Newly crowned ACM Entertainer of the Year Jason Aldean took Mohegan Sun by storm recently with two packed nights of awesome shows. NECM was lucky enough to be able to take in the Friday show, his first since winning the award. He also brought along DeeJay Silver and A Thousand Horses.
As excited fans filled into the arena, they were greeted by DeeJay Silver mixing up country and other hits. I had initially typed that last sentence to say “as fans took their seats” but really everyone was standing up dancing the whole time, so that would not have been accurate.
After a while, the lights went down and DeeJay Silver faded his music down as A Thousand Horses took the stage. The country rockers had quite the presence with nine singers and instrumentalists on stage! The band opened up with ‘Landslide’ before going right into an awesome rendition of ‘Travelin’ Man’ featuring some incredible harmonica playing. The fans really got loud as the intro to ‘(This Ain’t No) Drunk Dial’ came on. The entire place sang every word.
The band played most of the songs off of their ‘Southernality’ album. It’s impressive to note that at least one member of the band wrote on every song on the album. The only song they played all night that wasn’t written by them was a cover of ‘Hard to Handle’ which was perfect for the bands blend of country and rock.
As the band played their debut single, ‘Smoke,’ the entire arena was lit up by cell phones in what was a pretty cool moment. The song is the first country group single to go #1 since 2008 and threw the group into the spotlight. After watching the band perform and the fan’s reaction, this is clearly a place they thrive and belong. The band currently has ‘Southernality’ out to radio as their third single.
After A Thousand Horses finished up, DeeJay Silver came back on telling the crowd, “let’s turn this place into the biggest house party in Connecticut,” before playing Sam Hunt’s ‘House Party.’ As the stage was prepared with Aldean’s incredible set up, fans danced and sang along with a multitude of hits.
DeeJay Silver ended his set with a tribute to Prince. The lights went down and came back up with a purple tint as ‘Purple Rain’ played. A single spotlight shined down on a microphone alone on the stage in what was a great moment.
I thought the roof was gonna blow off as fans exploded when Aldean took the stage. Aldean and band showed no signs of rust in their first show back after a month and a half break. Appropriately, the set started with ‘Just Getting Started.’ They then went right into ‘Gonna Know We Were Here’ and ‘Take A Little Ride.’
All night the fans sang every word. From his first single ‘Hicktown’ to the latest ‘Lights Come On,’ it was one giant sing along. Aldean has reached that point where he has so many hits you have those ‘I forgot about this song‘ moments, but you certainly do not forget the words and how much you love those songs. Sitting in that concert I heard songs that are permanently attached to some incredible memories at past Aldean concerts. It’s that ability to put on a memorable front-to-back concert that makes him so deserving of the Entertainer of the Year award. Before playing ‘Lights Come On,’ Jason thanked the crowd for the award telling them they are the reason he got it. You could tell how much it truly means to him, after 11 years, to receive that award. He has been deserving of the award for many years, but with so many talented artists in country music today, only one can win every year. Top notch video and lighting complete the amazing sounds him and his band put out. Though he played guitar throughout most of the night, Aldean had microphone stands set up in multiple spots across the giant stage to make sure that no section of the audience was left out.
One part of the show that was really cool was when Aldean played an acoustic set, playing short bits of fan favorites that just couldn’t be fit onto the full set list due to time constraints. It’s a good problem to have, having too many hits, but it was a great solution to that problem that made sure no fans left disappointed that they had to miss out on hits such as ‘Don’t You Wanna Stay’ or ‘The Truth.’
After that, the energy stayed way high as Aldean made no attempt to save anything for the rest of the weekend. Fans filled in for the sadly absent Luke Bryan and Eric Church on ‘The Only Way I Know.’ One of my favorite parts of the night was a funky electric banjo solo on ‘1994.’
If I was worried about the roof blowing off when Aldean took the stage, it’s safe to say I was terrified for the fate of those poor bolts keeping the ceiling on Mohegan Sun Arena after he left the stage following ‘Hicktown’ and fans begged for an encore. A chant of “We Were Here,” growing in speed and volume like a slow clap, drew Aldean back out for ‘Burning it Down’ and ‘Crazy Town’. It seemed that fans and the band both could have gone for more hours but sadly the show had to come to an end. Aldean left the stage, but not before thanking the crowd and smashing a beer a la Stone Cold, spraying it over an ecstatic crowd.
Whether or not you’ve seen Aldean before, he is absolutely worth seeing. He and A Thousand Horses will be back in New England in September along with Thomas Rhett. A second show was just added for his Fenway Park tour stop which will also feature Kid Rock. On September 11th they will be in Hartford, where you can get your last chance of the summer to see the entertainer.