Luke Bryan brought his summer “Huntin’, Fishin’ And Lovin’ Every Day” tour to Progressive field on Saturday, July 15 and once again proved why he is one of country music’s biggest entertainers. Playing to a near capacity crowd at the home of the Cleveland Indians, Luke and his band delivered a night of hits that pleased everyone in attendance.
The night started off with CMT Breakthrough Video of the Year winner, Lauren Alaina. This was Alaina’s first stadium show and she delivered a short, but energetic set consisting of her hits “Georgia Peaches” and “The Road Less Traveled.” One of the highlights of her set was when she brought up a young male fan to dance with her during the song, “Next Boyfriend.”
Next up was another CMT video winner, Brett Eldredge. Eldredge and his band were also playing their first stadium show and they put everything they had in to entertaining the crowd. They delivered a set full of Eldredge’s hits including “Lose My Mind,” “Drunk On Your Love” and “Wanna Be That Song.” His latest single “Something I’m Good At” received the best crowd response and got everyone on their feet and dancing.
The highlight of the set, however, was when Eldredge brought his four-legged traveling companion, Edgar out on stage to meet the crowd. Edgar, an adorable dog well-know to his fans, came on stage wearing special headphones to protect his hearing and to meet the Cleveland audience. Edgar seemed a little overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and soon retreated backstage while Eldredge and his band finished their set.
Nothing says “summer” more in Cleveland than a great outdoor concert. Over the past few years, Bryan has grown into one of Country music’s top live entertainers by delivering a bigger and better show with each tour. Despite not having a new CD release this summer, Bryan and his band put everything they had in to making this year’s tour better than previous tours. Opening up with “Move” got the crowd dancing and singing right from the start. The energy just kept growing with hits such as “My Kind of Night,” “Kick The Dust Up,” “Crash My Party,” “Rollercoaster” and “All My Friends Say.”
Filling up a stadium with a great light show and stage set are not easy but the production was top-notch and accented his show very well. Fans in the back were not left out as giant video screens enabled everyone to get a good view of Bryan and his band. Long catwalks in front of the stage allowed Lhim to get close to his fans during the songs.
Midway through the show, Bryan brought out his band to the end of the catwalk and they did an acoustic set of some of his hits while allowing his band members to take some turn to showcase their musical abilities. Much to the surprise and delight of the crowd,
Luke performed some cover songs of both country classic and pop standards including Alabama’s “Mountain Music,” Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk” and perhaps the greatest sign-along of all, Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
Reminding the crowd that he is a big sports fan, Bryan told the crowd he had a special guest he wanted to introduce and bring out. Ohio State football coach, Urban Meyer, received a standing ovation as he joined Bryan on stage to say hello to the capacity crowd.
Bryan got back to business and continued to deliver hit after hit to the crowd keeping everyone dancing and singing to the very end. Stadium concerts are always a unique challenge for any artist and Luke Bryan clearly demonstrated that he has grown in to one of the few country music performers who is not only able, but comfortable engaging and entertaining a stadium full of some of the most demanding music fans around.
Downtown Cleveland may not seem like the first choice for a big country concert, but slowly the city and country music are warming up to each other. It seemed that everyone was having a great time and overall everyone was well behaved making it for a very enjoyable evening of country music.
