Concert Review: Dierks Bentley “Free and Easy” at Coral Sky Amphitheater
Long-time knight of the road, Dierks Bentley knows precisely how to engage an audience. After all, early in his career his job at the Nashville Network was to research live performances by country music’s biggest stars. Last night’s Burning Man tour stop at Coral Sky Amphitheater clearly shows that Bentley can still draw large audiences as he did for his sold-out performance Friday night.
Usually, opening acts are something most people don’t really care much about. Bentley has carefully curated opening acts that delivered plenty of entertainment, including some slapstick moments by country covers band Hot Country Knights. Led by Doug Douglason (aka Dierkes Bentley), this tongue and cheek band claims to be the 3rd or 4th best country music cover band in some small town named Murfreesboro, TN, fired up the crowd and kept them in hysterics throughout their entire set.
While you may not know the name, Tenille Townes, the young country singer from north of the border, delivered an inspirational set with lyrics that could break one’s heart when she sang “Somebody’s Daughter,” a song she was inspired to write when Townes and her mother saw a young homeless girl holding a cardboard sign on a street corner. The very talented guitar-playing singer quickly engaged the audience, who clearly seemed to love the spirited singer.
When Jon Pardi started his country music career, he toured with Bentley back in 2010. A lot has changed throughout the years; both singers careers have evolved, and they have established themselves as respected names in country music. Pardi, the always clean-shaven singer, could certainly hold his own tour by performing on bigger stages. He captured the audience early on and delivered what they wanted with such fan-favorite hits as “What I Can’t Put Down.” Pardi’s catalog has enough good songs that he could have played an extended set; perhaps we will see him headline his own tour again soon.
Attending a Dierks Bentley concert is like a party with thousands of your closest friends. The songs are about good times, the correlation between love and heartache, and of course drinking, plenty of it. Bentley has been known for exactly the type of concert his fans came to see, an incessant high-energy show with non-stop music that kept most of the audience on their feet nearly the entire two-hour set. Bentley and his band got things started with “Burning Man,” his latest single from last year’s album The Mountain. The band tore through their catalog of hits in rapid-fire pace, including fan-favorites “Come a Little Closer,” “Settle for a Slowdown,” “Free and Easy,” and “Drunk on a Plane.”
Bentley didn’t disappoint. It was what everyone came for. As the night closed, you could feel the buzz in the air, and people seemed quite satisfied like leaving a Chinese buffet, full and not wanting more until the next time they get a craving for the sounds and performance by one of country music’s very best.
