On Thursday, May 12th, Country 92.5 hosted an exclusive Billy Currington concert at Pig’s Eye Pub in downtown Hartford, CT. There were no tickets sold, the only way in was to win. It was a treat for some of the station’s most dedicated listeners. Doors opened at 5:15 Thursday night and fans made their way up to the second floor bar where drink specials and a big open floor were waiting for them. The venue’s usual pool tables had been removed leaving plenty of floor space for fans to occupy. There were also a few high top tables that remained along perimeter of the room that were claimed quickly, and by 6:00 the place was filled with around 100 excited fans. 92.5’s Steve Kelly and Cory Myers came forward to thank everyone for coming out and announced to the eager crowd that the show would be starting soon.
It wasn’t long before Billy Currington took the stage, waving to fans as he made the short walk to the mic stand that was practically within arm’s reach of the crowd. The singer kicked off the show with his number one hit, ‘Don’t It,’ and fans could already tell we were in for a good night. “Howdy, howdy, howdy!” Currington exclaimed at the song’s close. “It’s so good to be here! Anything you want to hear just yell it out, we’ll try to get to that.” A few fans yelled out song requests and one fan even requested for Billy to play them all. The singer joked, “All of them, right? Just sing it all, all six of the albums.” Currington took a moment to introduce his band before moving on to his 2009 single, ‘That’s How Country Boys Roll.’ The next song had a little bit of a story behind it – one of the best things about intimate shows like this is that fans can connect with the artist on a more personal level. Billy told the story as if he was talking to a group of friends. It was one of Billy’s very first songs on country radio and he explained how, at the time, he was just tired of writing about love. But he knew he had to finish that song so when the singer returned from lunch that day, he just went for it. The result was his second single, ‘I Got a Feelin’’ from his debut self-titled album. Billy performed the song while some long-time fans sang along.
“It’s good to be here,” Billy yelled out, adding, “And it’s warm as hell too!” It was one of those spring days that felt more like summer, the kind that makes you want to break out the flip flops and crack open a beer. The singer led into a song that was perfect for the beautiful day, ‘Pretty Good at Drinkin’ Beer,’ and fans raised their bottles as they sang along. “Who’s really good at drinking beer?” Currington asked at the song’s close. The crowd cheered and whistled in response as a few cold pints were being delivered on stage to the band. The singer followed up with ‘Let Me Down Easy,’ another song from his 2010 album which he dedicated to “all the lovebirds out there.” It’s a song his fans knew well, so during the chorus he pointed the microphone at the audience indicating that he wanted everyone to sing as loud as they could. Currington finished the song with a big smile on his face and began to introduce the next one. “So there was this old man and he was sitting at the bar…” Billy said before he got cut off by an eruption of cheers from the crowd. He raised a glass, “Cheers! You know the song,” he said enthusiastically as he began to perform ‘People Are Crazy.’ During the song he let the crowd sing out the chorus to which he replied, “Amen!” Currington ended the song by stating, “That’s alright, we’re all crazy!” and everyone cheered in agreement.
The next song, Billy explained, didn’t have much of a story to it – it was one of those that just fell out. His newest single, ‘It Don’t Hurt Like It Used To,’ from his ‘Summer Forever’ album is a personal and relatable song about moving on from breakup. The mid-tempo song is probably best performed live, with an energetic “Hey, hey” at the start of the chorus. Even fans unfamiliar with the new single caught themselves throwing up their arms and dancing along. From there, he moved on to the well-known ‘Must Be Doin’ Somethin’ Right’ and the high-energy hit, ‘We Are Tonight.’ The latter was clearly a crowd favorite and created quite the party. Fans were belting out the lyrics, jumping up and down, and stomping their feet on the hardwood floor. I can’t imagine what it was like for the folks at the restaurant downstairs, but I’m betting they wished they were on our level (pun intended). The singer went on to play his 2006 single, ‘Good Directions,’ and we all laughed about turnip greens.
It was approaching 7:00 and unfortunately the fun would be over soon. For his final song of the night, Currington performed a cover of Walk The Moon’s ‘Shut Up and Dance.’ If the people downstairs didn’t hear us before, we definitely made sure they knew it was a party now. Everyone in the crowd knew all the lyrics to the pop rock song and were shouting them loudly as they danced like crazy. The show ended on such a high note and left everyone wanting more, so we were all a little disappointed as we watched the band pack things up. At this point, most of the fans headed out the door but the ones who stayed got a special surprise when Billy came back out, this time with a sharpie in hand. The singer spent quite a bit of time with fans, signing whatever they had from cell phones to bare bottoms. (Yes, that happened.) Everyone got to leave with something Thursday night, even if it was just the memories of an incredible, exclusive performance. We can’t thank Country 92.5 enough for putting on one-of-a-kind events like this – it was definitely a night no one will forget.
