On Saturday August 30th, Lady Antebellum brought their Take Me Downtown Tour to the Darling’s Waterfront Pavilion in Bangor, Maine. They brought along opening acts Joe Nichols and Billy Currington.
Joe Nichols kicked the show off with his hit from earlier in his career ‘Brokenheartsville.’ He also sang his newest single ‘Hard To Be Cool,’ which was released to country radio September 1st. Joe has an amazing stage presence and he kept the mood light with songs like ‘What’s a Guy Gotta Do’ and crowd favorite ‘Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off.’ A fan even threw her shirt on stage to him during this song. In the middle of his set he said that there was a lot of rap in country music now, but that wasn’t him so he decided he would turn a rap into a country song. With a grin he said “I assure you, it’s ridiculous,” and then launched into a country version of ‘Baby Got Back.’ He also sang his more recent hit ‘Yeah’ and ended his set with ‘Sunny and 75.’ Joe was extremely entertaining and he didn’t stop smiling the entire time he was on stage.
Billy Currington was next to take the stage and he didn’t stop moving from the time he came out till the end of his set. Billy was a ball of energy dancing all around while singing songs like ‘Pretty Good at Drinkin’ Beer,’ ‘People are Crazy,’ and ‘That’s How Country Boys Roll.’ He told us that it was a long story but Garth Brooks was a big part of the reason he is where he is today and in honor of Garth going back out on the road he sang a cover of Garth’s hit ‘Friends in Low Places.’ He also sang a cover of Bruno Mars’ ‘Treasure’ that had the crowd dancing right along with him. At one point Currington’s piano player, Mark Burch, decided he was going to crowd surf. He went into the crowd off one side of the stage and then came back up and went off the other side.
After a short intermission the lights went dark and the video screen on the back of the stage showed the lights in a city after dark. After a few moments you could see the band members take the stage before finally Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood joined them. The lights came on and they started their show with their hit, ‘Compass.’ They went on to sing songs such as their first single released to country radio ‘Love Don’t Live Here,’ as well as their first number one single ‘I Run to You.’ They also sang their most recent hits ‘Downtown’ and ‘Bartender.’ They even brought out a new song off their upcoming album called ‘Freestyle.’ It’s an uptempo song with a great beat and fast moving lyrics.
About mid-way through Charles told us they had a surprise for us and they brought Joe Nichols and Billy Currington back out on stage and together they sang Travis Tritt’s song ‘It’s a Great Day to be Alive.’
Their last song was ‘We Owned the Night,’ towards the end purple, blue, and white confetti exploded all over the stage and the crowd. After the song was over they waved goodbye and left the stage and the lights went out. After a few seconds you could see crew members coming out to sweep confetti off the stage.
Moments later as the first few bars of ‘Need You Now’ started and the lights came back on with Lady Antebellum at the center of the stage. They finally ended the show with ‘You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone’ from the movie Pitch Perfect.
Hillary, Charles, and Dave have amazing chemistry. You could really tell that they enjoyed being on stage together and it didn’t appear that any one of them was more important than the other. They seemed very comfortable with each other, and their show is a family affair with Hillary’s husband Chris playing the drums for them. Charles was the most outgoing of the three moving all around and doing most of the talking between songs. At one point he grabbed a camera and was recording the crowd behind him. Later on during the show he went down into the crowd during a song and kept right on singing. Dave is a talented musician playing both guitar and mandolin during the night. Hillary was smiling the whole time you could tell they all love sharing their music with people.
If you ever have the chance to see any of these acts live, do it. They are all amazing entertainers that are extremely good at what they do and they will not disappoint. I would see any of them again in a heartbeat.
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