Jason Aldean sold out the Comcast Theatre in Hartford on Friday night
Jason Aldean
HARTFORD _ Jason Aldean may seem like an overnight sensation to the rest of the world but for local fans his sold-out show at the Comcast Theatre on Friday night represented the culmination of years of hard, dues-paying type work.
After all, Aldean was opening up for Tim McGraw here at this same shed back in 2008. Since that time he has played a free show at the Big E, opened for Toby Keith at Mohegan Sun, headlined at the Mullins Center, and showed up anywhere else that would give him a raised stage and a microphone.
A lot of Aldean’s notoriety came last December at the Country Music Association awards when the Georgia-born crooner netted six awards including “Artist of the Year” and “Record of the Year” for “My Kinda Party.” Also, his country duet with pop star Kelly Clarkson was a genre chart topper and crossover hit that opened up a whole new audience.
Aldean was in fine form for the performance, opening the show with “Johnny Cash” and “Big Green Tractor” before downshifting into “Amarillo Sky.”
He reminded the wild throng that he had been through town before.
“If there is one thing I know about Hartford,” he said. “Is that you are all crazy and like to have some fun.”
He lit into “Crazy Town” as if to prove his point.
Kelly Clarkson showed up via taped video to reprise the duet on “Don’t You Want To Stay” and Aldean moved swiftly from country pop to southern rap with “Dirt Road Anthem.” He closed the set with “She’s Country,” and returned for an encore that included “My Kinda Party.”
If there was any drawback to the Aldean performance it was the length (or lack thereof). The headliner’s main set (before encore) clocked in at a paltry 51 minutes.
In contrast to Aldean’s string of success, opener Luke Bryan is coming off a tough week as he faced mostly internet criticism for having written crib notes on his hand to get through the lyrics of the National Anthem at this week’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The mild controversy wasn’t mentioned during Bryan’s hour set and although he was the acknowledged opener, his demeanor and delivery screamed “headliner.”
Bryan took charge from the outset with “Rain is A Good Thing,” and had the crowd won over almost immediately when he launched into the sing-along “Drunk on You.”
He took the piano to cover the Commodores’ “Easy,” (after teasing with a riff on Justin Beiber’s “If I Was Your Boyfriend) and followed it up with “Do I,” before wrapping up his time on the piano with another cover, this time touching on Journey’s “Faithfully.”
Bryan wasn’t done with the rock tangents, adding a bit of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” to his song “All My Friends Say.” He closed with “Country Girl (Shake it For Me)."
Rachel Farley opened the show with a 30 minute set.