November is the time of year where the weather here in New England starts to turn colder but that wasn’t the case on Saturday, November 1st at The Ryan Center in Kingston, RI. On this night, Hunter Hayes turned up the heat on the University of Rhode Island campus as he rolled into town with his Tattoo (Your Name) Tour. Hunter brought along special guests The Railers and Dan + Shay to add to what was already expected to be one amazing concert. New England Country Music was fortunate enough to be in attendance for quite a night of great music.
You could feel the excitement permeating throughout the crowd the second you walked onto the arena floor. Right around 7:00 the lights dimmed and The Railers took to the stage to open the show. The band hailing from Nashville, TN includes brothers Jordan and Jonathan Lawson, Cassandra Lawson and Tyler Oban. They quickly won the crowd over with their five song set and made use of some lost country music instruments as the band used the mandolin, accordion and fiddle. The crowd was treated to some great songs including ‘Lessons I Don’t Wanna Learn,’ the instrumental jam ‘The Irish Song’ and ‘These Hands.’ The Railers finished their set with their first radio single, ‘I Kinda Dig the Feeling’ which won the crowd over even more. It was easy to see that the band made a lot of new fans by the time they left the stage.
Next on the bill were Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney who collectively makeup the country duo Dan + Shay! The guys hit the stage like a bat out of hell and brought the energy level in The Ryan Center to a new height. Dan + Shay bounced from one side of the stage to the other as they hit the ground running with ‘Somewhere Only We Know.’ They certainly had the crowd on their side from the first chord and this was evident by the squeals of many female audience members. The duo kept things going with ‘Nothin’ Like You,’ ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’ (which was featured on ABC’s Nashville) and ‘Parking Brake.’ Next they played a new song, ‘Partner In Crime’ which will be a part of the guys upcoming second album. Dan + Shay then got the entire place shaking as they broke out their current single, ‘Show You Off.’ They had the crowd singing and dancing along to one of their biggest hits to date. The remainder of their set included ‘Can’t Say No,’ ‘First Time Feeling’ and covers of Taio Cruz’s ‘Dynamite’ and ‘Moves Like Jagger’ by Maroon 5. The ever impressive duo finished the night with their biggest hit so far, ’19 You + Me.’ Dan + Shay performed one helluva set and set the bar high for the headliner to try and top.
As the clock struck 8:40, The Ryan Center went dark and the lights on the stage started to flash as you could hear the band start playing. In between flashes, you could see the silhouette of a guitar player at the top of the stage and then the stage came to life and revealed… Hunter Hayes! Not a single person was sitting down as he opened the show with ‘Storyline’ off his latest album of the same name. This was proceeded by ‘Wild Card’ and Hunter’s debut single ‘Storm Warning’ which had the crowd singing along and included a great guitar solo. Now the stage was shaped like a U facing the crowd and Hayes would make use of this all night long to bring himself closer to every fan in the venue. After playing ‘Secret Love’ he took his first break to address the sold-out crowd. “Good evening Rhode Island! How are you guys? We’re here to make sure we have as much fun as is humanly possible.” He then sang a few lines from ‘Dream Girl’ before turning it into ‘Somebody’s Heartbreak’ and even took a minute to take a birthday selfie with the crowd.
One of the best things about a Hunter Hayes show is the passion he brings to his performance as he has a hand in writing each song and it shows through even more in concert. The lyrics to ‘Still Fallin’ played on the main screen of the stage as the song resonated through the crowd. ‘More Than I Should’ led into what Hunter said was, “Time for a few songs for all the broken-hearted in the audience.” This proved to be very true as the next song was ‘You Think You Know Somebody’ which came off great as it’s not too often that an artist can pull off a rocking ballad. As had been the trend all evening, the action was moved from one side of the stage to the other. On the right side was now setup a replica of the Opry mic stand which Hunter jokingly said he stole for the tour. ‘Everybody’s Got Somebody But Me’ got one of the best reactions and crowd participation of the night. Without any notice, Hayes than ran into the crowd to a small platform setup for him to perform an acoustic version of ‘If It’s Just Me.’ Before he returned to the main stage to perform ‘Flashlight,’ the crowd was treated to a great intro to ‘Faith To Fall Back On.’
A white piano was now setup to the left leg of the stage and Hunter took a few moments to address the crowd before playing his next song, “I’ve been looking forward to this tour as it has been a dream of mine to be on my own tour, like my idols Garth Brooks and Keith Urban.” He then sat down at the piano and played ‘Love Too Much’ which he dedicated to the men and women of the United States Military, “I’ve had the absolute privilege of playing for the military several times and they miss moments in life to give us moments like tonight.”
The piano remained on stage as he played two of his most popular and successful songs. First up was the emotional ballad, ‘Invisible.’ Hayes took a second to give some background into the song, “This was the very first song on ‘Storyline’ that I wrote and recorded. I want to thank my friends at country radio as I never dreamed this would be a single. It takes guts to support this song.” You could feel the emotion in his voice as he sang the emotional tune. This was only the build-up for the crowd as the entire audience was singing along as he next performed ‘Wanted.’ The song was Hunter’s first number one single and the reception to it live was amazing.
All night we had been shown the versatility of Hunter Hayes lyrically and playing the tools of his trade. This point was further driven home when he hopped on a drum set and went to town on it for ‘Better Than This.’ This was followed up with ‘Thing About You’ and ‘Love Makes Me.’ This would normally be the point when things start to slow down but the energy reached new heights with the next song, ‘Tattoo.’ The crowd hit the roof as Hunter played the top single off of his number one album and at points even drowned the man himself out as their voices filled the arena with every verse.
An added treat was when The Railers and Dan + Shay were brought back out to have one big jam session as all of the acts covered ‘Hey, Soul Sister’ by Train. At this point everyone left the stage and the arena went dark. The chants for Hunter Hayes to do an encore started to build into he and his band took the stage for one final song. He gave the crowd exactly what they wanted as he closed his set with ‘I Want Crazy.’ This is exactly what he got from the audience as they sang along and jumped up and down as Hayes worked every part of the stage amongst a sea of confetti. As the song started to wind down Hunter made sure to walk around to shake hands, sign a few autographs and take more selfies with the crowd in attendance.
It was a true pleasure to cover this show for New England Country Music as it was an A+ performance from the first song by The Railers to the last song by Hunter Hayes. Each act built upon the last and was great to see Hunter Hayes play live. He absolutely shows a maturity and skillset way beyond his years and it’s great to see someone so young be so incredible to his fans. I, for one, can’t wait to see another of his shows when he returns to New England and I’m sure everyone in The Ryan Center this night would agree.
This review was done by NECM contributing writer Mike Sullivan. You can follow me on Twitter.
