Underwood leaves fans blown away

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This article was published 02/06/2019 (2486 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They say the eyes are the window to the soul, and if that is indeed the case, country superstar Carrie Underwood really wanted to make sure fans got to know her inner-most self Sunday night at Bell MTS Place.

The current tour supporting her most recent release, 2018’s Cry Pretty, is a 360-degree experience; a series of illuminated catwalks connected to form a stage in the shape of a massive eye, which, before the songstress came out, was surrounded by screens flashing videos of Underwood’s eyes, glittery tears streaming down her face.

Underwood, 36, has been open about the struggles she faced while creating and co-producing 2018’s Cry Pretty; she had three miscarriages and then took the now-infamous tumble outside her Nashville home which resulted in dozens of stitches in her face, a chipped tooth and a delay in completing the album.

But, despite the emotional trauma, Cry Pretty still has its fair share of party starters, including the most recent single from that record, Southbound, which opened the night.

As she sang, Underwood took her first strut around the stage so fans on all sides could get some face time right away. Underwood continued to navigate the 360-degree stage expertly all night.

After blasting through three more tracks from further back in her catalogue in rapid-fire succession, Underwood slowed things down with another track from Cry Pretty, the beautiful ballad Backsliding.

It was so long ago, it’s easy to forget Underwood only became what she is today because of a reality singing competition she won due to her live vocal chops (an experience she said was “horrifying and amazing”), so it shouldn’t be a surprise she can belt with the best of them and navigate tricky runs with ease. Regardless, it’s still pretty impressive to watch.

Not everyone who rolls through this arena has the vocal talents of Underwood; she is consistently excellent whether she is screaming the chorus of Aerosmith’s Dream On, swimming deep in her country twang for Jesus Take the Wheel or invested fully in her emotions during gun-control anthem The Bullet.

The first of five wardrobe changes for the night (into a sparkling sheer jumpsuit-ish number) flowed into Church Bells, with Underwood grabbing her electric guitar to give the chorus a little extra oomph. This was just the first of a few instruments Underwood tackled, including a piano for the emotional See You Again, and a very weird moment on a bongo drum during the energetic pop track End Up With You.

As the night progressed, the screens surrounding the stage became true set pieces, turning the space into a smoky lounge during the sexy, saxophone-infused Drinking Alone, a thunderstorm during Blown Away, a family photo album during a musical interlude and a waterfall during Something in the Water. The images and videos added a lot of visual interest to the otherwise very bare staging (though there were also some oft-used platforms that lifted Underwood, and sometimes her bandmates, alarmingly high into the air).

Underwood’s setlist for this tour is almost a career retrospective; in her nearly two-hour set, she sang all, or part of, more than 30 songs, including almost all of the opening tracks from each of her six full-length records, such as Good Girl, Cowboy Casanova and Flat on the Floor. She threw a couple of deep cuts in amongst the hits, too, including apparent fan-favourite I Know You Won’t from 2007’s Carnival Ride.

It was around this time Underwood took centre stage with two of her band members who have been with her since the beginning of her career, 14 years ago.

She later introduced the rest of her musical crew, who deserved much more applause than they got for their absolutely stellar playing all night.

Underwood wasn’t a huge talker, though she did take a few moments every four or five songs to chat quickly with the oddly low-energy crowd. She is as personable as one would expect, but chose to cram in more music rather than take lengthy periods for chatter, which also helped move things along at a fair clip.

Opening acts Runaway Jane and Maddie & Tae joined Underwood for a 10-song medley/ode to all the great women in country music who came before them. They covered the gamut, singing snippets from iconic female-voiced tracks such as Stand By Your Man, 9 to 5, She’s In Love With a Boy and Man! I Feel Like a Woman.

Underwood wrapped up her huge main set with a little local love, bringing out a woman from La Broquerie to rap and sing on The Champion (she was really great!) before closing out with Before He Cheats, which finally seemed to wake people up.

She then returned for a two-song encore of title track Cry Pretty, which she belted while standing atop a pedestal and beneath a sparkling chandelier-like fixture, and Love Wins, an especially apt show closer on the final day of the city’s annual Pride festival, complete with rainbow lighting and confetti.

Rounding out the all-female bill were trio Runaway June and duo Maddie & Tae, both from Nashville. The former opened the night with a six-song set of fun and flirty country-pop jams. Where these women shine is in their sparkling three-part harmonies, which instantly gave a boost to every track, from a cover of Dwight Yoakam’s twangy Fast as You to the tear-jerking ballad Blue Roses and the anthemic energy of their most recent (and highest-charting) single, Buy My Own Drinks.

Maddie & Tae followed that up with a similar sounding, though slightly longer, set. The women, who have been playing together for the past nine years, flipped back and forth between guitars, keys and vocals, and were back by an excellent four-piece band; their banter was sweet and plentiful, their vocals were tight and powerful and they had no issues commanding all sides of the massive 360-degree stage.

It just felt a little too same-same as Runaway June’s set; both groups offered up entertaining performances and certainly worked hard for the adoration they received, but a bit more stylistic diversity on this tour wouldn’t have hurt.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel