Next angle you see him looking at the camera with his hat down, one finger over his lip, simply “Shhshing” the crowd. The crowd was beginning to get restless when the video introduction started, Brantley Gilbert sitting on a bike, looking in the opposite direction of the camera. Let me start of by saying, I’ve seen Brantley Gilbert play at least 5 times prior to going to this show, and I admit that I was a bit skeptical about going because of my opinion about the “Just As I Am” record, with that being said, this is going to be my review about his live show performance. I got the chance to make it out to one of his shows, specifically the show in Richmond, Va. Where: Rogers Place Brantley Gilbert performs at Rogers Place on Wednesday, Main Edmonton.Fresh off his album release, Brantley Gilbert is tearing up the country with his “Let It Ride” tour. He also ended on an instrumental, which probably breaks all sorts of rules in the generic, by-the-books hockey arena country game, but automatically makes Hicks 20 times more interesting than his colleagues. Playing after a short set by Josh Phillips, he churned out a selection of songs from his three album discography, including My Baby, Slide It Over, Slow Burn, and immediate crowd favourite Stronger Beer, a good humoured poke at the American headliners. Ontario’s Tim Hicks made the most of his opening slot, playing his own variation on hard rock into country for an audience familiar with his work. Whatever you might think of Gilbert’s songwriting, he’s surrounded himself with some fantastic players.
A finer collection of eccentric beards won’t be found anywhere else - they looked like Molly Hatchet’s road crew and played like demons, shifting easily between Nashville licks and cock rock flash, with stops along the way for classical guitar interludes and acoustic interplay (My Kind of Crazy). It helps to have a hot band behind you, of course. The biggest applause may have been for Dirt Road Anthem, the prototype, slice of small town life hick-hop tune he co-wrote with Colt Ford that sent Jason Aldean’s album sales into the stratosphere. It wouldn’t be a country show without a shout out to the troops, and Gilbert did just that with One Hell of an Amen, giving the song double duty as a metaphor for cancer victims. Country Must be Country Wide is a straight up good old boy manifesto namechecking Waylon and Willie, while My Baby’s Guns N’ Roses is exactly what the title promises: part homage, part boast, dotted with song title references and guitars out of the Slash and Izzy playbook. He’s got more than a few other lyrical arrows in his quiver, to be fair.
Brantley Gilbert performs at Rogers Place on Wednesday, Main Edmonton.
He’s not everyone’s bottle of Bud, but Gilbert is very adept at selling it live, pressing more flesh than a politician, signing cowboy boots, connecting directly with the audience. Multiple multi-platinum albums, cross-genre hits, and a decent-sized audience at Rogers singing along to every word proves that Gilbert is something of a savant as a songwriter, wedding hair metal and hip-hop to country in the unfussy manner of someone who has grown up on all three. He’s made a pile of money off the topic, presenting his own hard rock/hillbilly version of the Beach Boys promise of Endless Summer, one that embraces mandolin, dirt roads, distorted guitar and a creek for skinny dipping. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
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