The last Germain Amphitheater concert of the season seemed a good excuse to throw a going-away party for the summer. And, on Saturday night, the amphitheater was full of concertgoers ready to have a good time. Bad-boy country rocker Toby Keith was clearly more than willing to take on the role of master of festivities, and he did so in full party-animal mode: Anyone taking the challenge to imbibe whenever Keith musically mentioned alcohol would have been in no condition to drive by the end of the evening.
His anthems have a thematic similarity: The assertive Get Drunk and Be Somebody states it most concisely, with the rowdy Beer for My Horses, the harddriving Whiskey Girl and the frank I Love This Bar providing minor variations on the theme ? while the ironic waltz Weed With Willie meditates on another intoxicant. Keith?
s sometimes-belligerent patriotism played a distant second to the bibulous mood of the evening: Occasional bursts of red, white and blue lights enlivened the stage. The singer ? in the midst of a series of glasses raised to various public servants ?
raised one to "the good old U.S. of A.
: She?s a good old broad." Most of the time, Keith contented himself and his audience with more down-to-earth reflections.
Who?s Your Daddy? he asked, and I Wanna Talk About Me, he said.
His guitar skills are unremarkable, his singing is a deep growl, and his beefy muscles hamper all but the most rudimentary dance moves. But he undoubtedly has stamina and a sense of what his audience wants. The hearty partying was delayed by a long video that seemed intended primarily to advertise the motor company sponsoring the show, one of whose vehicles was prominently displayed above and behind Keith throughout the performance.
The fun was also halted temporarily to allow Keith to show a trailer for his new movie, Broken Bridges, after which he sang a ballad from the film with young, diminutive Lindsey Haun. She followed with her own American Idolready Broken, then was whisked offstage so the testosterone could flow freely again. The evening opened with a brief, sluggish and generic set by country cousins Tim Rushlow and Donny Harris.
They worked in references to Old Glory, tears down a mother?s face and what might have been. Laid-back Joe Nichols seemed to be moving on autopilot through a set of predictable songs: He?
d strum a couple of chords, then let the other musicians take over ? leaving him to wander across the stage, plastic cup firmly in hand, and assert, in keeping with the theme, that "There?s nothing in the world that a case of beer won?
t cure.
News RSS