Rascal Flatts' sold-out night of country-pop
Rascal Flatts' sold-out show Friday night at Susquehanna Bank Center opened with a bang - literally. A single pyrotechnic explosion was followed by the three principal members' descending on a semi-drawbridge to join the five-man backing band, everybody playing. Three huge light screens streamed images for all 20 songs. Early on, high-speed hurtling thro
Rascal Flatts' sold-out show Friday night at Susquehanna Bank Center opened with a bang - literally.
A single pyrotechnic explosion was followed by the three principal members' descending on a semi-drawbridge to join the five-man backing band, everybody playing. Three huge light screens streamed images for all 20 songs. Early on, high-speed hurtling through scenic Monument Valley accompanied RF's rollicking hit cover of Tom Cochrane's 1991 rocker "Life Is a Highway." The night concluded with the band's lively party-on paean (and current tour namesake) "Bob That Head" and a lavish balloon-drop.
But it was the "birthday present" that Rascal Flatts guitarist-vocalist Joe Don Rooney got mid-set that offered revelation. As arranged by cofounders Gary LeVox (vocals) and Jay DeMarcus (bass, keyboards, vocals), guitarist Steve Lukather (formerly of smooth-rock '80s hitmakers Toto) emerged to play two tracks with RF, including Toto's 1982 biggie "Rosanna" - and there it was: Ostensibly country but obviously more pop, Rascal Flatts approximates a twangy Toto for these times. Like the entire soggy middle of the night's song-list, the band's material through eight years, five albums (17 million sold), nine number-one singles and countless industry awards is mostly song-doctored, mid-tempo, power balladry, overwrought if flawlessly executed.
With an exuberant opening set, fast-rising country-pop star Taylor Swift, confidently prowling the stage in black cowboy boots and a blue metallic mini dress, capped a high-profile week of MTV Video Music Awards and Country Music Association show appearances.
Swift, the tall, blond, Berks County native, and fiddler Caitlin Evanson enhanced Swift's good-riddance breakup anthem "Picture to Burn" by drumming furiously on garbage cans for a spell.
The 18-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarist, raised in Wyomissing, welcomed the sing-along assistance of 'tween-to-teen-and-beyond female voices on fresh-sounding tunes from her self-titled and 3.5-million-selling 2006 debut album.
"I'm really happy today," she told the Camden crowd before playing the just-released track "Love Story" (the first single off her second album, Fearless, due in November). "In less than a day, you made it the number-one country single on iTunes!"
In the rainy parking lot afterward, key lines from the Romeo/Juliet-themed song had already been scrawled in fuchsia lipstick on a car window.