Summer concert review- Kenny Chesney

[newey]

11 years ago, in what was undoubtedly a moment of weakness, my wife (aka "Mrs. Newey") said "i do". I did, too.

Now, we share many things. Tastes in music, however, isn't one of them. She's a big C&W fan. I'm not. Oh, I like traditional country, bluegrass stuff with all that finger pickin', but the Nashville type of Country has never really been my cup of tea. Too many sappy ballads, and too many producers who don't know when to keep their hands off the knobs.

But one of my wife's favorites is Kenny Chesney. So, when I saw that he was playing at Blossom Music Center, 10 miles away from us, on our anniversary- well, being the dutiful husband I thought I've got to get tix.

Which were not cheap. Blossom seats about 19,000, and Kenny pulled in the biggest crowd I've ever seen there. The place was packed, and largely. it seemed, with women, who seem to be his biggest fans.

For those unfamiliar with Chesney's music (until yesterday, I was . . .), he's sort of Nashville's answer to Jimmy Buffett. You know, Buffett took folk-rock, added some steel drums, wrote about beaches, beer and good times. Chesney took Nashville C&W, added steel drums to the steel guitars, and writes about beaches, beer and good times.

And, just as Buffett has found that formula will ensure that he can sell out a tour every summer, Chesney has found the same. To his credit, his songs are positive and well-written. The message is "kick back and have a good time", and he certainly delivered on that last night. He's a great frontman who can really sell his music in a live setting. My impression was, in terms of showmanship from a vocalist, he's Country's answer to Mick Jagger.

I had a few beers and found myself having a good time. And it didn't hurt that my wife was clearly loving it all.

Of course, I also was focused on his band, which was a pretty tight outfit. It seems to be the full employment solution for guitar pickers, as his band has four (count 'em)onstage throughout- five when Kenny occasionally picks up a guitar (more as a prop than anything else). His band has two lead guitarists (playing an SG and an LP, respectively) and two rhythm guitars (one on acoustic, the other on a Tele). The acoustic guy doubles on pedal steel for some tunes, but overall they kept that way back in the mix- the show was really a rock concert for all practical purposes.

Chesney played a Takamine acoustic, but what was interesting was his electric- a Gibson LP Jr. with a P90 bridge pickup and what appeared to be a Strat neck pickup. That's a mod I hadn't seen before. So, apparently, the guy's Nutz as well . . .

[ux4484]

Yes, Lots of my Mrs' friends are Kenny fans (though she is not). I've noticed a big migration of Boomers to country music. And I think it's as you point out, the "rock-ifying" of it. I asked my neighbor across the street (a year older than me) why he switched, his answer was: "I can listen to the country stations much longer and not have to change it for a crappy song or super annoying commercial". So basically, he does it because he's lazy. I don't "hate" country, but I don't love it all either. Rockabilly is my usual limit, and I can't really take hours of that. I took a similar but different bullet for the wife decades ago going to a Neil Diamond show. I had a good time (she's seen him 5 times since, only one other with me). I like the songs, if not his performance of them. I think I'd pay to see Brad Paisly, he does that Tele up right.
I'm glad you had fun, I can see the JB comparison (I've seen Jimmy 3 times), if the experience is anything similar, it couldn't possibly suck.

BTW, I think now you have to have a new "Hobnobbing" sub header. This kind of stuff we usually don't share (clearly from the responce of the Major to Minor thread, it's kind of bottled up.

[ux4484]

Oh, and I think that is a Melody Maker (flat sides to the headstock).

Unk would have picked that right up (I had to really look).

[cynical1]

That's love, newey...all I'm gonna say...

HTC1

[newey]

Ux-

I had to drive to Parkersburg, WV today for work, and about halfway there, "Melody Maker" popped into my head as well. I resolved as soon as I got home, I'd look again, but you beat me to it.

Last night, at the show, I saw a single-cutaway with a slab top and thought "Junior", but you're right, the headstock is the give-away.

But I'd swear its a Strat SC in the neck position. You can't really see it in the picture, but I couldn't find another shot of him with the guitar. And, I think the MM could be had at one point with P90s, but I could swear the one in his is slanted just a bit.

In keeping with the islands flavor of Chesney's show, He's sponsored by Corona beer, and also by his own brand of rum, "Blue Chair Bay". This, apparently, isn't just a "license my name" deal. Like Sammy Hagar with his Tequila, Chesney apparently helped create the product.

As I said, I knew virtually nothing about the guy until last night, but I did google a bit today. I'll say this, the guy is certainly prolific, he's been pretty consistently putting out an album every two years or so.

BTW, we were talking about the "Rockifying" of C&W- A perfect illustration of that last night. For years, many rock bands have of course not used guitar amps at all, everything is patched to the mixing board and the amps are all rack-mount units for the PA. And, in fact, this was what Chesney's band did, there were a whole row of rackmount amps lining the wings of the stage.

But, then too, rock bands would tour with the obligatory Marshall stacks, and they'd have a "wall of Marshalls" set up behind the band, just for show. This never made a lick of sense to me, but apparently someone decided that it didn't look like a real Rock Show without a bunch of amps behind the band. Roadies no doubt hated it, but hey, they're paid to haul the crap . . .

Chesney took that whole thing one step further. He, too, has a big wall of Marshalls behind him- it looks like you're gonna see a real Rock Show- but the catch is, these aren't even real amps, they're fakes, and they're all "larger than life". The cabs look to be about 10 feet high and the heads are proportionately big to match. The "Marshall" script logos were about three times the size of an actual Marshall amp logo, etc. I don't know what they were made out of, it looked to be fiberboard or something, but apparently they wanted the guy in the back row to see that big "Marshall". They served no purpose other than they had some strobes set on top of them for the usual "strobe in your eyes" effects.

[ux4484]

'60 MM.
Has the original angled bridge for older heavier strings (wound G).
I'm missing Unk just now, he could fill us in off the top of his head.
Fake amps: ZZ top does the same thing with Orange. Though they have screens and lights inside theirs instead of speakers. Each one had a lit control panel.
Rockifying could almost be a new topic, as it's happening to hip hop as well.

[cynical1]

Jun 21, 2013 19:35:29 GMT -5 newey said:

But, then too, rock bands would tour with the obligatory Marshall stacks, and they'd have a "wall of Marshalls" set up behind the band, just for show. This never made a lick of sense to me, but apparently someone decided that it didn't look like a real Rock Show without a bunch of amps behind the band.

Well, you they could take a page out of Geddy Lee's book and use washing machines:



...or chicken rotisseries:




HTC1

[ux4484]

*like*




;D

[newey]

Notice that he has the rotisseries miked?

[cynical1]

Jun 22, 2013 22:28:05 GMT -5 newey said:

Notice that he has the rotisseries miked?

HTC1

[ashcatlt]

Anything that does work like that can be used as a power soak. It is at least conceivable that he actually had thousands of watts worth of amps plugged into those rotisseries...

[asmith]

I don't know how rowdy they are in Blossom (although if they're on the same level as Newey, they know how to party), but here's a picture from the Pittsburgh gig:



Found on Reddit. Country fans. Here's one previous worker's tale from a Chesney gig:

Holy cow, something that's actually relevant to my life!
I actually used to work for Alco Parking, which is the company that owns all the parking lots around the stadiums, and I can tell you that the Kenny Chesney concert is the most nightmare thing. The lots open at 9:30 AM, and there are already caravans parked all around waiting to get in. The lots had a "no tents" policy (in order to prevent damage to other vehicles), and we constantly had to move groups out of empty parking spots. The worst bit was that I was on cleanup for the Northshore garage the next day, and it looked like someone's colon had exploded in the women's restroom. How one gets sh*t 7 feet up the wall I'll never know. I ended up throwing away half of the cleaning supplies after that and ordering new ones.
It wasn't all bad though. Getting paid $12 an hour to stand there with a flag for 3 hours until your lot fills up and then taking jello shots with random strangers for the next 5 until your shift is over isn't that bad I guess. I got to do that on the 4th though too, and I didn't have to deal with an exploded colon.
F*ck you, Kenny Chesney Groupies.

And here's a local news article on the recent gig with some fun statistics towards the end.

My favourite comment in the Reddit thread:

Two reasons why it's so hard to solve a redneck murder:
All the DNA is the same.
There are no dental records.