Unlike some other regions of the country, New England legitimately can say that there are 4 different seasons. And while September 21st may officially be the last day of summer, Kenny Chesney’s (almost) annual concert stand at Gillette Stadium is the ultimate end-of-summer extravaganza! For several years, the East Tennessean has been closing his summer tour at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and has been bringing along some of his high profile friends. In 2011, Chesney brought Zac Brown Band to Foxborough as his direct support and followed that up with Tim McGraw in 2012, Eric Church in 2013 and Jason Aldean last year. For 2015, he tapped Miranda Lambert to join him at the home of the New England Patriots along with the now-CMA Award nominated band, Old Dominion, and singer-songwriter sensation, Sam Hunt. On August 26th and 27th, the Spread The Love Tour’s A+ lineup rolled into town for two highly anticipated shows for a combined 121,399 fans. Luckily, New England Country Music was present for both shows!
Old Dominion kicked off both nights in the stadium- just as they did last summer. On Friday, their set kicked off with ‘Snapback,’ before Matthew Ramsey exclaimed, “We’re ready to start this thing- that’s what we’re here for. We’ve been working all summer for this!” Their set continued with ‘Half Empty,’ ‘Beer Can In A Truck Bed,’ ‘Crazy, Beautiful Sexy,’ their current radio single, ‘Song For Another Time’ and ‘Said Nobody.’ Despite the sea of empty blue and red seats, the guys weren’t discouraged that many fans were still tailgating in the parking lots while they were on stage. Matthew told the crowd that did come in, “We know the party’s outside but we like to think we can bring it in here,” which was met with a rousing applause from the fans. Next on the band’s setlist was ‘Nowhere Fast’ and their debut single and fan-favorite, ‘Break Up With Him’ and you could hear fans singing ‘Hey girl, what’s up’ as the song started up. As their night was ending, Matthew again addressed the crowd, “We know how important this place is to this tour. We know the history that is here. We’re just members of the No Shoes Nation just as you are.” With their last song, Old Dominion played their sultry ‘Wrong Turns’ before waving goodbye to the crowd and retreating backstage.
Over the last few years, Sam Hunt has become a household name as one of country’s biggest sensations for not only his singing, but also his songwriting as he has written a number of hit songs, including one for the weekend’s headliner. As the first few chords of his hit song, ‘Leave The Night On,’ Sam emerged from the rear of stage right at a running pace. Hunt followed up with ‘Ex To See’ and ‘Raised On It,’ saying afterwards, “If you know this next song, you go way back with us to our first trip to Boston.” (Fun fact: Boston’s House of Blues was Sam’s first big show as he was the opening act for a benefit show that also featured Chase Rice and Joe Nichols- that showed benefited ALS Research via Pete Frates’ foundation). The song he was referencing was on his original ‘Mix Tape’ and is called ‘Saturday Night.’ As previously mentioned, Sam has written a number of hit songs and he would perform his version of ‘We Are Tonight,’ a song that was recorded by Billy Currington. Before doing so on Saturday night, he said, “This is our second night in Foxborough, we need you to bring it!” During ‘Take Your Time,’ Sam sat on the edge of the stage and sang to a lucky lady while holding her hand before bringing the party to Gillette Stadium with ‘House Party’ – during which he jumped into the sandbar and sang as he was surrounded by a swarm of fans. If he hadn’t captured the hearts of the women in attendance, he did so with a great performance of his hit ‘Make You Miss Me,’ as he played it on the piano. (Sam later was able to celebrate that song backstage as it hit Number One on the charts with the other co-writer Josh Osborne and Old Dominion leadman, Matthew Ramsey.) Hunt closed his set out with ‘Break Up In A Small Town.’
As previously mentioned, Kenny Chesney has brought some pretty big names on tour with him over the last few years as his direct support- all artists who can headline amphitheaters and even some stadiums on their own. And this would be no different this year as Miranda Lambert provided direct support for Kenny. After performing ‘Fastest Girl In Town,’ ‘Baggage Claim’ and ‘Kerosene,’ Miranda addressed the Foxborough crowd saying, “Helloooooo Foxborough!” and introduced herself for the unlikely possibility that someone in the stadium didn’t already know who she was. She later went on to say, “Thank you to my friend, Kenny Chesney, for having us out on this tour. He’s an amazing human being,” and followed that up with ‘All Kinds of Kind.’
Next, Miranda gave a powerful performance of ‘Over You,’ which had fans holding their camera phone flashlights in the air as they swayed back and forth before a stretch of classic covers, which included ‘Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo’ (Johnny Winter And), ‘That’s The Way The World Goes ‘Round’ (John Prine), and ‘Mississippi Queen’ (Mountain). And while Miranda rocked the hell out of these covers, the fans really wanted to see her perform her tunes. Lambert obliged with ‘Mama’s Broken Heart’ and ‘The House That Built Me.’ Back in mid-July, Miranda released a new single to country radio and it took the world by storm. Fans at Gillette Stadium were dying to hear the new music and the songstress set it up by telling the crowd, “Please give me a minute before you start partying your asses off!” The remainder of her setlist included ‘Automatic,’ the high-energy ‘Little Red Wagon,’ and ‘White Liar.’ Miranda Lambert had one more song left for the Foxborough crowd and thanked the crowd, “Thank you for letting us leave on a high note,” before she performed ‘Gunpowder and Lead’ and retreated backstage.
With a massive curtain draping the front of the stage, busy tour staff worked behind it to remove all of Miranda’s gear and to bring Kenny’s on stage. As the lights around the stadium began to shut off, screams from the crowd grew louder. Fans were rushing back to their seats as the video boards showed different celebrities welcoming everyone to the show. Unlike in past years, Kenny did not enter the stadium via a chair flying above the field but instead came running to the front of the stage as the curtain went up into the lights. The first song on Chesney’s setlist was one of many fan favorites he would play throughout the night, ‘Beer In Mexico,’ but before his vocals could kick off, Kenny made his way to nearly every vantage point of the stage, waving to all of the fans in attendance. While fans flocked to Gillette to see Kenny, he was just as excited to see the New England fans.
Throughout the night, Chesney would reel off hit-after-hit. ‘Reality.’ ‘Til It’s Gone.’ ‘Summertime.’ And with many fans waving their black and white No Shoes Nation flags, it was only appropriate that Kenny played ‘Pirate Flag.’ Before playing ‘Somewhere With You,’ he told the crowd, “We are so thrilled and honored to be Somewhere With You tonight!” He also treated the crowd to his 2005 song ‘Guitars and Tiki Bars,’ a song he hadn’t played all summer until the Saturday night of his Gillette Stadium stay. As previously mentioned, Kenny had brought Old Dominion on tour with him last summer and obviously again this summer. In a way, he has taken the rising stars under his wing and has given them two summers full of incredible experience and learning. Last year, the Foxborough show was the first time that Old Dominion had seen him perform ‘Save It For A Rainy Day’ during the tour and he did it in grand style as he brought out the band’s Matthew Ramsey and Brad Tursi (both co-wrote the song) to sing it with him. During this summer’s tour, this has been a staple in each of Chesney’s stops that included the band. But on Saturday night, he did something further for Old Dominion- he brought the ENTIRE band out to help him perform the song. With the crowd singing along to the 2015 Number One song, Kenny kept the guys on stage for a spontaneous cover of The Eagles’ ‘Take It Easy.’
The sold-out crowd was definitely loud when Kenny performed one of his newer songs, ‘Noise,’ but the sound reached an all-time high during ‘American Kids,’ which ended with ‘Kenny Kenny Kenny’ chants throughout the stadium. For a minute or so, Chesney stood at his mic stand in awe of the love that the crowd was giving him. No words coming out of his mouth. His hand over his heart, looking into the crowd. And you could even see Kenny wipe his eyes a time or two. “Can we play tomorrow night?” he asked the crowd. “That is the loudest I have ever heard it in my entire life.”
With Miranda Lambert on the tour, Kenny brought her out to help him in performing ‘You and Tequila.’ He introduced her by saying, “She is one of the best ever. We’re so fortunate to be able to roll down the highway and listen to her sing every night.” Lambert responded by again say, “This is one of the most amazing human beings I’ve ever met in my life.” The duo embraced each other during the song and even slow danced with 60,000+ fans watching. But with Saturday being the last night of the tour, Miranda stayed out for one more song, as she sang a cover of George Strait’s ‘The Fireman’ with Chesney.
Now it was time to ‘Spread the Love’ more than any point during the night. If you ever get to see Kenny in Foxborough, you will get to hear him sing one song that he refuses to sing anywhere else. He saves it for these shows. That song is ‘She’s From Boston,’ and is always a fan favorite in Foxborough. Before singing ‘How Forever Feels,’ Kenny told the crowd, “To all of you beautiful free spirited music loving New Englanders- this one’s for you.” He continued by saying, “I can see this with all certainty, this is our 15th time playing this football stadium, and this is the best night of our touring lives!” Chesney also performed a cover of the Steve Miller Band’s ‘The Joker’ which led into ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley- during which he pulled a woman on stage who is fighting cancer, as he took her hat off and his, he put his head against hers and sang, ‘every little thing’s gonna be alright…’ And if you would believe it, that wasn’t even the most powerful moment of the night! Before playing ‘The Boys of Fall,’ he told the crowd, “This place is special. This stadium is special. This place has tradition.” And one of those traditions over the past few years is to give away signed football helmets to lucky fans in the sandbar. He pulled out a young woman and gave her the ‘No Shoes Nation’ football helmet. But here’s what was special about this- she took the highly-touted helmet off and went to the end of the catwalk where the woman with cancer was standing and gave her the helmet! It was the most selfless thing we saw all night. A young lady chosen in a sea of 60,000+ and given a football helmet signed by Kenny Chesney and giving it to someone else. Props to you, young lady.
When Kenny came back on stage for his encore, he sat down and took off his boots and socks and threw them into the crowd. He gave the fans one last dose of his music with ‘Don’t Happen Twice.’ All-in-all, it was an incredible night of music, passion and love. Music from four incredible acts. Passion from Kenny to his fans. And love from one fan to another. There is truly something special about a Kenny Chesney show in Gillette Stadium.
