Stagecoach 2010: Keith Urban Lands On Top

SOUNDCHECK

April 26th, 2010, 1:29 pm
posted by BEN WENER
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The problem with both days of Stagecoach 2010 — Saturday’s stronger Keith Urban-led lineup and Sunday’s more meager Toby Keith-topped bill — was that neither felt like a true festival offering multiple acts worth hoofing it this way and that way to see. Even Day 1, which held more surprises in the afternoon, still played out like a the largest KZLA Cookoff that radio station never staged — that is, the event consisted primarily of 60,000 people waiting around for the headliner and his chief opening act.

No offense to classics like Merle Haggard and the Oak Ridge Boys, who tend to draw an audience almost entirely separate from the Mane Stage masses, but the rest of this fest was simply filler, first-rate or not.

Which is why Sunday, despite an afternoon enhanced by breakout stars (Heidi Newfield, Jason Aldean, the Avett Brothers), still essentially amounted to the Big Toby Keith feast (now with extra pyro!), plus an appetizer from the (for now) departing Brooks & Dunn.

“Sure doesn’t seem like there are as many people here today,” my colleague Kelli Skye commented after making the rounds on the grounds looking for more party people to photograph. It was only about 4 p.m. “It’s early,” I said. “They’ll be here tonight.” “That seems like such a waste of money,” she replied.

Not really — $89 a ticket for Toby and B&D is pretty standard were the same show to be held (probably with just one other opener) at, say, San Manuel Amphitheatre in Devore or Verizon in Irvine. Out here, having taken in everything else the festival had to offer (BBQ, merch tents) while getting bombed on Saturday, mainstream country fans weren’t really offered more enticement to return early on Sunday than a rousing set from Aldean and maybe the chance to hear the ORBs sing “Elvira.”

Viewing it from their perspective, I’d guess that they still got their money’s worth, however.

To me, the celebrated Brooks & Dunn seemed tired, ready for their indefinite hiatus, far from energized by the electricity you’d think would course through them and their band while bidding farewell to city after city. But there’s no denying that amidst the pat shtick they also played and sang like the consummate professionals they’ve been for two decades, elating longtime fans with virtually all of their signature songs: “Play Something Country” to open, naturally, with “You Can’t Take the Honky Tonk Out of the Girl” to follow, plus “Cowgirls Don’t Cry,” “Red Dirt Road” and “Put a Girl in It” early on, with “Hard Workin’ Man,” “Neon Moon,” “Only in America” and “My Maria” helping build to a solid finish.

Toby Keith, on the other hand, proved once more with his air-tight performance why he’s a gleaming Mack Truck barreling down the mainstream country highway while everyone else is rocking Isuzu Rodeos.

Even from the farthest corners of the Empire Polo Field his set felt big and brassy, and not just because he’s ramped up the horn charts and added more soul via his backing vocalists. Keith himself, his beard fuller than before, is a lumbering but unstoppable force, an intimidating presence buried beneath a cowboy hat who nonetheless sings with the sort of rich vibrancy that has gone missing from so much country music since Garth and Shania dragged it into the pop realm.

His set teemed with crowd favorites without pandering too often. Rather than instantly rip into a party-starter like “Get My Drink On” (though later in the night he did indulge “Get Drunk and Be Somebody”), Keith he opened with “American Ride” — one of few cuts included from his latest album, accompanied by a blast of Kiss-style sparks — before steadily chugging through a parade of radio staples: “High Maintenance Woman,” “Whiskey Girl,” a somewhat muted “I Love This Bar,” a more playful “As Good as I Once Was,” “Who’s Your Daddy?”

Each track seemed increasingly enhanced by horns and Booker T organ swells, yet nothing about the punched-up arrangements could gloss over the warm luster of Keith’s vocals, particularly robust during a segment of slower songs that made highlights out of “God Love Her,” “She Never Cried in Front of Me” and “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This.”

My only complaint is that here again was a country giant (like Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley before him) who failed to seize the Stagecoach moment and offer even a few moments that were out of the norm and unique to the event. This was more or less just another stop on the latest Toby Keith tour — he might as well have been playing Staples Center or Angel Stadium.

It’s a personal peeve, I realize, one that doesn’t distract from the quality of his performance. I just hope future headliners here take a cue from Keith Urban’s freer, less structured set from Saturday night and learn how to personalize these festival encounters, rather than producing monolithic replays of what they do night after night all across the country.

Doesn’t Stagecoach deserve something more special than that?

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