Dierks Bentley Concert
Jen and I saw Dierks Bentley with Miranda Lambert and Jason Aldean at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, VA last night. I made the mistake of not bringing earplugs, and right now my ears are ringing so bad I had trouble sleeping. This oughta remind me to plug up for the Kaiser Chiefs show we're going to in April.
Miranda Lambert was the first act out. She's a very charismatic performer. Ridiculously pretty, too, which should've meant that she sounded silly singing songs like "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Not true. She was traumatically convincing singing "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Compare this to Carrie Underwood singing "Before He Cheats."
Her set was uptempo throughout, and she played three songs from her next album. She closed with "Kerosene," which brought the house down. She was clearly delighted by the reaction, with a grin you could see in the rafters. She also did two covers, which seemed a bit too many for what was about a 40-minute set. But she did them well, so it's hard to complain.
But I will complain about Jason Aldean's two covers. Well, one and a quarter. He did a few bars of "Paradise City" that lead into a full-blown version of "Sweet Child O'Mine." It was rough. The crowd ate it up, though. I may be a bit biased because I really friggin' hate Guns 'N Roses.
I will also complain about the three-to-five minute speech he gave near the end of his set while his band jammed on "Hicktown." It was a list of his accomplishments, essentially. He's got a hit album, plus a new one coming out soon, so those three-to-five minutes would have been better served, you know, promoting his new album or playing his old songs.
Still, he was in great voice, the band sounded great, and once "Hicktown" kicked into gear, it rocked hard.
After Aldean's set, Jen and I were both a bit down, but Dierks was fantastic from the get-go. Of course, I am just giddy because he did "Domestic, Light and Cold." Considering the bulk of his repertoire is road songs and aching, heartfelt love paeans, this wasn't a number I was expecting him to do. Yay!
The man knows how to work a crowd, I tell you. During "So So Long," he ran off the stage, up the stairs to one of the sections on the side, and sang to some random girl in the audience. He picked one that wouldn't burst out into tears like that kid during Sanjaya's number on American Idol the other night.
During "Come a Little Closer," he came over to where we were standing. Jen put her hand out. He grabbed it and sang right to her for a good 30 seconds. He's ridiculously pretty, too, actually. Really blue eyes.
Near the end of the show, the band set up on a little stage jutting out from the main stage to perform a couple of bluegrass songs. One of them was his single "My Last Name," which worked particularly well in a stripped down arrangement.
During his encore, Dierks did "Folsom Prison Blues" and brought Jason Aldean out to sing along. I would've liked to hear Miranda's take on it because, as we've established, she could cut you. She could cut you for real.
We were able to snag a set list from one of the techies breaking down the set. This was for guitarist Rod Janzen:
The keys of all the songs are listed, as well as when to break out the mandolin. I don't know what the other notes are, but they may mean which guitar to use when. Or maybe when to use the capo, since "Come a Little Closer" and "What Was I Thinkin'" blended into each other.
Anyway, I've posted our pictures from the show in our Flickr account. Also, Miranda Lambert's keyboardist Chris Kline has posted a couple of shots from tonight's show in his Picasa account. In the last photo (at the time I'm writing this), you can almost see where Jen and I were standing, which was about three people away from the last person up front on the right hand side.
