RAISING THE BAR
Garth Brooks, more accustomed to playing mega-arenas, proves at Chicago show that he has plenty of friends in small places, too
BY TRICIA DESPRES
There was a moment during the Garth Brooks concert Monday night at Joe’s on Weed Street when the back room of the legendary Chicago venue felt as if its walls were not able to withstand the sheer power of the six-time CMA Entertainer of the Year combined with the unbridled adoration of his fans.
“I’ve just been waiting to get in a box like this because this is going to explode,” Brooks let out in that iconic growl of his before tearing into his 1994 hit “Callin’ Baton Rouge.”
And yes, the place (no dive bar by any means) indeed felt like it was about to burst not just once, but many times during the first show of Brooks’ seven-city Dive Bar Tour. But when the night was through, Joe’s Bar remained intact
and Brooks further cemented his stature as one of the greatest entertainers of all time.
Donning his iconic black cowboy hat and a Bob Seger t-shirt, Brooks had not been on stage for more than five minutes before he clued fans in on a big secret.
“There is no set list tonight,” he casually told the crowd as he prepped for a taping of a couple of songs — including “Dive Bar,” his new duet single with Blake Shelton — which aired late Monday night on a segment of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
“You’re gonna pick the set list,” he told the ecstatic crowd.
In true dive bar fashion, Brooks spent a good portion of his Monday night gig taking requests from the 650 or so lucky recipients of a radio show ticket “giveaway” and other guests for the sold-out show.
Sure, Brooks would call the shots on the majority of songs such as “Friends in Low Places,” “The Thunder Rolls” and “Two Pina Coladas.”
But it was the requests that certainly threw the biggest curve balls at him and his six-piece band, requests such as “The Red Strokes” off his 1993 album “In Pieces.”
“I’ll play you just a little bit. And forgive me, it’s gonna suck,” Brooks endearingly admitted as the band shuffled behind him.
Then, there was a request for “All-American Kid” off 2014’s “Man Against Machine.”
“You may have hit one that we don’t know,” Brooks quipped.
And while the night’s early requests seemed to throw off a bit of the initial energy of the show, it was clear sailing from that point on. For an artist who routinely finds himself in stadiums and arenas, the true artistry showcased on requests such as “The Dance” was nothing short of breathtaking.
Brooks also shined during an acoustic set where he told his band to take a five-minute break while he basked in a medley of songs from his greatest musical inspirations, including covers of hits from legends such as Merle Haggard (“Mama Tried”), George Jones (“The Race Is On”) and Randy Travis (“I Told You So”).
“I don’t want to overstay our welcome but I never get to do this and I’m having a blast,” Brooks said with a wide smile after he and his band’s cover of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Fishin’ In the Dark.”
The rest of the night was chaotic in the very best of ways, as the volume frequencies were pushed to their limit for songs such as “Ain’t Goin’ Down (’Til the Sun Comes Up)” and “The Thunder Rolls.”
“Everyone talks about stadium gigs and how cool they are,” Brooks yelled to the crowd. “But I’ll take the honky-tonks any day.”