Concert review: Montgomery Gentry, Gary Allan and Keith Anderson
Montgomery Gentry, from left, Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry, in an archive Associated Press photo.
Concert review: Country stars close Zoo Amphitheatre’s season with a party
A fun-loving duo, smoldering heartthrob and Oklahoma native on a homecoming tour closed the Zoo Amphitheatre’s concert season Friday night with a fittingly raucous country-rock party.
With the lineup of Montgomery Gentry, Gary Allan and Keith Anderson, Country Fest 2008 promised to fire up the crowd of about 8,500 fans with a steady fuel of drinking songs, brokenhearted ballads and rebel anthems.
But the fall temperatures cooled off some fans, indicating that the outdoor venue’s season closer came a little too late. While the evening started out comfortably mild, the shivering started when the sun went down. Several quaking fans barely waited for headliner Montgomery Gentry to finish their set before filing to the exits.
Stillwater singer/songwriter/guitarist Nick Gibson and the Can’t Hardly Playboys, who won a radio contest to open the show, warmed up the crowd, setting an appropriate outlaw tone with their original songs “No Other Way,” “Another Hole in the Wall” and Gibson’s solid electric guitar rendition of the National Anthem.
For Anderson, who was born and raised in Miami, OK, playing at the zoo was a dream come true, and his dad and sister were there to live it with him. The rising country star, playing the first of three Oklahoma shows in a week’s span, told the crowd he attended many concerts at the zoo while seeking his degree “at the greatest university in the world,” Oklahoma State.
When some University of Oklahoma football fans objected, Anderson quipped, “Hey, at least we won last week.”
He opened his short set by amping up the good-time atmosphere, drawling the rollicking “C’mon,” his new album’s title track, and “XXL,” a party song suited to the former Mr. Oklahoma runner-up’s hunky physique.
“I love coming back to Oklahoma. … Ain’t nothing like it,” he told to the crowd.
The up-and-comer had some devoted fans who danced and sang along throughout his short set. The rest of the crowd greeted him warmly, but many stayed in their lawn chairs.
Anderson, who started out in Nashville, Tenn. as a songwriter, got more people singing with a pair of songs he penned that became hits for others: “Lost in This Moment,” a chart-topper for Big & Rich, and “Beer Run,” a big duet by George Jones and fellow OSU alum Garth Brooks.
He romanced the audience with the poignant piano ballads “I Still Miss You” and “Every Time I Hear Your Name,” and charmed with the boisterous “Break My Heart” and “Somebody Needs a Hug.”
“We’ve even got ‘Somebody Needs a Hug’ panties,” he joked, laughing. “My grandma loves that; she’s got three pair.”
By the time he closed with “Picking Wildflowers,” his mischievous tribute to small-town loving, Anderson clearly had gained some fans.
Despite his ranking on the bill, Allan was the main attraction of the night for many people, particularly among the ladies. The crowd noise reached a piercing shriek when Allan, dressed in a black hoodie, T-shirt and jeans, emerged at the top of the stage.
With his tattoos and stubble accenting his bad boy with a heart of gold persona, the California native charmed with several big ballads, including “Watching Airplanes,” “Nothing on But the Radio” and “Still Learning How to Bend.”
He swaggered around the stage tossing out guitar picks through the defiant rockers “Like It’s a Bad Thing,” “Alright Guy” and “Man of Me.”
“I feel like we could go take over a building now if we wanted to. Solve some problems,” he said as the audience roared its adoration.
When the crowd demanded an encore, Allan started with a surprising classic rock twist: a sexy, extra bluesy take on Tom Petty’s “Breakdown,” in which he showed off his guitar chops in an electric duel with one of his band members.
He finished with the honky-tonkers “He Can’t Quit Her” and “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey,” setting the stage for hard-partying headliners Montgomery Gentry.
Eddie Montgomery and Troy Gentry showed their flair for theatrics and Southern rock right away, taking the stage dramatically silhouetted behind curtains that suddenly dropped as they charged into their bombastic “Big Revival.”
Their set was classic Montgomery Gentry, mixing rebellious rockers (”Hell Yeah,” “What Do Ya Think About That,” “All Night Long”) with hefty down-home doses of spirituality (their No. 1 hit “Back When I Knew It All,” “Lucky Man”) and patriotism (”Something To Be Proud Of”).
Their high-energy set got the crowd cheering, dancing and clapping along, and Montgomery would settle for nothing less, frequently shouting “I can’t hear you,” in between cackling crazily and twirling his microphone stand. His showy antics prompted Gentry to joke, “You could at least act like you’re having fun.”
As usual, the pair shared singing duties with Gentry also playing rhythm guitar, and the chemistry between the longtime friends and musical partners was apparent not just in their playful teasing but also in their perfect harmony.
Their enthusiasm proved infectious: While groups of chilly fans headed for the exits, many were willing to bear a few more minutes of the cold to scream for an encore. The duo sent the audience away singing with the uplifting anthem “Our Town” and appropriately, the rowdy goodbye song “Gone.”
-BAM
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