Review: Kenny Chesney gets overamped in familiar show at Vikings stadium

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.

Like 2022′s marathon that featured Dan + Shay, Old Dominion and Carly Pearce, Saturday’s program included three openers — sometimes-stadium headliner Zac Brown Band, rising newcomer Megan Moroney and aforementioned Chesney crony Uncle Kracker.

The always-eclectic Zac Brown Band was terrific and increasingly soulful, recast slightly with a horn-punctuated Doobie Brothers-evoking groove, propelling “Same Boat” and spiking “Toes” with peppy trumpets. The 12-member ensemble found an up-tempo reggae vibe for Bob Marley’s “Could You Be Loved” and got swampy for “Who Knows,” which featured Clay Cook’s Woodstockian guitar solo.

In 90 minutes, ZBB covered the Eagles, Paul Simon, Van Morrison, the Tokens and Charlie Daniels Band. Lest they ignore their beach bona fides, Brown dedicated the new “Pirates and Parrots” ballad to Jimmy Buffett, crooning, “We’ll pick up where you left off / Strummin’ on a sailor song.” That was quite a contrast with a cover of the Beastie Boys’ noisy rabble-rouser “Sabotage” before the hoedown hit “Chicken Fried,” which featured a Marine salute and a Brown-led “U.S.A.” chant midsong.

Moroney evoked early Taylor Swift with her rhinestone guitar, wavy blond hair and broken-hearted tunes. What sets this 26-year-old Georgian apart is her smart songs with unexpected twists.

“28th of June” was about a wedding anniversary that no longer resonates the same way after divorce. “No Caller ID” complains about her ex phoning at 3 a.m. just as she’s involved with a new, standup guy.

As Moroney explained, her songs are therapy and “country music lets us feel a little less alone.” She then offered “Girl in the Mirror,” singing that “she loves the boy more than she loves the girl in the mirror.” Moroney pivoted to show her resilience on the hit “Tennessee Orange” about being a University of Georgia girl willing to wear rival University of Tennessee orange for her boyfriend.