Photos by Chris Oberholtz/The Star
In his opening song at the Midland on Friday, Trace Adkins played a guy in an Armani suit, alligator boots and plenty of jewelry, ready to hit the clubs and corral some ladies: "I got my game on / Better hang on tight ..." Country-bling isn't Adkins' best game, but swagger is. And for the rest of his 80-minute show, he played a more fitting role: the country redneck who loves women, cars, his country and the country life.
Adkins isn't an A-list country star, like Tim McGraw or Kenney Chesney, but he has amassed a collection of hits and a hefty crowd of fans who know them, word-by-word. The Midland was nearly sold out Friday, and the 2,000-plus fans in the house gave Adkins an A-list kind of welcome.
They went craziest for "Ladies Love Country Boys" and "Honkytonk Badonkadonk," country music's version of "Baby Got Back." They also joined in on his latest novelty hit, "Marry For Money." He showed them his softer side, too, in songs like "You're Gonna Miss This," a ballad about living in the present and not wishing away your life; "Every Light In The House," a plea for someone to come back home; and "I Wanna Feel Something," a wish for something more exciting than the routine he's stuck in.
However, Adkins' music sticks to its own routines and formulas. His harder songs are more Southern rock than anything else; his ballads are more modern than traditional. It's all pretty safe and predictable, but it has paid off: He has put 19 songs in the country Top 20 charts, 13 of those were in the Top 10. He left a few of those off the setlist (like "This Ain't No Thinkin' Thing" and "I'm Tryin'") and played some newer material instead, like "Muddy Water." He also tossed in a cover of Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night" that he should think about tossing out.
He kept his banter to a minimum but stepped into the KU/Mizzou feud unintentionally when he said thanks for the girls of Kansas calendar. He got booed. "I dont' have a dog in this fight ... I just like the ladies in bikinis." Then, I think, he said: "Thank you and shut up." (The sound was OK this evening, but it was hard to hear him and the opener, Craig Morgan, when they talked to the crowd.)
He ended with a road song, "Ride," another archtypical country song about the need to move on and not stay in one place. He'd only played a hair over 80 minutes by the time he finished that song, but his fans filing out of the Midland seemed both satisfied and ready to move on, too.
Craig Morgan: The opener played a 50-minute set. His music falls somewhere between Dierk's Bentley's and Alan Jackson's -- modern with a traditional accent here and there. The crowd was familiar with several of his songs, like "Redneck Yacht Club," "Love Remembers" and "International Harverster," a tribute to the farming life. He also gave Steve Miller's "The Joker" a country twist.
Trace Adkins setlist: I Got My Game On, Swing, Songs About Me, Every Light In The House, I Wanna Feel Something, Chrome, Muddy Water, You're Gonna Miss This, Marry for Money, Hillbilly Rich, Tonight's the Night, Ladies Love Country Boys, Hot Mama, Honkytonk Badonkadonk, Ride.
| Timothy Finn, The Star
Recent Comments