Garth Brooks loves a crowd. A heaving, pulsating crowd sweating Lone Star beers and whiskey and singing along to every song — every word — in his four-decade canon of hits.
But the wide smile that Brooks wore, along with a green hoodie and a white cowboy hat Thursday night inside The Grizzly Rose in Denver, couldn’t have been wider if that crowd had been a 70,000-person stadium. In fact, Brooks and his band looked at times like they were playing simply for the joy of the music itself. They could bring arena-energy to a backyard barbecue.
The 64-year-old country-crossover superstar was at The Grizzly Rose for a secret/not-so-secret set in advance of his three-day (four-show) stop at Ball Arena. He used the name Yukon Jack in planning for the show so as not to overwhelm the venue — a secret that began making the rounds on social media earlier this week. And he kept fans wondering right up until the last minute about whether it was really going to be him.
It was, and Brooks proved why he’s known for his live shows, pointing, laughing, telling stories, loving on fans and reminiscing about the last time he played under the pseudonym of Yukon Jack in 1993 in New Mexico.
And those fans — packed boots to belt buckles into the pit like New Year’s Eve revelers in New York’s Times Square — loved him back, so much so that at least two of them passed out or suffered medical emergencies, prompting Brooks to call over firefighters and EMTs to help. So much so that an Adams County firefighter said his team had helped a dozen or more fans who’d stood in the 90-degree heat for hours beforehand, waiting for first-come, first-served admission.
“You guys have been here since, what, this morning?” Brooks asked at one point.
But the long wait, which included a rousing opening band, Martin and Kelly, meant nothing by the time Brooks rolled into “Rodeo,” sparking vibrating streams of electricity among the 2,000 (or more) people in attendance.
From there, he blasted through a nostalgic string of hits that included “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” “The Thunder Rolls,” “Ain’t Going Down (‘Til The Sun Comes Up),” “Friends in Low Places,” “The River,” “Two of a Kind, Workin’ on a Full House,” and Shameless — oh, “Shamless,” the twangy, soaring ballad that may have elicited the most sweat and the most sore throats from a Karaoke-like audience singalong.
“I don’t even need to show up. You guys finish every song for me,” Brooks told them.
Although Brooks himself may have lost a tiny bit of his vocal range — and looked at times as much like a lovable grandpappy as a music icon — he hasn’t lost a single step when it comes to thrilling a crowd, no matter what the size.
Brooks is touring as part of his retro “Blame it All on My Roots” tour. He’ll be at Ball Arena Sept. 4-6.
(Editor’s note: Commercial and media photography were not allowed at the performance at The Grizzly Rose.)
