Review: The Goin' Coastal Tour

Photos by Shane Keyser/The Star

By all standards, Kenny Chesney is the reigning heavyweight in modern country music.  Who else could draw close to 50,000 fans into Arrowhead Stadium on a sweltering Saturday?The answer to that question could be the band who played right before the headliner at Chesney’s six-hour “Goin’ Coastal Tour.”

The Zac Brown Band took second billing on Chesney’s “Goin’ Coastal Tour,” the latest in his string of summer stadium tours.  He took summer 2010 off, but before that, Chesney was the only performer in music to sell more than 1 million tickets each of eight consecutive summers. He is poised to do that that again this summer, and he can thank Brown and his band for that.

Saturday's show was the first at Arrowhead in 10 years, and Chesney was its main draw. His set exceeded two hours, comprised more than two dozen songs and ended with his and Brown’s band tearing up the joint with an incendiary cover of Tom Petty’s “Runnin’ Down a Dream” – the finale to an encore that also included covers (or bits of them) of tunes by Alabama, Steve Miller and Bob Marley. 

Before that, Chesney gave a crowd that was delirious from heat or beer and tequila (or all of the above) plenty of his own Top 10 material, like “Summertime” and “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem,” which he played early, and “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy,” his first encore. 

As a singer, he is not among the elite of male country vocalists. And as a live performer, Chesney’s stage personae is a mix of warm and friendly and humble. Yet he stirs his fans like none other, and the people who come to see him – an even mix of men and women, couples and herds of the same gender – know all of his songs by heart, and they sing them back loudly and with vigor.  

That finale included a birthday celebration for Brown, who turned 33 on Sunday. A cake was brought on stage and several members of both bands drank a margarita from a cocktail glass the size of an aquarium. 

The entire day’s theme: relax on a beach (in Mexico, if you can) with a beverage, dance, sing and free your mind. From the floor of Arrowhead to the seats in the nosebleed sections, that’s what people did, igniting the kind of raucous, festive mood the stadium hasn’t felt since … well, anyway. 

Members of the Zac Brown Band.

The crowd was noisy and rowdy for the headliner’s entire set, but the response it gave the Brown Band, nearly matched what it gave Chesney.  The ZBB has been around for nearly 10 year, but didn’t have a hit until less than three years ago, when the song “Chicken Fried” made it big. Brown’s music is classified country, by radio, but it employs a variety of styles, from pop and bluegrass to jam-band rock.  

They are a force, from their leader, a burly, bearded guy with a smooth, hefty voice (who wore his trademark wool hat despite the heat) to the rest of the high-caliber band, which is powerful, lean and agile. 

His setlist included  “Toes,” another party-in-Mexico song with a Jimmy Buffett vibe, “It’s Not OK,” a romping bluegrass/fiddle tune, and “Where the Boat Leaves,” which he fused with bits of “Crazy Love” and “Islands in the Stream.”  There were more covers to come, including a feverish version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” and “Into the Mystic,” which was tagged on the end of “Free,” which was dedicated to those in the military.

They ended with a verse from “America the Beautiful” and then “Chicken Fried,” and when that was done and the band took its final bow, it got the kind of long, loud and furious ovation you normally hear for the headliner. 

Kenny Chesney setlist: Reality; Summertime; Beer in Mexico; The Woman With You; Big Star; I Go Back; No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem; Anything But Mine; There Goes My Life; You and Tequila; Living in Fast Forward; Young; Somewhere With You; Don’t Happen Twice; Never Wanted Nothing More; Out Last Night; When the Sun Goes Down; How Forever Feels; The Boys of Fall. Encore: She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy; Dixieland Delight/If You’re Gonna Play in Texas (You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band); Knee Deep; Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven; The Joker/Three Little Birds; Runnin’ Down a Dream.

Zac Brown Band setlist: As She’s Walking Away; Toes; It’s Not OK; Where the Boat Leaves From/Crazy Love/Islands in the Stream; Highway 20 Ride; No Hurry; The Devil Went Down to Georgia; Quiet Your Mind; My Name is Money (Sonya Leigh); Colder Weather; Keep Me in Mind; Who Knows; Whatever It Is; Settle Me Down; Whiskey’s Gone; Free/Into the Mystic; America the Beautiful/Chicken Fried.

Billy Currington: His set included a cover (“Family Tradition”), something current (“I’m Pretty Good at Drinkin’ Beer” and “Let Me Down Easy”) and his best-known songs, like “I Got a Feelin’” and “Must Be Doin’ Something Right.” 

Uncle Kracker: The former Kid Rock sidekick kicked off the six-hour event with a set that introduced some new material but leaned heavily on his old hits (“Follow Me” and “Smile”) and covers (“Drift Away,” “The Gambler”).

| Timothy Finn, The Star

Comments

[Clint]

Zac Brown played the Sprint Center around 6 months ago and that was not sold out. They might be able to headline Arrowhead someday but not yet.

It was a fun day...but man it sure was long and hot. I bet there are some people in Kansas City that feel terrible today!

[jlm]

Whats with the $27.oo for parking??? $6.00 for a water on a 100 degree day? Nice Arrowhead. You got us for 250 mil and now you want to nickel and dime... er I mean 20 and 25 us to death. Are there no water fountains at arrowhead? Even though I freely paid for it, I didnt have to go, you guys seem to be taking advantage of the people of Kansas City. You should be ashamed.

[buyguitarsforkids]

When's the tour to our side of the country? It's a long way over there, even though I'm sure it would be worth it.

[bob]

Zac wears that dumbass skullcap when it is 90 degrees out? Nobody gives a hoot if you are bald, dude. Quit posing.

[Bubba]

$6.00 for a bottle of water?!? THAT'S H-I-G-H-W-A-Y flipping ROBBERY! How much for a bottle of breathing air? Greedy b^^tards!! Maybe they work for those blood-suckers at Ticketmaster-bater.

[Bark-less]

So if Lucinda Williams had been invited to participate at Arrowhead yesterday[she wasn't]rather than Crossroads earlier this spring, would she have blamed her drunkeness and pathetic performance on "the weather conditions" and lack of air conditioning?

[Randy]

woof woof bark-less... hey thanks for bring it up.

Lucinda knows BS when she sees it, and she was correct for scolding the dump for treating paying customers so poorly... and shame on Arrowhead too.

Music these days seems to be mainly about grabbing as much money as possible, in the shortest period of time. Pure greed.

....and beings you brought it up, again, did you notice that Zappa (also) learned first hand about the dump and he said that he will never play there again, and man of his word, he is playing the Midland this year.

Ah.. The Midland.. walls, roof, A/C, modern pluming.... aka civilized.

The list of artist of who wont play the dump is long and growing.

ps
dont blame to me, I did not bring the dump up today, that other guy did.

[Randy]

btw- IF/WHEN one starts pissing off Bubba, with one's fking greedy ways.... one might be wise to listen up, and change one's ways.... cuz Bubba dont get pissed off easy.

[Greeneye64]

Not me, took 1 bottled water in and nursed it the whole time till I got out, I am a stubborn woman, won't spend that kind of money. Didn't eat a single thing there either! They aren't gonna rip me off, tickets are bad enough, but got a discount on those!

[Bubba]

Randy, you stand correct. I DON'T piss off easy. It's all bull sh** anyway, right? I really AM so glad I didn't have any friend, former flame, etc. NAGGING me to go to KENNY CHESNEY. Personally, I would rather get a root canal.

[Randy]

You are a good man Bubba.

Kennychestnuts roasting in an open Arrowhead

Parkingattendents ripping offf you money

[John]

Did anyone have trouble hearing the words clearly when Kenny Chesney was performing? It seemed like the background noise drowned out his voice or his microphone was not loud enough. The voices of the other performers sounded strong and clear.

[fiddler]

root canals aren't TOO bad these days, bubba, but i'm with ya.

[Chris]

Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

[Kato Krawfish]

Look at Zac with that wool cap in the middle of the Midwest Mojave.....Boy got no sense.

[james]

Bubba, you would rather get a root canal than to see thousands of hot chicks wearing short skirts and Daisy Dukes? Oh, well, to each his own.

[Astrozac]

Gotta love that $27 for parking fee there, not to mention what you all had to pay for water and beer...When I saw U2 at Busch a couple weeks ago, they let us bring water/soda/gatorade in from home, had free water and cooling stations and it was sweltering then as well

[Pellboy]

I'm with James on that tip. Not into that kind of music, but I'm guessing there was a shitload of eye candy out there. The chickies love that modern country.

[The Truth]

Zac ALWAYS plays the Free/Into the Mystic duo.

He's recorded it that way, and has played it to cue both times I've watched him in the past 18 months.

Which is too bad. I'm sure it was cool the first time around. It's old and a little stale now.

[Kristy E]

My pet peeve was the lack of information BEFORE the show. Good luck finding anything about what time anyone was going to go on stage. Not to mention it wasn't listed anywhere what the parking fees would be.

I would rather pay the $6 for water, than pass out like I saw many doing.

Yes, the speakers on the north side of the stadium for Kenny cut in and out the entire show. Annoying.

Then there were the drunks, oh the drunks. Including the one who punched a cop and got an entire crowd of innocent people pepper sprayed just so they could get that idiot under control.

[onthemark]

Kristy E: FYI the entire concert lineup and schedule were posted on this site at 10:00 Friday morning. Along with the parking fee.

[gsp]

I wanna hear more drunken cop-punching stories!

[Hairy Krishna]

@Bob - "Zac wears that dumbass skullcap when it is 90 degrees out?"

Yeah, too bad somebody couldn't have talked some sense into Stevie Ray Vaughan about wearing that hat 24/7. Or The Edge for that matter. We don't care if you look like an accountant up there on stage.

Do we?

[Sara]

I think it is sad that you can attend a Royals game where there are tons of water stations everywhere and then when you pay to go to a all day concert they don't have any. Since when do the bathrooms even have heated water? There was no where to refil your water. After 6 bottles of water I still thought I was going to pass out!

[Kurt]

Arrowhead should have active water fountains. They spent $375 million on renovations and should have plenty of water fountains. I hope they had recycling stations for all the plastic water bottles.

[onthemark]

I was at the Chiefs MNF home opener against the Chargers last season. I wandered all over that stadium looking for a drinking fountain and never found one. What do you want for $375 million?

[Andy]

""I wanna hear more drunken cop-punching stories!""

HAHAHAAHAHA YEAH!!!!! HO DOWN!!!

[Andy]

oh yeah....
"something bad about crossroadskc"..
cuz no story here is complete without it.

[KevRocket]

$27 to park and $6 or more for a bottle of water. Plus, no water fountains to refill your empty water bottle. Sounds like I now know where NOT to attend a concert or sporting event.

Who runs this dog and pony show anyway? Why is it the Royals and Cardinals stadiums(per the aforementioned comments) and Starlight (personal experience) have free water in 100 degree heat? Why is it so hard for the powers at be at Arrowhead to understand the importance of free water? Would it really cut into their profit margin? Totally unexceptable in my book.

However I can imagine the disclaimers issued from Arrowhead... it's been 10 years after all since they last held a concert.

I'm certain Lamar Hunt would be so proud.

[Kings of Leon cancelled]

Sandstone is cursed!

[Bob T]

This is a story you will only read about here. I would have guessed at least one of the local TV newpeople would have reported about this BS and spread the word about those scumbgs running Arrowhead.

14 trillion in improvements and not one water fountain, that is a crime.

[THAT GUY]

HEY!!!!
If you wanna HEAR McCartney LIVE in Chicago RIGHT NOW... GO HERE...

http://www.cubworld.com/category/a_cubworld_cam/

You can not see him, it is a scene of the street,... but the sound is pretty good.

[Kurt]

On a different note, the entire Kings of Leon tour has been cancelled due to the heat. They will be playing late September shows in cool Canada and international shows.

[KevRocket]

Weren't Kings of Leon the band that stopped their performance in St Louis due to pidgeon's pooping on them? If so, mother nature isn't much of a fan. Up next, a swarm of locusts.

Back to the thread, apparently nobody got hurt after this concert due to drunk drivers. I'm a bit surprised because all I've read here and elsewhere, is how many people were unbelievably drunk during this show. Thank goodness for designated drivers!

[BACK TO SPAM VILLE]

BACK TO SPAM VILLE....
they need to permanently install the capscan thing.... no I dont want xanax or nikes or viagra or cheap crap slap or chap!!!

[Spambot]

Could I interest you in some NFL jerseys, men's suits or baby accessories?

[BACK TO SPAM VILLE]

Oh yes, on second thought I would like 3 orders xanax and 10 orders of viagra.... which will lead to me needing baby accessories

[Kurt]

The high prices for parking and water bottles is the greed of Arrowhead and KCMO. It's not the greed of Kenny Chesney and he doesn't have any control over parking and concession prices. He would have control over merchandise and ticket prices which, are high enough. There's lots of money to be made by touring.

[Jack Potts]

Yes it is greed but come on surely everyone knows this is to be expected. I don't know why so many people are surprised by this fairly standard marketing practice - a given percentage of a captive audience will pay inflated prices.
Plus you and only you are responsible for your own welfare - if you'd rather pass out than pay the $6 for some water then ...what can I say!

[Andrei]

What a great tour that was! I wish I were there

[Steve J]

He's back again June 10th. Can't we get a non country act at Arrowhead? Heck even Lady Gaga at this point.

[oc escort service]

I caught him at the I <3 radio concert in Vegas this past summer.

I love this man, energy and great performance.