If anybody at the Pepsi Center on Tuesday night had been living under a soundproof rock for the past 10 years and somehow missed Tim McGraw and Faith Hill’s successful takeover of country music via their affable, like-minded crossover pop-country approach, they quickly got the hint as the genre’s most celebrated couple opened their packed concert with a cover of Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars.”
This being their second time ’round the U.S. with their co-headlining Soul II Soul tour, McGraw and Hill relied on old tricks and mostly new music to wrap the attentive, nearly sold-out crowd around their intertwined pinkies.
But while the show was all about playing the crowd-pleasers from each of their catalogs, it also included a bizarre thread of cover songs that stretched throughout the nearly 2K hours.
And especially given the singers’ seemingly effortless ability to perform hit songs that mesmerize country radio for months at a time, the presence of songs by Paul McCartney, Steve Miller Band, Janis Joplin and, yes, Snow Patrol was curious to say the least.
But these concerts just don’t work without a certain amount of Nashville panache, and lemme tell you, they don’t call it Nashvegas for nothing.
McGraw and Hill have the schtick down pat. They start together with the big alt-rock FM cover. He leaves the stage for a while as she brings down the house with her goliath catalog before bringing him back with “Like We Never Loved At All.”
And that’s McGraw’s cue, and it’s his show from there on out. Regardless of the couple’s supposed co-headlining status, it was obvious throughout the entire night that this is indeed McGraw’s show.
Hill’s songs – especially her hits – sound as dated and worn as they should, given the radio overexposure. “Sunshine and Summertime” was the only fresh track to come from her set.
It doesn’t help that Hill’s never had the stage presence of her husband, and as he casually strutted the gigantic video-floor stage during the sweeping “Last Dollar (Fly Away),” it was obvious he was the natural performer to her cardboard nervousness.
McGraw’s set suffered a couple dips in his ability to keep the audience on its feet (including the awful “Between the River and Me”), but the familiar “When the Stars Go Blue” was an easy slam – as was the big country epic “Live Like You Were Dyin’.”
Of the concert’s many moments, that hit song was the one that connected the most with the giant crowd.
Something about its obvious imagery and over-the-top melodies – both pop-country trademarks – possessed the crowd with McGraw Mania, and the applause that followed the garish performance was among the loudest this critic has ever heard at that arena, during a hockey game or concert.
Contact pop music critic Ricardo Baca at 303-954-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
