How appropriate to blast AC/DC’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll Train” through U.S. Bank Stadium on Saturday night immediately before country superstar Kenny Chesney took the stage.
Chesney, the king of country stadium concerts, and his band came out roaring, the guitars, energy and fun cranked to 11. Even when Chesney got to a ballad, “Save It for a Rainy Day,” it was so amped that it didn’t feel like things had slowed down at all.
Finally, on “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems,” the show’s ninth selection, the music downshifted as Chesney delivered the Western swing fiddle tune that has become a mantra for him. Next up was “Somewhere with You,” a stylish R&B ballad that reached No. 1 in Nashville in 2011, punctuated Saturday with a soaring Kenny Greenberg guitar solo.
There is no slowing down Chesney, the Energizer Bunny of country music. At 56, he knows only one mode for concerts — hyperactive. If he were wearing a Fitbit, he would have easily covered 10,000 steps with his running, scooting, skipping, sashaying, bouncing and jumping (including jumping jacks) on the T-shaped runway.
As exciting as it may have been for Chesney and the near-capacity crowd, the winning performance felt like a rerun of his concert at the Vikings stadium a mere 21 months ago. Like seldom-seen George Strait, Chesney just hasn’t changed much in concert. Strait has the golden voice and gravitas of being the King of Country Music with a record 44 No. 1 singles. Chesney is no slouch with 32 chart-toppers, but he visits often — this was his seventh Twin Cities stadium appearance since 2012 — and needs to mix it up more.
After an overloud, rambunctious “Young” (reminiscing about high school), the four-time CMA entertainer of the year interjected a song Saturday that five people asked him about earlier in the day — an acoustic version of “Old Blue Chair,” which showed he can be a nuanced singer when he tries.
His vocal prowess was apparent on other selections, David Lee Murphy’s “Everything’s Gonna Be Alright” (on the recording of which Chesney sang) and a duet of “Drift Away” with opening act Uncle Kracker, who remade that 1973 Dobie Gray hit into a 2003 hit. Kracker also joined Chesney for their ‘04 country triumph, “When the Sun Goes Down.”
Ironically, Chesney’s ended his 25-song, 1¾-hour performance with “Don’t Happen Twice” with Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell joining the superstar onstage — just as then-Coach Mike Zimmer had done in 2018 — to present a Vikings helmet to a lucky fan.
