I’m not a big pop country fan, but couldn't resist checking out Rascal Flatts at the Enmax Centre, Friday, June 27.
But first, Southern Alberta born singer and Hell on Wheels actress MacKenzie Porter impressed me a lot with her opening set.
She performed a solid and brief opening set of mostly original country pop music, which usually featured her singing into a microphone heavily decorated with shiny sequins and playing an equally sequinned fiddle. She had an excellent band of her own with a great back up singer singing impressive harmonies.
She showed her ’90s rock roots by performing a countryish version of Alanis Morrissette's hit “Hand in My Pocket,” as well as her hit singles and some new songs. She started right at 7:30 and ended on the dot at 8 p.m.
It took a good 40 minutes before Rascal Flatts took the stage.
At the beginning of their set, it looked like they were going to rock the country pretty hard with “Payback” from their latest CD “Rewind,“ which the trio (Joe Don Rooney, Jay DeMarcus and lead vocalist Gary Levox) played from an elevated platform set high above the video screen set dead centre above the stage.
But after playing the title track of “Rewind” the show quickly devolved into a 5,000 person off key karaoke night as they completely overdid the well worn crowd participation chestnut of getting the crowd to sing their many hits with them. And they had a lot of them. I thought I heard a few bars of “Mayberry,“ one of my favourites, but could have been mistaken.
“Bless This Broken Road” was one of my favourites of the show.
It seemed like LeVox quit singing on every song to let the crowd sing, which was a pity because though he has been singing pop country since 2000, he still has an amazing voice and the other guys still sing gorgeously rich harmonies. He sunk his teeth into a plenitude of power ballads like “ What Hurts The Most.”
They have a lot of hits and fit most of them in and also included several new songs.
I expected them to do a medley of some of the hits, like Joe Don Rooney said in his interview with me last week, into a medley of their new song “DJ” but it was not to be, though it did include some beatboxing, which was interesting to hear in a country show.
I wanted to hear more of the band sing, not just the crowd.
They showed off their tight and talented band during an a capella number, where they all sang and harmonized doo wop style. Rooney played some gorgeous guitar solos and LeVox was the consummate frontman, shaking hands with people in the VIP section cordoned off in front of the stage.
They wandered into the crowd and even up into the stands to sing and shake more hands during “Summer Nights,” closer to the end of their seemingly brief set, which ended early just before 10 a.m. with their hit cover of Tom Cochrane's “Life is A Highway.”
A prominent security presence kept a close eye on things making sure nobody got too close to the VIP section.
