The opening band was the Lost Trailers. I wasn’t familiar with their music. They had a lot of energy but a little too much old country twang for my taste. Not surprisingly my favorite song in their set was Mellencamp’s Hurt So Good, which they rocked.
Somehow I had gotten confused by some early tour promotion materials and totally expected Trace Adkins to be accompanying Martina. I don’t know exactly where I got that idea into my head, but was I rather surprised when Blake Shelton walked out instead - lol! But Blake was great and the crowd loved him. He is quite personable and I enjoyed every one of his songs. But gosh darn it, my memory for details is not very good for artisits other than Keith!
This was the opening show of Martina’s new tour and she has definitely stepped up the production features of her performance since I last saw her live. The first thing I noticed was the big curtain hiding the set-up details during the break after Blake left the stage. Very similar to Keith’s big curtain, but white rather than black. However Martina’s curtain doesn’t do the same “disappearing act” that Keith’s draperies did. Unbeknownst to me, her curtain would continue to be a major feature of the set throughout the show.
Like the last time I saw her, Martina included some Keith music during the break, which I appreciate. When it was finally time for the show to begin, the lights and the curtains provided a dramatic build-up to Martina’s entrance. Through the curtains we saw a bright spinning, growing image of the world and then Martina’s silhouette appeared in front of it and began to move towards us. The curtains were drawn back as she emerged to the front of the stage. She had 2 gradually sloped ramps to either edge of the stage, which she used throughout the evening (although a bit more slowly in her high heeled boots than Keith’s usual pace across the stage). She was in fine voice and thrilled us with a mix of songs from her new album as well as old favorites. She chatted with the audience several times, saying she had picked Moline to be first on her tour because she felt safe here.
My daughter and I found Martina's clothing choices a little odd. I guess the layered look is in but she had some rather strange looking overshirts and leggings in rather subdued or even drab colors that I did not think were terribly flattering. The only bright spot in her couple costume changes was a sparkly vest, until the encore, where she came out in a bright green John Deere teeshirt that fit her well and pleased this John Deere community.
The curtains re-appeared and were used to good effect several times during the show. At one point Martina and 2 of her band members played a few songs sitting on stools in front of the closed draperies, creating a sense of greater intimacy and closeness. Meanwhile the particular lights they used caused an ever-changing silvery iridescence behind them - very nice. At another point the curtains served as a screen on which a townscape was projected while the moon shining above slowly traced its path across the night sky. I believe this immediately preceded Martina (who had been absent during this dierama) re-appearing at stage edge, singing from a seat in a huge baby blue crescent moon. The moon proceeded to lift her high up above the audience and then all the way over those seated on the floor to a satellite stage at the rear of the arena. There the moon slowly lowered until she could dismount onto the stage. Martina joked that now we could all honestly say that we had been mooned by Martina McBride - lol! She performed about 3 songs from this stage, which slowly rotated as she sang. She did not ride the moon back to stage but instead returned along the arena perimeter, shaking hands and greeting fans as she did so.
Martina really put her all into her final big songs - Anyway, and, during the encore, Independence Day. What a big voice from such a tiny gal!! The crowd went crazy with applause and gave her a standing ovation. She said that the rest of her tour stops would have a hard time matching what she got from her friends in Moline.
Sadly I had forgotten to charge my camera battery so only caught a few shots before it went dead.
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