Tag Archives: Boston

Keep Your Eyes on the Restless Road

The rising trio, Restless Road is hitting the road this summer as they embark on their Bar Friends Tour. NECM caught up with the group, made up of Garrett Nichols, Colton Pack, and Zack Beeke, ahead of their Boston, MA stop on May 16th.

It has been quite the journey for the band so far. Zach recalled the group’s creation, dating back about nine years when Colton and Zack appeared on the TV show, The X Factor. “We auditioned individually and about halfway through the show we decided to join forces.” A fun fact is that Kane Brown also appeared on that season of The X Factor and was originally slated to be the third member of the group. Brown decided the group wasn’t for him and went in his own direction, but their stories would cross paths down the road. 

Restless Road ultimately landed in fourth place on the show. “About a year or so after the show was over we were looking for a brand new member. We kind of took to the internet looking at people on YouTube and the app called Vine. We found some great videos that Garrett had posted and we hit him up in the DM and asked him to join Restless Road. The band just wouldn’t be the same without him and it’s been kicking ever since.”

Fast forward to 2019 when Kane Brown reached out to Colton after seeing a cover Pack posted of ‘Good as You’. “Kane texted me and told me about him starting a label, and we started talking and we wanted to get the band back together,” Pack shared. Not only did Kane want the trio on his new label, he wanted them on his tour, too. “It was within six months of when we had gotten back together that we were playing at the Staples Center – pretty insane!” 

Things were going seemingly well for the trio, but after five or six shows, they hit a roadblock – the COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to touring just as Restless Road was getting fired up. The band used the time off to post tons of content to social media, Garrett explained. “We got a lot of fans over that time and connected with new people and now it’s really starting to show when we’re back on the road.”

Last summer, the group got to finish up the tour with Kane. “It really helped us get our name out there and a lot of people got to see us and we got to kind of show what we’re all about. It really has helped us carry over into this next season that we’re in right now. We’re going on our first ever headlining tour and we have a lot of people coming back to our show who were there for Kane’s show. It’s great because we have over twice as much music at our show than during Kane’s and we just got to learn so much from Kane being on tour,” Zack said.

The guys started the tour in April and already have a handful of shows under their belt, including a sold-out show in Nashville. Garrett said the group has been blown away by the support thus far. “We couldn’t ask for anything better! We had so many people supporting us online these past few years and we’re really starting to meet everyone.” He added, “It was kind of a great moment to see all the work that we put in come together, and yeah, it was incredible!”

As mentioned earlier, Restless Road will be playing an all-ages show in Boston on May 16th at the Sinclair. The group can’t wait to get back up to New England. Colton shares the sentiment that many of us New Englanders have, “The people there were absolutely incredible, for one. We’re really excited! This has honestly been one of the best selling shows, I mean, from as soon as we started putting tickets on sale, this one has gone really really fast. I think we’re really excited because that just shows us that fans are really eager to come out to the show.” But that’s not all, “My gosh, you CANNOT forget the food! I’m ready to come back to Boston and get a lobster roll,” he laughed. 

It’s obvious that the future is bright for this band. And even though they’ve already checked off so many things on their bucket list – from their Opry debut to playing on The Bachelor – they have so much to look forward to. The road might be restless, filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, but as they like to say, “It’s all about just hanging on and enjoying the ride… No matter what life brings you, just keep your eyes on the road and keep going.”

To stay up to date with Restless Road, you can follow them on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Kane Brown, Cam, LANCO and WKLB Take Over Lansdowne

It was a warm June day as the sun beamed over Fenway Park and the surrounding area. A line of 8,000 strong had nearly completely wrapped around Fenway Park as it was time for what has become the annual party on Lansdowne Street known as the Country 102.5 Street Party. It’s one of the few days that the popular street is more crowded than on a Red Sox-Yankees game. And this past Sunday, June 3rd was no different as country fans came to see Kane Brown, Cam, LANCO, Brown & Gray, Stephanie Quayle and New England favorite Timmy Brown.

Timmy Brown kicked off the day with fan favorite ‘Lil Bit’ and of course a performance of ‘Sweet Caroline’ with the stage peering right at the fabled Green Monster. Following Timmy’s set was a couple rising acts including Stephanie Quayle who delivered an energetic set that included her single ‘Selfish’ and Brown & Gray who have been all over the airwaves with ‘Top Down.’

The energy continued when LANCO took the stage. The guys were fresh off an airplane from St. Louis where they had just played a show on Dierks Bentley’s 2018 tour the night prior. Their set consisted of ‘Troublemaker,’ ‘Long Live Tonight,’ ‘Pick You Up,’ and their current single ‘Born To Love You,’ which had fans singing along. They continued with ‘Singing At The Stars’ before playing the song their most known for, ‘Greatest Love Story,’ which included a crowd singalong. It was a quick day for LANCO in Boston but one that they took full advantage of as the crowd was buzzing after they left the stage.

Next up was the sensational Cam- one of our favorite artists because of there powerful vocals and badass attitude. The California artist started her time off with ‘Road To Happiness’ and ‘Mayday’ before telling the crowd a story about a guy who she had an ‘adult relationship’ with and the next day, he didn’t talk to her or show her any respect. She later explained on social media, “Once upon a time a boy treated a girl with zero respect. So she learned from her Half Broke Heart and started talking with other women about how to handle situations like this. And she lived happily ever after.” With that story, she performed ‘Half Broke Heart.’ Her day continued with ‘Hungover on Heartache,’ ‘Palace,’ ‘Cold in California,’ ‘Sweet Dreams,’ and ‘Village’ before playing the song we were most excited to hear live- ‘Diane.’ Cam’s powerful vocals echoed beautifully down Lansdowne Street and fans were singing and dancing along to the raucous performance of this jam. Ending her day, Cam performed ‘Burning House’ before waving to the crowd and retreating backstage.

Ending the day was the ever so popular Kane Brown. Throughout the day, Kane would make his way to and from backstage to the radio room at House of Blues which would cause the crowd to start screaming when he walked by. It was apparent that the majority of the crowd was there to see Kane as the bass’ were cranked up and the crowd screamed even louder when he took the stage saying, “BOSTON! How we doing!?” He started off with ‘Found You’ and ‘Hometown’ which were massively popular with the crowd as it seemed they were singing every word back to him. And it only continued with ‘Used To Love You Sober’ and ‘What’s Mine Is Yours.’

The day continued with upcoming single ‘Lose It,’ ‘Better Place’ and ‘Cold Spot’ before Kane and his guitarist Alex gave the crowd an acoustic set that included a cover of Billy Currington’s ‘If I Fall.’ Brown would continue with a mash up that included covers of ‘Billionaire,’ ‘Ms. Jackson,’ ‘Over My Head’ and his own ‘Location.’ His day in Boston would continue with ‘There Goes My Everything,’ ‘Heaven,’ ‘Weekend,’ ‘Learning’ and ‘Closer’ before a two song encore that started with ‘Pull It Off’ and his Number One single, ‘What If’s.’

It was a great day in the Fenway as Country 102.5 always knows how to throw a great party. And if you missed this Street Party, don’t fret- they announced on stage that their fall edition would return on September 23rd. Lineup and details will be announced in the future- and we’ll share all the details when we have ’em!

 

Fenway Park and Country Music

The 2018 MLB season has arrived and the season opener for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park will be today, Thursday, April 5th, but baseball isn’t the only thing that is played at the oldest major league ballpark in the nation. Country music has made its mark in Boston in recent years and what other way to spread the love of country music but to have a concert at the ball park.

Here are some of the country artists that have had the opportunity to perform for their fans at Fenway Park.

Jason Aldean

In July 2013 Jason Aldean made history by being the first country music star to play a concert at Fenway Park. Due to the selling out of his first night, of the 2013 Night Train Tour (with Miranda Lambert, Jake Owen and Thomas Rhett) in just seven minutes, a second show was added. Aldean followed up his 2013 appearance at the iconic ball park with another concert in September of 2016 when he performed for another two nights on his The Six String Circus Tour (with Kid Rock, Thomas Rhett and A Thousand Horses). “We’ve had this show circled on our calendar for quite a while,” said Aldean to cheers, “and I know you Bostonian’s have been drinking Sam Adams all day to get ready for this.” Jason was joined by Kid Rock for his 2016 show.

Photo Credit: Chris and Todd Owyoung

Zac Brown Band

Of all the country acts that have had the pleasure of playing at Fenway, the Zac Brown Band wins for the most appearances. In June 2014 The Zac Brown Band’s, The Great American Road Trip Tour played two nights to a sold-out crowd of 70,000 people. ZBB played for over 2 hours and sang 30+ songs. Because their 2014 shows were sold out and so successful ZBB decided to return to Fenway park the following year in August of 2015 for their Jekyll + Hyde tour. They performed for over 100,000 fans during the 3-day event. In August of 2016, ZBB came back to Fenway Park with the, Black Out the Sun Tour, for another two nights of country music. This event made Fenway Park history with the most tickets sold at a single concert, the most tickets sold over two nights of concerts by the same artist and the first band to sell-out seven consecutive shows over three years at the ballpark.

After skipping 2017 the ZBB will return to Fenway park in June 2018 for their Down the Rabbit Hole Live Tour. They will play two nights Friday June 15th and Saturday June 16th.

Florida Georgia Line

Florida Georgia Line headlined the first-ever stadium concert of their career July 7th 2017 at a sold-out show at Boston’s Fenway Park for their Smooth Tour. Joining FGL for their stop in Boston were the Backstreet Boys, Nelly and Chris Lane.

Luke Bryan

Adding to the list of famous country acts to have the opportunity to play at America’s Favorite Ball Park is four-time Entertainer of the Year Luke Bryan. Bryan and his band are set to rock the historic ballpark on July 6th as part of their What Makes You Country Tour.  Joining Bryan will be superstar Sam Hunt, along with the award-winning Jon Pardi and the up-and-coming Morgan Wallen. Bryan had this to say about his stadium tours; “My excitement to play these iconic sports stadiums is truly uncontainable,” said Luke.  “Playing my music live is the reason I do what I do and the energy of the FANS is what pushes me year after year to deliver a bigger and better experience.  I’m so thankful to be in these venues and cities with some of the brightest names in country music. This lineup fires me up and I can’t wait to get this tour started!”

It’s exciting to see that country musicians are energized about performing at one of America’s oldest and most beloved ballparks and I’m sure there will be more country artists joining the ranks in the years to come.