Carrie Underwood Brings A Night of Storytelling to Boston’s TD Garden

It was only appropriate that a light snow was falling outside the TD Garden on February 23rd, giving a certain sparkle to North Station. Carrie Underwood had brought her highly acclaimed Storyteller Tour to Boston after a stretch of sold-out shows, and Boston was no different with a capacity crowd of it’s own.

Upon entering the ‘Gahden,’ seeing an enormous stage that stretched nearly the length of the arena was awe-inspiring and shortly after 7PM, the lights went down, the Super Mario Brothers theme song played over the speakers, and the Swon Brothers emerged from backstage. The duo, who were contestants on The Voice, kicked off their night in Boston with ‘Throwback, ‘Just Another Girl,’ and ‘Nobody,’ songs that can be found on their recently released Timeless EP, while Colton would go from mic stand to mic stand giving all of the fans some love and attention. The guys then went into a cover of Jason Derulo’s ‘Want To Want Me,’ which allowed them to work the stage and interact with the crowd. As their time on stage was coming to an end, The Swon Brothers took a moment to thank the crowd and country radio saying, “God bless all of y’all and God bless country radio,” before finishing their set with ‘Later On.’

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Next up was Easton Corbin, who has played a number of smaller venues like Indian Ranch and the Mohegan Sun Wolf Den. He was also the opening act at Gillette Stadium back in 2010 when Brad Paisley headlined what many New Englanders refer to as ‘Countryfest.’ The Florida native kicked off his nearly 45 minute set with ‘Clockwork’ and ‘Lovin’ You Is Fun’ before performing his current single, ‘Yup.’ After performing ‘Roll With It,’ Easton took a minute to tell the crowd, “Thank you so much Boston for having us out here. When I think of Boston, it doesn’t get any more American than that,” following that statement up with ‘Are You With Me’ – a song off his 2012 ‘All Over The Road’ album.

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After an awesome performance of his first number one song, ‘A Little More Country To That, ‘ Corbin exclaimed, “Thank you for making that my first number one record. That song is what I am all about!” While Easton may have showed what he’s all about, he and his band next played a medley of covers. The first being Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ – Easton joked, “God knows I wish I could dance like Michael Jackson. But I’m gonna throw it out there and say that Michael Jackson was a horrible babysitter.” He followed that up with TLC’s ‘Waterfalls,’ because he “couldn’t respect the taste of music of this girl in high school.’ Next was a cover of Toby Keith’s ‘Should’ve Been A Cowboy’ and Kenny Chesney’s ‘She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.’ Corbin ended his night with ‘Baby Be My Love Song’ and ‘All Over The Road’ before waving goodbye to the crowd and thanking them one last time.

Throughout the night, a DJ booth would rise from below the stage to entertain the fans between sets. During the final break between Easton Corbin and Carrie Underwood, the DJ showed off some of his breakdancing moves while also shooting t-shirts out of his shirt-cannon. As he retreated one last time to the area below the stage and announced Carrie Underwood, the energy in the room got higher than it had been all night. The lights went down and the crowd rose to their feet. All that could be heard was screaming from the capacity crowd. A trio of LCD-screen rings began to descend from the ceiling and as they overlapped with each other and began to form what looked like a wedding cake, the main attraction ascended up to the top tier only to be greeted by screams and hollers even louder than before.

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The night was divided into four main acts. Carrie’s first act, and her night overall, began with ‘Renegade Runaway’ before transitioning into a mix of ‘Last Name’ and 2015 smash hit ‘Somethin’ Bad,’ minus her comrade Miranda Lambert, of course. Underwood in heels and black leather pants also performed ‘Undo It’ and ‘Good Girl’ before telling the crowd, “Well, hello Boston! How are you doing tonight? We’re so glad you are here and we’re so glad we are here. Welcome to The Storyteller Tour.” She wrapped up her first act with ‘Church Bells’ before descending below the stage for a quick break and costume change.

After what seemed like less than a minute, which allowed Underwood’s band to play the interlude to ‘Mexico,’ Carrie emerged from below the stage on a lit up jukebox that had pyrotechnic sparks coming from the edges. It was indeed an explosive entrance that gave her an elevated and dramatic platform for the start of act two, which kicked off with ‘Cowboy Casanova.’ One thing about this open sided stage is that it allowed Carrie to interact with fans throughout the arena. During ‘Heartbeat,’ Carrie made her way to one of the far ends of her stage, to be raised up into the air with a sparkling mirror ball directly above her. It definitely set the mood for the song and her current single. The only thing that would have made the performance even better was if her duet partner, Sam Hunt, came out. But Carrie rocked the song, even without Sam.

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After being lowered back down to stage level, Underwood intro’ed her next song by saying, “This always has been and always will be one of my favorite songs to sing,” and encouraged the crowd to sing-a-long with her. That song turned out to be her smash hit, ‘Jesus Take The Wheel.’ Act two concluded with ‘Wasted’ before Carrie again retreated below stage for another costume change while her band played the instrumental version of ‘Chaser.’ The next act began with an incredible and dramatic performance of ‘Blown Away.’ Carrie gave the song her all from an elevated platform in the middle of the stage with these illuminated drapes being blown up into the air. It was one of our favorite moments of Carrie’s set as the visual effects matched the drama and power in Carrie’s voice and performance.

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Other songs in the third act included ‘Two Black Cadillacs’ and ‘Dirty Laundry,’ a song that Carrie explained that she wanted on her most recent album because it had a different sound than what she had previously tried to do. The act wrapped with ‘Choctaw Country Affair,’ which allowed Carrie to show off her skills, not just singing, but on the harmonica! She went back and forth with one of her band members, almost battling, and got the crowd buzzing even more than they already were. It was the perfect transition into the next break as it kept the energy high in the TD Garden while everyone awaited for Carrie to return to the stage.

When she did return to the stage, she was alone, sitting on a stool. No band. No fancy lights or production. Underwood told the crowd, “I feel like the most blessed person to be doing this on stage. I feel blessed for another reason- I sing country music. I know some of the best people on the planet and they are country singers.” She continued by describing that she has gotten to connect with so many great artists and people via country music but if there’s one person that she idolized the most, it was Dolly Parton. “We all want to be like Dolly. If we could be just a little bit like Dolly, we would be so happy!” This led into an incredible and soulful performance of ‘I Will Always Love You.’ And if you’re thinking, ‘oh the Whitney Houston song!’ NO! The Dolly Parton song! History lesson: Dolly originally recorded the track back in 1973 and Whitney Houston recorded her version in 1992 for The Bodyguard movie.

If that performance didn’t move you, the next one did. Sitting on top of a piano, Carrie described how much her life has changed over the past few years. Most notably, she got married and gave birth to a baby boy. The next song was one that she wrote for her son, ‘What I Never Knew I Always Wanted.’ During the song, photos of her, her husband and her son flashed across the different screens suspended all over the stage. It was time to get the energy back up in the room and what better way to do that than with a cover of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s ‘Fishin’ In The Dark.’ Midway through the song, Easton Corbin joined Carrie on stage via the lift in the middle of the stage and shortly thereafter, The Swon Brothers did as well. It was an awesome performance from the quartet with great harmonies on the classic song. After singing ‘Clock Don’t Stop,’ Carrie was given a camera that she used to scan the crowd for all-American girls during, you guessed it, ‘All-American Girl.’ The video was live fed to all of those screens and monitors which allowed a bunch of fans to see themselves on the big screen in the TD Garden! The final act was complete after ‘Little Toy Guns’ and ‘Before He Cheats,’ but there was no way Boston was letting Carrie out that easily! She quickly returned to the stage one last time with an amazing yellow and gold light show which set the scene for a powerful performance of ‘Smoke Break.’ Carrie Underwood had one last song in her and she gave it her all for ‘Something In The Water,’ which turned into a huge sing-a-long, even drowning out the country superstar at times.

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Carrie Underwood’s Storyteller Tour was one of the most highly anticipated tours of the year and Carrie made sure that it lived up to every expectation that it possibly had coming in. Underwood ended up playing 22 songs all fitting perfectly with each other- the setlist was masterfully crafted and kept the crowd engaged and compelled throughout the entire night. This wasn’t just a concert, it was a production. From the stage and lights to the visual effects and, of course, the music. There wasn’t one aspect of the show that overshadowed the others. Each aspect of the production balanced each other out perfectly making it an unforgettable night for the capacity crowd at Boston’s TD Garden.

To see more photos from this show, click here.