COUNTRY SUPERSTAR LAMBERT FASHIONABLY LATE, BUT FABULOUS
What’s considered “fashionably late”?
An hour? A couple of days? A month? Within the same calendar year?
Or, well, who cares? As long as you show up and are fashionably fabulous.
Local country music fans were putting in a vote for the latter — add anticipation and apathy to the question — on Monday night, when chart- topper Miranda Lambert showed up to make good on her abruptly cancelled Saddledome show set for this year’s Stampede.
Whether or not that July no- show was “due to serious inflammation of her vocal cords according to her physician,” as was the reason given at the time, or because she was dealing with some personal issues ( i. e. an impending separation, now divorce from her husband and fellow country superstar Blake Shelton, who was also booked to play the ’ Pede) is also something that people were hoping to put into the spoiled ballot pile.
All that they were asking was that she show up and put on a good show. And, man, did she ever. In front of a somewhat lesser Stampede crowd of 9,500, Lambert, the consummate pro, showed up five minutes early, kicked things off fast and quick and made her presence known from the get- go. Second song in line being the breaking- up and burning- the- past anthem Kerosene, which was fantastic and made a little more incendiary in light of recent happenings ( see: Shelton).
She owned the stage: one that was adorned with little other than typically splashy lights, her seven- piece, and a curtain backdrop that was a weird and wonderful, oddly pulsating, queer eye for the H. R. Giger guy type thing.
Lambert really was a phenomenal entertainer and everything you could want in a headliner for today: Smart, sassy, energetic, entertaining, engaged, talented, tuneful and, well, beautiful.
Her voice filled the room and made you fall in love with or merely want to befriend the Texas singer.
Clad, almost defiantly, in black leather hot pants and a sleeveless T, the 31- year- old fronted an equally spectacular sevenpiece band, one that gave her the perfectly structured, upbeat country- rock backdrop for tunes such as Over You, the pretty Bathroom Sink, the gorgeous and rousing arm- waving All Kinds of Kinds, and the sasstastic Baggage Claim.
Sure, by early newspaper deadline, her interactions with the crowd were somewhat vague, and certainly didn’t reference either the election some people may have had one eyeball on or the Jays’ game that was also at the back of many minds.
But, then again, it didn’t really matter, as Lambert managed to push all of those things further back and make a Monday night in Calgary, three months after she was supposed to appear, something of an excellent event unto itself.
Better late than never. And, honestly, better than expected.
Opening act The Dungarees were an interesting mix and one that left you in the middle. The Edmonton six- piece is, quite honestly, a pretty great country crew. It’s an easy assessment to make that, on the basis of their songs and musicianship alone, they should go far. They’re refreshing without being groundbreaking, familiar in an inviting not ingratiating way.
The problem, however, falls in the fact they still haven’t figured out how to work a big room like the Dome. They still seem and feel like a small club and roadhouse band. Which, again, is only a problem when they’re on an arena stage — something, presumably, you can expect more of from them in the future.
Their 45- plus- minute set started slow, possibly made that much slower by the fact that the room was very, very empty due to baseball/ election delays. They came out and laid down some sweet and melodic tunes in a quiet and melodic way, delivering tunes such as the Nitty Grittyesque Hard Way and Buckle and Boots.
But they also did nothing, physically, or really energetically. It was only when they brought a pair of others onstage that it elevated. First guest up was the wonderful Calgary talent Sykamore, who will not only be on that stage in a few years but holding it and headlining it — mark it. When she stepped onstage for a duet, it brought the crowd to life. It was something that continued for the song immediately after, the upbeat tune Wild Side, from The Dungarees’ current EP, and then was only taken to the next level when singer, guitarist and fellow Toon Towner Clayton Bellamy came on for a pair of tunes including new tune Fire Away.
The crowd woke up, they became more and it led nicely into the pretty great evening that was to come.
A little late, sure. But, well, let’s call it fashionably so.
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Lambert really was a phenomenal entertainer and everything you could want in a headliner for today.