The House of Blues was rocking on Saturday, February 28th with Joe Nichols and his band who performed for a sold out crowd. The audience was a range of ages, from the young to the ‘older’ crowd and Nichols had something for everyone in his set list. One young fan, was attending her very first county concert, a gift from her parents for her birthday. Dressed in her cowboy hat and boots, the excitement evident on her face, she was the perfect example of how country music has no generation gap.
Opening the show was new comer Sam Grow. Grow, who just recently released his first EP, performed the first of his eight-song set list with ‘Is It You.’ The song, a catchy rock based tune, had the audience cheering and clapping before you knew it. His next song and current single on Sirius XM, ‘Whoa,’ was introduced by Grow, with a beer in his hand and a grateful heartfelt, “Thank you all for being here and supporting live music.” Moving around the stage, interacting with the crowd with stories and jokes, Grow put in energy and enthusiasm in every song he performed. Other songs from his EP he performed were, ‘Hands off You,’ ‘Over You,’ and a song Grow introduced as “very sexy song,” titled ‘Take it Off.’ Grow also treated us with the hit song by Florida-Georgia Line, ‘Cruise,’ and the Eric Church ‘Drink a Little Drink.’ Ending his set, for ‘all the men and woman out there fighting for our freedom. They don’t know who we are but they are willing to die for us anyway,” Sam finished with Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Simple Man.’ And thanking the crowd again for their support, he left the stage among cheers and whistles.
No more than fifteen minutes later, the lights dimmed, the crowd cheered and Joe Nichols appeared from left stage, guitar in hand opening his twenty song set with ‘Brokenheartsville,’ a song off his 2002 album, ‘Man With a Memory.’ After singing two more songs, ‘Hard to be Cool,’ ‘Gotta Love It,’ both from his current album, ‘Crickets.’ Nichols next sang his first hit which peaked at on the Billboard Hot Country Singles and Tracks chart, ‘Impossible.’ From his current album, Crickets, Nichols next performed ‘Y’ant to’ and ‘Love This Way.’
Nichols’ music video for his single, ‘Shape I’m In,’ from the album, ‘Old Things New,’ opens and closes with former US Navy Seal talking to the camera and follows a couple of wounded US Army soldiers as they prepare for their day and a date. Nichols introduced this next song, ‘Shape I’m In,’ saying, “For those of you in the military out there tonight, God Bless you guys for all you do and for liking this song.” The audience showed their appreciation for the comment with screams, whistles and cheers. Mentioning briefly how country music has gone rap, Nichols next performed the song ‘I Like Big Butts,’ by Sir-Mix-A-Lot, his version of a rap song gone country. Amid cat calls, laughter and the chorus sing-a-long from the crowd, Nichols had a hard time keeping the smile off his face during the performance. Immediately having strumming the last cords to ‘I like Big Butts,’ Nichols went right into his next song by George Jones, ‘One Woman Man,’ soon followed by ‘Just Let Me Fall In Love With You,’ off his current album, ‘Crickets.’
Singing his hit song ‘Yeah,’ which peaked at number seven on the U.S. Country Charts, was received with boisterous cheers. The cheers were so loud it’s a wonder Joe could be heard above all the noise. It was a crowd favorite for sure and a definite audience sing-a-long. Slowing the tempo down a bit, Nichols performed, ‘She Only Smokes When She Drinks,’ ‘Running Down a Dream,’ the popular hit by Tom Petty and a song off his current album titled, ‘Footlights.’ Although the lyrics and the melody to these two are very different, they both have the same theme about being a musical artist performing onstage every night, chasing the dream.
‘What’s a Guy Gotta Do’ was next and followed by ‘Size Matters,’ a song parody with underlying meaning, and keeping with the theme of guys and girls, his last song of the set, that turned into a crowd sing-a-long, was ‘Gimme That Girl.’ Nichols did change a particular line of the lyrics from, Gimme that girl the rest of the world ain’t lucky enough to know to, Gimme that girl the rest of BOSTON ain’t lucky enough to know! The lyric change was definitely approved by both the ladies and the guys in the audience, especially by the sounds of their cheers and applause as Nichols was exiting the stage.
Not staying gone for too long, Nichols, upon returning to the stage for an encore, asked “Y’all havin fun!?” Exclaiming “I gotta say this is one of my favorite crowds, thank you all so much.” But, before performing, probably his most popular song to date, ‘Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off,’ Nichols wanted to have a chat and play a game called, “Get to know your neighbor.” Here are his rules. “Raise your right hand and place it on the left shoulder of the person next to you and then pat the shoulder as if you are saying “Hey man good job.” Now keeping time, take your left hand and place it on your neighbors belly and rub in circles.” The audience thought that was a pretty fun game especially when he ended the rules with, “Gentleman, you are welcome.” Nichols then Introduced the song saying, “Come on let’s have some tequila after the show!”
Nichols wrapped up his concert and his set list of 20 songs, with his popular single, ‘Sunny and 75.’ After the cold snowy winter we have had here in Boston, don’t we all wish we could be somewhere sunny and 75? Well for an hour and a half on a Saturday in February, that is exactly where Joe Nichols took us and for that Boston would like to extend a warm invitation to Joe Nichols to please return to Boston any time.
Follow Joe Nichols on Twitter, Facebook, and his official website.
You can purchase ‘Crickets‘ on iTunes here.
Concert review written by Lorraine Frigoletto, contributing writer for New England Country Music. You can follow me on Twitter.