I’ve got to tell you; I
only expected the worst. I love country music but I hate what is called country
these days. My initial exposure to Chesney was a God-awful tune called “She Thinks My
Tractor’s Sexy”…needless to say; my initial exposure was my last. I
didn’t feel like there were going to be any surprises when his band took to the stage
and opened with a handful of watered down covers (“Pride And Joy”,
“Crossroads”, etc.). By the time Kenny strolled out (big ol’ cowboy hat and
all), I was ready to leave. Strangely at about twenty minutes in, I began to notice that I
did not, to my utter surprise, hate it. Maybe it was Chesney’s down to earth
personality, but as he strolled through 45-straight minutes of massive country hits, I
warmed to him. By the time he hit “The Good Stuff,” I was getting it. Sure, it
was schmaltzy. But the way it connected with the audience so squarely is still worth
something.
When Uncle Kracker showed up to
“duet” on the new single “When The Sun Goes Down,” things really got
weird. After shooting the video for the song (which required lots of girls dressed like
hula dancers), Kenny and Kracker launched into an hour of crowd favorites, like a well
seasoned cover band, they led the us through Kracker’s hits (“Drift Away”,
“Follow Me”) and then detoured into a free for all that found them covering John
Mellencamp, Kid Rock, Tom Petty, Tommy Tutone and even doing a faithful reading of
U2’s “With Or Without You.” By now, even the 40 Watt staff was developing a
soft spot for the performer. Every time a new song would start, you’d see their
collective smile get broader. Still…you can’t possibly imagine the looks on the
faces of the doubters when Kenny, Kracker and crowd slid from the honky tonk sleaze of
David Allan Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” into an amped up
version of Violent Femmes’ “Blister In The Sun” without even a hint of
musical whiplash. Surely, this is a sign of the approaching apocalypse. If so, the end
will be much more fun than I had always imagined it would be.
