CMA Fest Show Review – Keith Urban, Sugarland, Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley – LP Field – June 10, 2011

13 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on CMA Fest Show Review – Keith Urban, Sugarland, Lady Antebellum, Dierks Bentley – LP Field – June 10, 2011

CMA Fest 2011 – LP Field – June 10, 2011

Dierks Bentley
Feel that Fire
Free and Easy
Up on the Ridge
Am I the Only One
Sideways

Dierks received an extremely warm welcome and then set about earning it with a great set! Racing from one side to the other, distributing as many high-fives as he could, very clearly having a heck of a time on that big stage. Some of the media seats were near the back (which is where they should be, by the way) but the fans around here were dancing just as much as the crowd on the field. That’s what a great entertainer can do – send the energy all the way to the back of a football stadium. Well done, Dierks!

Lady Antebellum
Our Kind of Love
I Run to You
American Honey
We Owned the Night
Just a Kiss
Need You Now

It’s not like anyone will need this confirmed but Lady A is popular! The crowd got LOUD! During ‘Need You Now’ they were almost louder than the band. The vocal give and take between Charles and Hillary is so much fun to watch and all three band members managed to really engage with the fans down front. At the end of their set, Charles lead the audience into singing the chorus of ‘Need You Now’ and it sounded mighty impressive. I can’t even imagine how good that must have sounded to those on the stage!

Sugarland
Stuck Like Glue
All I Want to Do
Tonight
Everyday America
“The Remix” (Forget You/ Hit Me Baby One More Time/9 to 5/ Bootylicious)
Find the Beat Again
Something More

Each act was introduced by a special guest. The person introducing Sugarland was a very special guest indeed. It felt like the whole stadium erupted in thunderous cheers when the evening’s host spoke the name Shania Twain! I was less than impressed with the latest Sugarland CD, including new single ‘Tonight’, so I was very curious about their performance. Most of The Incredible Machine felt like big anthems, which didn’t work well on the record, but we just happened to be in a football stadium this evening. ‘Tonight’ sounded fantastic in this setting which is where it belongs. Fellow new song ‘Find the Beat Again’ is a different story. While it was a great performance, brimming with life, I just can’t get on with this song. It never fails to get on my nerves and not even the addition of a drumline, courtesy of Music City Mystique, can change that (And just because I said that, they are repeating the song for TV. Guess I had that coming!) The cheers from the intro by Shania never let up as Sugarland played a firecracker set! Jennifer was in top form and with so much energy rolling off the stage, absolutely everyone starts to move!

Keith Urban
Put You in a Song
You Gonna Fly
Without You
Long Hot Summer
Don’t Think I Can’t Love You (featuring Jake Owen)
Somebody Like You

From the spoken opening words ‘I want to put you in my car and drive’, which introduced opener ‘Put You in a Song’, the crowd was on their feet, even back here. It was great hearing ‘You Gonna Fly’ (such a well-written piece of music!) in this stadium setting and I will repeat once more that I would love to see this become a single. During closer ‘Somebody Like You’, Keith went on one of his daredevil walks through the crowd. From his first tier perch, he played a listen-and-repeat game with the audience which worked really well and will likely pop up during the new tour. But the whole thing took so long that they ran out of time, something Urban didn’t seem all that happy about. Earlier in his set, he did have a surprise up his sleeve and brought out Jake Owen to join him for Owen’s hit ‘Don’t Think I Can’t Love You’. You can check out the performance below.

Apologies to Reba fans, but a very early start the next day meant I really couldn’t stay for her performance.

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

Latest posts by Liv Carter (see all)