Carrie Underwood brought her star power to the Chicago area earlier this month (Hoffman Estates, to be exact) and we jumped on the chance to see country's hottest star perform. It was that very day she was asked to cohost the 42nd Annual CMA Awards with Brad Paisley, so I'm sure she was feeling pretty good.I took my 'tweener and we went with her 'tweener cousin and Mom, and a dear friend who loves her some American Idol. My daughter is a singer, and her cousin is, too, and goshdarnit....Carrie is a role model for young girls and especially young singers. Now, don't I sound old-fashioned! But it's true!
I have to admit, my expectations were somewhat low-ish....I love Carrie and think she is a phenomenal singer but I remember all too well her stint on Idol and her performances in the Idols Tour for Season 4. She had no stage presence (we called her one dance move, if you could call it that, the "Carrie Pee Pee Dance") and her aw, shucks -- and at times, ditsy blonde -- personality were a litte over the top at times. According to WhatNotToSing.com, Bo Bice should have won that season, if based on performance reviews alone.
Well, girl can sing, and SING. And her stage presence has improved since Idol, in that she looked comfortable standing on stage and delivering tunes and actually moved around quite well. Her stage banter let us know that despite her fame, she is still that Oklahoma hometown girl we fell in love with on Idol. I was really impressed with her as live performer and I'm more a fan than ever!
First off, we took bets entering the venue as to how many costume changes she would do. I guessed two, meaning one for each half of her set. I said this knowing this was a low ball number. Sister in law said five, and there was a three thrown out from the tweeners somewhere in the middle. I really had no idea what was reasonable and what would be excessive.
It turned out to be 4 and a half.....we'll get to those details in a minute. But first, the venue. As a veteran of Chicago's concert venues, this was my first trip out to the Sears Centre, about 30 minutes past O'Hare. I was very impressed with this place and hope to come out here again soon. Carrie sang on a Friday night, which gave us some pause, knowing how hellacious traffic can get on the weekend, but it wasn't bad at all, approx one hour and 15 minutes from the city. Parking was easy, and the venue itself -- on the smaller scale at 12,000 seats -- was clean, with good acoustics. Even our seats way up high offered great views, and concessions and restrooms were well-located and never crowded.
Okay, now that we've dispensed with housekeeping details, on to the show. Everyone in my party loved it and thought she sounded and looked absolutely fabulous, which is a bit contrary to the (lame) Chicago Tribune review. Yes, she is from a small town and she reminded us of that (we love it). Yes, she is country with a little bit of rock and roll (who can forget her rendition of Heart's "Alone" during her Idol run??) She is also enormously talented.
The set list: since Carrie has released just 2 CDs since Idol, she doesn't have a overwhelming amount of material to draw from for her first headlining tour, but I can say that what she does have is very, very good. Her two albums to date, 2005's "Some Hearts" and 2007's "Carnival Ride" have together spawned six number-one hits, while her current single "Just a Dream" is at #6 on the Billboard "Hot Country Songs" chart at the time of this writing. I won't even go into all of the other awards and honors she has received in her 4 short years as a recording artist....those years were summed up beautifully in an awesome video montage and were pretty impressive!
So, songs spanned both of her albums, with a cover thrown in on the encore ("Paradise City" by none other than Guns-n-Roses, of all bands). Her set list favored the recent album with all but 2 tracks represented (including one of my personal favorites, "You Won't Find This," but I can't have everything) and a good half of her debut album. Yes, Carrie's portion of the concert was only about 90 minutes, but it was full of great music! Band was very, very good and included a smokin' fiddle player along with banjo and mandolin and a drummer who kept it down. (Note to management: why not introduce these fine folks?)
About the clothes....Carrie had 4 solid "costume" changes, which I guess is reasonable for country's reigning Queen....my rating of 4 and a half comes from the fact that she appeared at one point in a ball gown beginning with a brief interlude to " Inside Your Heaven" which quickly morphed into "I Know You Won't" and beautifully so. But at the song change, she whipped off the bottom portion of the gown and thus wore a cutie little dress....which is why I counted that a half :)
Other favorite moments: some unexpected Who music (a little "Who Are You" musical interlude during one of Carrie's costume changes), and the 3 year old who came on stage to sing "All American Girl" with her.
The American Idol contestant that Simon Cowell (correctly) predicted would not only win Season 4 but go on to sell more records that any other American Idol will continue to bring her signature country pop style to the music scene for a while longer, you betchya.
(Final note: Opening band Little Big Town was fabulous. They are now on my Christmas list! give then a listen!)
