Prior to releasing his 2014 album, titled ‘Where It’s At,’ Dustin Lynch acknowledged that the track ‘Hell Of A Night’ was one of the most challenging songs for him vocally. So when it came to his debut headlining tour, it was only appropriate to name the tour after that challenging song- a song that became his second Number One song in 2014, and the second off the ‘Where It’s At‘ album. On February 11th, Lynch’s tour rolled into Boston’s House of Blues with up-and-coming acts Tyler Rich and Chris Lane.
In the past few years, California has generated a wealth of country artists including Leah Turner and Cam, and Tyler Rich is another to come from the Golden State. Tyler took the stage with his guitar right around 8PM to play an acoustic set featuring some of his original songs like ‘Find Me In A Jeep’ and our favorite product of his, ‘I Can Teach Ya.’ He took some time throughout his set to address the crowd, including saying how incredible it was for Dustin to invite him out on the road to play in places like Boston and do some cool stuff like go to Fenway Park and buy Red Sox hats (Tyler showed some new hats throughout the night with the ‘B’ logo that Bostonians are so familiar with). Tyler also played some covers including an amazing rendition of George Strait’s ‘Check Yes Or No.’ After doing so, he played another original, ‘Anywhere Else Tonight,’ before telling the crowd, “Guys, it’s feeling up here… I’m gonna slow it down. I’m gonna play a sad song if that’s alright.” He continued by telling the crowd that him and an ex had Blake Shelton’s ‘God Gave Me You’ as their song, and after they broke up, he wished that the song could be deleted from country radio because of the ability of a song to bring you back to a certain place or time. Out of this experience, he wrote a song called ‘Radio,’ which he played for the crowd- country music at it’s finest; taking a real life experience, and writing a song about it, one that is relatable to almost any music fan. We all have those songs that take us back to a certain memory.
Tyler got the energy back in the room with a fun cover of Justin Bieber’s current hit, ‘Sorry.’ With his acoustic version, the crowd was singing along which made for a fun moment. His set continued with a couple covers from 1996: Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’ and Ginuwine’s ‘My Pony,’ two songs that the largely young crowd knew and resonated with, finding the majority of ticket holders singing and dancing along to. For the California native, there was only one way to end his set, with his song ‘California Grown,’ a song that is an homage to his home state.
Shortly after Tyler Rich retreated backstage, Chris Lane and his five-man band took the stage to his debut single, ‘Broken Windshield View.’ After playing ‘Saturday Night,’ a track off his recent ‘Fix‘ EP, Lane played a medley of songs that included Rick Springfield’s ‘Jessie’s Girl,’ Bruno Mars’ ‘Locked Out of Heaven,’ KISS’ ‘I Wanna Rock N Roll,’ Katy Perry’s ‘Firework,’ and Miley Cyrus’ ‘Wrecking Ball.’ Needless to say, that got the crowd going with the diverse selection of songs to mix together seamlessly. It was a fun moment that brought the energy up in the room, if only for a bit as he followed this stretch up with ‘Her Own Kind Of Beautiful’ and a song called ‘Drinking Games.’ Chris then told the crowd, “I wanna play one of my favorite songs to sing,” and hinted that he may be recording the next song, ‘Let Me Love You,’ a song that was originally recorded by R&B singer Mario.
Lane continued the romance a little bit by telling the crowd, “I wanted a song to dedicate to all the ladies. This one is for y’all,” and proceed to play ‘For Her,’ another song off his recent EP. Chris then played a fun and uptempo song that required him to hit some of the higher vocal notes of his range. ‘Who’s It Gonna Be’ brought the crowd dancing and singing along to the lyrics and followed it up with another melody of songs. Backstreet Boys ‘I Want It That Way’ transitioned into The Weeknd’s ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ into Jason DeRulo’s ‘Want to Want Me.’ And it didn’t stop there! Chris and his band showed off some choreography as the mix then went into NSync’s ‘Bye Bye Bye,’ which the ladies in the crowd seemed to love as the whole band was dancing in unison. The pop song led into some ‘Whip and Nae Nae’ and Flo Rida’s ‘Going Down For Real.’ While it wasn’t country covers per se, it was fun. It got the crowd engaged and it was entertaining. Chris finished out his night at the House of Blues with his current single, ‘Fix.’
There are only a handful of country artists who can rock a cowboy hat nowadays. And Dustin Lynch is one of them. As Carolyn Kruse from WKLB intro’ed the BBR Music Group artist, a certain buzz was in the air. By now, the sold-out crowd was at it’s capacity and the crowd erupted as Lynch ran onto the stage, waving to the crowd. Dustin kicked the night off with ‘To The Sky,’ followed by ‘She Cranks my Tractor,’ and ‘Halo,’ before addressing the crowd by saying, “We’ve been counting down the days until Boston, Massachusetts! By the way, we’ll see you later this year at Gillette Stadium!,” which got the crowd roaring even more than they already were. Lynch then had his tour manager bring out his cell phone so he could take a video of the crowd to send to his parents.
Dustin continued his set with ‘All Night’ before throwing it back to the 90s. “I’m gonna hit the rewind button for a little bit.” He rocked the crowd with some country classics like Diamond Rio’s ‘Meet In The Middle’ and Brooks and Dunn’s ‘Boot Scootin Boogie.’ Lynch went back to some originals from his ‘Where It’s At‘ album: ‘After Party,’ and ‘Sing It To Me’ before saying, “Let’s turn this thing up a couple of notches!” He would then play ‘Name On It,’ off his 2012 self-titled album. “Where are my wild girls at?” Lynch asked the crowd, before playing another song off that 2012 album, ‘Wild In Your Smile.’ The lights went down as Lynch set the mood for a powerful performance of ‘Hurricane’ and Garth Brooks’ ‘Thunder Rolls,’ while flashing strobes reflected off Lynch’s textured backdrop giving the atmosphere of an actual storm inside the House of Blues.
Time for some fun! As the lights came back on, there was a wheel now on stage with different artists or themes on wedges of the wheel. We’re calling it the Wheel of Covers. After bringing Chris Lane and Tyler Rich back out, the trio picked out a young lady from the crowd to be their Vanna White. As she took the stage and her place at the wheel, Dustin jokingly pleaded with her not to land on Beyonce or Coldplay which drew some laughs from the crowd. The first spin landed on Tim McGraw and the trio of country singers sang a great rendition of ‘Indian Outlaw,’ each taking their turn at the song. The second spin landed on ‘Your Choice,’ so their Vanna White made her choice… Beyonce. Dustin obliged with a cover of Destiny’s Child’s ‘Say My Name’ which got the crowd going as they sand and danced along to the song. The third spin landed on Beastie Boys, which led them into singing ‘Fight For Your Right,’ which of course got the crowd pumped up even more.
Dustin’s set was coming to an end and he sure made the most of it beginning with his current single on country radio, ‘Mind Reader.’ He followed it up with one of his most successful singles to date, ‘Cowboys and Angels,’ and a raucous performance of ‘Where It’s At,’ which had him crowd surfing along the general admission floor in a lit up raft before retreating backstage. But there was no way this crowd was letting Dustin Lynch out that easily! He returned to the stage with a Patriots hat on, to the delight of the crowd to perform ‘Hell Of A Night,’ only fitting since it was indeed a hell of a night at the House of Blues.
For more photos from this concert, click here.
