Tuesday night’s show by country rockers Lady Antebellum might have only been the second date on their very first headlining tour, but it felt they’d been doing it for years. The talented, multi-award-winning trio performed to a sold out crowd at Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall, mixing songs from their self-titled debut and 2010’s Need You Now with a a few well-chosen cover tunes. The result was a show that kept the audience on their feet and singing for most of the evening. [All photos by Tracy May.]
Opening the show seated in front of a backdrop painted to resemble the approach road to a southern estate, Charles, Hillary and Dave eased the audience into the show with a performance of the slow-building "I Run To You," but quickly coaxed everyone to their feet with expected Lady Antebellum favorites like “Love Don’t Live Here,” “American Honey,” “Perfect Day,” “Hello World” and “Need You Now,” slipping in a few surprise rock n' roll covers. Confessing Tom Petty’s musical influence, vocalist Charles Kelly offered a pretty good version of Petty’s 1989 hit, “Free Fallin’.” There was also a medley that combined John Mellencamp’s “R.O.C.K. in the USA” and “What I Like About You” by The Romantics. While fun, it was a bit odd having so many covers mixed in with Lady A's originals. I wasn't sure if they were trying to stretch the set or work in sure-fire crowd-pleasers. Even so, my favorite cover of the evening was Hillary Scott’s sultry, hot rendition of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” during which, I was sure that her sprayed on pants and knee-high stiletto boots might spontaneously combust.
This article appears in Sep 16-22, 2010.