Carrie Underwood “The Denim and Rhinestones” Tour
Carrie Underwood showed up and showed off at the Bryce Jordan Center on Feb. 10.
The country music star has been traveling the country on “The Denim and Rhinestones Tour”. She is being accompanied by fellow country star Jimmy Allen, who is her opener.
Allen started the show promptly at 6:30 p.m. He was following the theme of the tour and came out in a very large sparkly white coat and shiny black boots.
He interacted well with the fans and allowed the crowd to get to know him. Along with that he played his more well known songs like, “Freedom was a Highway”, “Best Shot”, and “Down Home."
While getting the crowd pumped up, he did a call and response with songs like “Check Yes or No” by George Strait and “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond.
Allen’s energy was contagious and started the concert off very well.
The singer really got into it when singing “Gone” by Montgomery Gentry which brought his setlist into a similar genre of Underwood’s new album.
Towards the end of his set, Allen brought the crowd to a calmer place while singing his song “Pray” and then directly going into Maverick City’s worship song “Jireh."
This part of the set showed off Allen’s vocal skills the best. During these slower songs his country twang was put on the back burner and a silky and smooth side came out.
When he left the stage, the crowd was excited for the main act.
Underwood wasted no time absolutely making an entrance.
The large stage sat in one end of the arena and pultruded out to a pointed edge. She came up out of the stage on a platform. She was giving Hannah Montana.
Immediately her power house voice brought the crowd to its feet. Starting with “Good Girl”, “Church Bells” and “Undo It."
She is happily married with two kids, but you would not think that from the way she belted these songs out like someone just crossed her.
The star had her very blonde hair curled and used it as a prop throughout her whole performance. She is such a great entertainer, in the way that even for songs the crowd did not know as well, it was still easy to be engaged and entertained.
She then hit the bigger songs off her new album, that the crowd did not know as well, but she managed to slay even with a lower energy.
Her stage present truly is unmatched. She made a clear effort to walk to every side of the stage.
With a voice like hers she does not need any props at all, but that does not stop her. At a point in the show when talking about her new album, she noted how she wanted it to be “fun."
There were disco balls, colored lights, flames, she had it all. Not to mention the two times she traveled from one stage to another on a swing and then traveled back in a some sort of ball.
When she traveled to the other stage, she sang a slower set of songs including “Garden” off her new album, her classic “Jesus Take the Wheel” and “How Great Thou Art."
During this section, the arena was dark except for fans' flashlights lighting up the crowd.
On the way back to the ball, she sang “Crazy Angels." The floating ball was accompanied by a very large pair of neon wings.
Truly her and her production team pulled out all the stops.
Underwood sang upside down without missing a beat. Truly her cardiorespiratory endurance is a mystery. She was able to belt out over 20 songs in two hours with the quickest breaks that she used to change her outfit.
The star is known for having multiple outfit changes during her shows, but the speed of these changes were incredible. She looked better and better every time she re-entered the stage.
The end of her show gave her the opportunity to rock. The last outfit she came out in was black cut off jean shorts and a black leather jacket of course with gold rhinestones.
With still more to show off, she sang “Last Name”, “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses and ended with the crowd favorite “Before he Cheats."
Underwood did not drop in energy at any point during the show. She kept the crowd engaged and is so vocally talented.
There was nothing about this concert to not like. Even if you do not like country music, Carrie Underwood is someone to see live.
Savannah Swartz is a second-year communications major. To contact her, email sms9072@psu.edu.
