Criticize Top 40 radio country songs all you want for being too fixated, lately, on party themes and not much else.
But when three of the hottest Top 40 country acts show up for a major live event at CN Centre, suddenly those songs are exactly what you want, as loud and crunchy as possible. The party is the point.
Tyler Farr, Cole Swindell and headliner Jason Aldean could easily take up the whole afternoon drive hour on any radio station these days, all by themselves. Having them hit the stage together in person was almost impossible to take in all at once. A couple of beers helped. And the party was on!
It was a cavalcade of guitars and drums, a space odyssey of light and fire, and the roar of the crowd could probably be heard all the way into orbit. It was one of the biggest parties the city has ever seen.
Yes, that came with some bad behaviour in the stands. There were fights, there was blood, but there was also insane fun. This was the biggest Friday night to ever occur here on a Wednesday.
These three stars came with full power and whipped the town into a country lather.
Each one of them took their section of the concert to do their own thing, and each one did it slightly differently. Of the three, Swindell had the best singing voice, but all three were loaded in stage swagger. I got the sense that Farr actually could sing much better than he actually was; it felt like he was holding back. I'd love to see him really let loose. Swindell, meanwhile, had a great way of dancing over a lyric.
It was fun to hear.
I wish I could say the same for Aldean.
It's true he had massive stage presence and knew how to work the crowd. It is also true that his stage show was one of the most impressive I've ever seen in my long years of evaluating concerts. His combinations of massive video effects, fireworks blasts, light arrays and fireballs was absolutely epic. He stands on the top shelf for bringing maximum audience value, with his visuals.
Sadly, his vocal performance on Wednesday was terrible. He has a tiny vocal range, and even that went off-key at times. Also not helping was the muddy vocal mix.
While the guitars, drums and bass were crystal clear, all three vocalists suffered from muffled microphones. If you didn't know the songs already, you had no idea what they were singing. And in Aldean's case, that was probably just as well. His peaks and valleys were practically prairie compared to the mountains and gorges of his headliner peers. He projected from his sinuses, not his diaphragm. He mumbled, not enunciated. He lost his wind at the slightest ebb or flow of the notes. He is way too young to be sounding that spent.
There were some exceptions, which only made the rest of it feel more aggravating. His encore set was powerhouse, but when you do such a junky job of the Bryan Adams classic Summer of 69 in the middle of Canada, you'd better bounce back with something.
But it wasn't all bad news. Aldean had plenty of flash and sizzle to work with, his band was thunderous (as were the bands of Farr and Swindell), and there is always something wonderful about hearing big favourite songs sung right to you by the artists themselves. It's a privilege, and Prince George was indeed lucky to get a three-pack of stars all in their prime.
