On a cold rainy Friday night in January in Nashville, there was one spot in the heart of the city that was completely on fire. Bridgestone Arena was that spot and the heat was coming from seven time CMA Female Vocalist of the Year Miranda Lambert and her Wildcard tour. The Nashville stop on the tour was all about the music. There was no pyro, no extravagant stage sets, no costume changes – just 28 songs reeled off one after another in just under two hours.
As Aerosmith’s Back in the Saddle is blaring from the PA system, the arena suddenly goes dark and silent, only to be brightened next by Miranda front and center on the stage as she kicks things off with Wildcard’s opening track “White Trash.” From the song’s first notes, the sold out crowd is worked up in a frenzy and continues to keep up the screams as revenge rocker “Kerosene” follows “White Trash.” A total of six songs off of Lambert’s latest album made the setlist including the third song of the night “Mess With My Head.”
Miranda stopped a few times throughout the show to chat with the predominately female crowd, mainly to give her band a moment to catch their breath. She even added new members to her band so they could take a breather since some of them have been with her 15+ years. Backup singer Gwen Sebastian who some may remember from the TV show The Voice has been part of Lambert’s band since 2014’s Platinum. Sebastian has a strong, powerful country voice that is ready for the spotlight all its own.
After digging deep in her discography with “Famous In A Small Town,” the crowd was back screaming at a feverish pitch through “It All Comes Out In The Wash.” The show switches gear as some of Mirandas more mid-tempo songs are giving the spotlight allowing the band to really shine. “Vice,” “Bluebird,” “Heart Like Mine” and “Over You” give the hot out of the gate crowd a moment to rehydrate and catch up on their Instagram post.
At the conclusion of “Over You,” the arena suddenly goes black and once the lights come back on, Miranda is not alone. She is now joined by Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley, or as they are better known, the Pistol Annies. The trio rolls through four of the groups biggest hits “Got My Name Changed Back,” “Best Years Of My Life,” “Takin Pills,” and the title song from their number one debut album, Hell on Heels. The fiery crowd was more than excited to see the girls together on stage.
The simplicity of the stage was one of the highlights of the show. So many times, artists add so much theatrics to the their tours that it takes away from the live performance. With the Wildcard tour, Miranda seemed to want to keep things simple and mainly focus on presenting a raw, zero to 100 rocking show which her and her band delivered in spades.
Ashley and Angaleena bowed and returned the stage to their Pistol Annies bandmate. After a visit to The Weight of These Wings for “We Should Be Friends,” Lambert returns to Revolution for the John Prine penned “That’s the Way the World Goes ‘Round.” The Lindale, Texas native hands over the show to her band as they intertwine Traffic’s “Feelin’ Alright” into “Baggage Claim” from Four The Record. This is where her band shows their cohesiveness and Sebastian’s vocal chops are displayed.
Things pick up again with sing-alongs “Only Prettier” and “Mama’s Broken Heart.” Those two bookmarked an anthem for women fighting domestic abuse. “Gunpowder and Lead” had every woman in the floor pit racing to the front of the stage with their fist raised high ready to release the hidden anger and pain many of them had hiding deep inside of them. “All Kinds of Kind,” “The House That Built Me” and “Dark Bars” followed before the homestretch of songs.
“Tequila Does” represents the final song featured in the show from Miranda’s new album. The smooth drinking sing-along is followed up another classic, Alan Jackson’s “Don’t Rock The Jukebox.” The finish line is just off in the distance as Miranda and company pour through ACM Song of the Year winner “Automatic” and Song of the Year nominee “White Liar.” A rocking version of “Little Red Wagon” is the semi-main event as Miranda sends us home happy with her rendition of Travis Tritt’s “It’s A Great Day To Be Alive”.
Toward the end of the show, I became extremely worried about a woman sitting behind me. I would say she was in her late 20s and was a very vocal and excited member of the crowd. The problem was that she could not scream like a normal human being. Her scream sounded as if an emu was screaming while simultaneously being punched in the gut. I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out the reason why. Is it because she was just getting over laryngitis? Was she the victim of an alien probe? Was she disciplined as a child when she screamed and has PTSD? I’m just not sure what it could be, but it wasn’t just the screaming. She also could not ‘woo’ correctly. How is that even possible? Wooing is embedded in a white girl’s DNA. I wish I had stopped her to ask these important questions. Maybe I’ll see her at the next Miranda Lambert concert.
It’s been 15 years since her debut album Kerosene helped launch her into super stardom and after countless awards, tours and live performances it would be understandable if she wanted to kind of mail it in on this tour. That’s just not who she is as an entertainer or as a person. I hear there were two very good opening acts on the show and I’m positive they were great but I signed up for Miranda and Miranda only. I have a funny story about how my wife hid knowing Miranda from me that I’ll have to share at another time.
The Wildcard Tour runs through early May with Cody Johnson and Lanco in support of Miranda.
Steven McCash is the Music Columnist for SoBros Network. He is the pioneer of New Music Friday, highlighting each week’s new releases in the world of music, in addition to the occasional live show review. Follow on Twitter: @MC_Cash75
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