On Saturday, September 27th Brantley Gilbert brought his highly praised ‘Let it Ride Tour’ to the DCU Center in Worcester, MA. Gilbert brought along Massachusetts’ native Aaron Lewis who hails from Longmeadow. as well as rising stars, Chase Bryant and Brian Davis, to serve as openers and DJ HISH to mix music in-between acts.
Walking into the DCU Center, the first thing you heard was mixed music and on the dropdown were the words ‘DJ HISH.’ HISH was not on the main stage, he was on his own stage behind Section 2 on the arena floor. HISH kept the crowd entertained in between tracks, with various songs, from many different genres. Some of the songs played were Luke Bryan’s ‘Country Girl,’ Billy Currington’s ‘We Are Tonight’ and Lee Brice’s ‘Parking Lot Party.’
The first artist to open the night was songwriter Brian Davis. Unlike most artists, Davis came on stage and immediately started talking, and let his talking lead into some of the songs he wrote. Davis told the stories behind a lot of songs, and co-wrote a few songs on Brantley Gilbert’s new album, ‘Let it Ride,’ including ‘My Baby’s Guns and Roses’, ‘One Hell of an Amen’, and ‘Lights of My Hometown.’ Throughout the night Davis let the crowd know he wrote these songs, and shared some of the stories behind them. At the end of Davis’ set, he threw out merchandise into the pit and told the crowd he wanted to meet everyone and he was staying until they threw him out.
After a brief intermission where DJ HISH kept the crowd entertained, Chase Bryant took the stage. One thing you quickly noticed about Bryant is that he definitely knows how to play guitar. His skills on the guitar amazed the crowd, and that was all the talk after Bryant’s set. Bryant sang songs off of his new self-titled EP. Bryant told the crowd, that he was single, but when he finds the right girl, he’d want to say this to them, and followed it with his song ‘Change Your Name.’ Bryant’s set also included an upbeat song ‘Jet Black Pontiac.’ Before his last song, Bryant told the DCU Center about his self-titled EP, and said “iTunes decided to release it early for Massachusetts, so you can all go get it now.” Bryant ended his set with ‘Take It On Back’, his new hit single on country radio which is quickly climbing the charts.
Aaron Lewis was the last to the stage before headliner Brantley Gilbert. One thing that was noticeable about Lewis is that he sounded the exact same way live as he did on his recorded songs. He started the night off with his most popular song on iTunes, ‘Country Boy.’ Lewis quickly introduced the crowd to some of his new songs that are soon to be released, one called ‘Northern Hick.’ This song is about that it is possible to be a hick from the North. Lewis also sang songs from his album, ‘The Road,’ including ‘Forever,’ ‘Granddaddy’s Gun,’ and ‘The Road.’ Lewis also sang two more new songs, ‘Sailor’ and ‘That Ain’t Country.’ From the beginning it was easy to tell that Lewis was very comfortable on stage and was comfortable with the audience. Lewis ended his set by saying, “I used to throw this song out there in Springfield and West Springfield bars, and nobody cared,” and led into his final song of the night which was from his band, Staind, called ‘It’s Been a While.’
After Lewis finished, and DJ HISH played his last mix, the lights went off at the DCU Center. On the curtain played scenes from previous ‘Let it Ride’ shows and showed the band walking to the stage. While this video was playing the bass was turned all the way up, and you could feel your body shake. Once the video showed the band on stage, the curtain dropped and Brantley Gilbert ran to the front of the stage. Gilbert started the show off with his certified-gold single, ‘Kick it in the Sticks.’ Interaction started early, right after the first song, when Gilbert said “Looks like we got a rowdy bunch out here.” Gilbert’s set was a mix between all of his albums. Off of his debut album, ‘A Modern Day Prodigal Son,’ Gilbert sang ‘My Kinda Party,’ a song that he wrote. This song was also released on Jason Aldean’s album of the same name and received much praise in country radio. ‘Halfway to Heaven’ is the album that showed country radio, that Gilbert was not only a songwriter but also an artist. Gilbert set included ‘Hell on Wheels,’ ‘You Don’t Know Her Like I Do,’ and ‘Dirt Road Anthem’ from this album, as well as a few others.
Earlier this year, Gilbert released his new album, ‘Just As I Am’ which has already produced a few hits in the country music charts and Gilbert did not fall short of including new songs in his set as well. ‘If You Want a Bad Boy,’ and ‘My Baby’s Guns and Roses’ are the few that he played at the beginning of the set. About half way through his set, Gilbert really interacted with the crowd and began to get personal with the crowd. He had his band go off stage and he just sat on a stool and played a few acoustic songs. At the beginning of his acoustic set, he told the crowd, “In this business, they want you to dress different, talk different, and sing other people’s songs, but we don’t play that game.” Gilbert then proceeded to sing ‘Grown Ass Man’ off of his ‘Just As I Am’ album.
Still in his acoustic set, Gilbert asked the crowd “How many crazy girls do we have here?” The arena then went into screams, and Gilbert said “You’re welcome guys, now when she says don’t call me crazy, you can say, you admitted it to 10,000 people at the Brantley Gilbert show.” Gilbert then serenaded the crowd with ‘My Kind of Crazy.’ To end his acoustic set, Gilbert told the crowd about how some people go to soon, and mentioned his best friend who died a few years ago, and then sang ‘One Hell of An Amen.’ During this song you could feel the emotion throughout the arena, and could see the song meant a lot to Gilbert by the way he was singing and the emotions on his face.
Once Gilbert finished his acoustic set, he got the crowd up and partying again with his smash hit ‘Bottoms Up.’ To keep the party going and the beat turned up, Gilbert also sang ‘Take it Outside,’ ‘Small Town Throwdown’ and ‘Lights of My Hometown,’ before Gilbert ended his set with his song ‘Read Me My Rights.’ Gilbert did not forget an encore though, he ended the night with his first number one, ‘Country Must Be Country Wide.’
The Let It Ride Tour challenged other top country performers with incredible energy from the openers and Gilbert; you could tell everyone gave it their all. If you went in not knowing who Brantley Gilbert was or what he stood for, you quickly learned as he connected with the fans and showed his true self. Gilbert has a long career ahead of him, and is on his way to being one of the top entertainers in the country music industry.
For more photos, check out our album from this concert on our Facebook page.
(Special thank you to NECM contributing writer, Lorraine Frigoletto, for providing additional photographs)