells you anything...
The concert was scheduled to start at 7:30, but opening act Jerrod Niemann actually came out a little bit before then. I had seen him last summer when he held the same opening slot on Brad Paisley's tour and I think he regurgitated the same lines and antics of crowd banter he did then. We got it, drinking or referencing drinking is your schtick. He played a seven song set for half an hour. It wasn't bad, but I'd seen it before.
Set List
Guessing Games
One More Drinkin' Song
Get On Up
What Do You Want
Sun Shining On Me
Pride and Joy
Lover, Lover
Next up was Chris Young, who was my brother's main reason for coming. He played a ten or eleven song set for about 50 minutes. The biggest thing I noticed about him is voice was several octaves higher than he sounds on record, which was sort of a disappointment, as his deep sounding voice helped distinguish him a bit. But personality wise he seemed to be another "forced" redneck type, playing up the same old things. Sort of like another version of Blake Shelton, a pretty boy type with voice and not much else.
During one of his songs that name-dropped Conway Twitty, he stopped the songs and asked why there wasn't a bigger reaction to his name. Well, for starters we couldn't understand it and most didn't know the song. But he chastised the audience and gave a short bit of I'd Love to Lay You Down. I kept thinking this is something Peter Griffin would do. Aside from the song Gettin' You Home, Young's not really my cup of tea. The best part about the opening acts, was they seemed to be over pretty quickly.
Set List
Save Water, Drink Beer
Gettin' You Home
Lost
The Man I Want to Be
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
Voices
Neon
You
I Can Take It From There
Who's Gonna Take Me Home
Tomorrow
After a fairly quick changeover, the lights dimmed and the curtain dropped and Miranda Lambert took to the stage sporting a pink Telecaster playing The Fastest Girl in Town. The whole stage was pretty deep, I'm thinking this had really poor ticket sales, as the two sections nearest the stage were roped off, because even with my decent seats, the drummer seemed miles away.
She wound up playing twenty-one songs, I believe, getting everything I wanted to hear. Kerosene kept the show going and throughout the show she kept dancing and shaking her ass. Someone I work with, who also went to the concert, said she acted drunk, which probably had a little to do with it as well.
The whole show was pretty rocking, but still maintained enough of the country edge. Heart Like Mine and White Liar seemed like they were they played faster than the recorded versions, but probably just had a lot more instrumentation turned up. Here's the Set List from looking at previous shows, though I think there's one song here she didn't play.
Fastest Girl in Town
Kerosene
Heart Like Mine
New Strings
Over You
More Like Her
Baggage Claim
Fine Tune
Yoü and I
Maintain the Pain
Dead Flowers
Famous in a Small Town
Only Prettier
Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo
Mama's Broken Heart
All Kinds of Kinds
The House That Built Me
That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round
Gunpowder and Lead
White Liar
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Misery and Gin
King of the Road
More Like Her, she went to the ramp and sang from here knees, a perfect contrast along with the tone of the lyrics about not being able to take a cheater back. Though Fine Tune, was her only real schtick, where she sat on a psychiatrist couch with a vintage type microphone trying to sound like a 1950's style song and singing, seemed like a waste of time, and hard to understand, even though the entendres are clever.
And she either was really into the songs emotionally or a good actress/performer, but she brought great sincerity and emotion to The House That Built Me and Over You.
She played several covers in the main set, including ones by John Prine, That's the Way That the World Goes Round (which she's recorded), Lady Gaga's Yoü and I, and Rick Derringer's Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo. Seeing as all three acts played a classic rock song in their set list, is it mandatory for today's country artists to do so? I know modern country is more classic rock and 60s pop than what passes for Pop and Modern Rock, but geez...
She mentioned being at the Grammy's behind Lady Gaga and striking up a conversation and wound up talking about rivalries. Apparently Gaga asked her if they had rivalries in Country like they do in Pop? Lambert replied "...ummm...Noooo," before stating though there are a couple of other blondes I'd really like to beat at this ceremony. A nice dig at Carrie and Taylor, who are questionable in being true "Country" music artists. Yeah, I like to throw that term around...
And it sounded like she ad-libbed a couple of lines, with "Come get your shit," at the end of Baggage Claim and changed the lyric of White Liar to, "..with a red haired skank named Bernice."
She came back out for her encore, with just her guitar player and played Merle's Misery and Gin, and with Chris Young, Jerrod Niemann and their entire bands, traded off verses on Roger Miller's King of the Road.
Miranda's performance was more than worth it. She played her hit songs, showed emotion and her country roots and influences. This is one Redneck girl you can't help but love.
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