Brooks & Dunn bring heartfelt, honky-tonk energy to Bridgestone Arena

When Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn began crooning about happens when the sun goes down on their side of town in front of a capacity-packed Bridgestone Arena on Saturday night, the Country Music Hall of Famers were joined onstage by reigning Academy of Country Music Entertainer of the Year Miranda Lambert. Then, 25,000 strong sang "Neon Moon" along with the trio onstage.

Clearly, the stars that accompany a night of watching broken dreams dance in and out of the beams of the previously mentioned neon moon weren't the only ones in Music City's orbit on June 18.

Feel-good moments and euphoric sing-alongs highligh the Saturday night goings-on at the corner of 5th and Broadway in downtown Nashville. Aside from Brooks and Dunn's 20-song headlining set -- including their pre-encore concert-closer, 1996's No. 1 overall song of the year cover of B.W. Stevenson's "My Maria" -- opener Darius Rucker also played a set highlighted by numerous moments where the performers implored the crowd to roar the lyrics back to the superstar artists onstage.

The country music careers of Brooks & Dunn and Darius Rucker (Recent American Song Contest finalist Tyler Braden was the evening's overall opener) encompass an impressive 30 No. 1 singles in a combined half-century. Between the former's set opener: 1991's "Brand New Man" and Rucker's 2020-released tenth No. 1 single "Beers and Sunshine," 75% of those songs were performed live.

Notable also were cover songs, including Rucker reprising his cover of Amy Winehouse and Mark Ronson's 2008 classic "Valerie" from his June 6 "Darius and Friends" benefit at the Ryman Auditorium. Rucker's band also did a masterful job of covering John Mellencamp's 1983 hit "Pink Houses."

Of course, a song bearing such familiarity in the canon of modern rock can run the risk of coming off like karaoke -- even in solid professional hands. However, notably, Rucker's steel guitar player Sasha Ostrovsky ("he's a rock star, man," Rucker said) elevated the song to be a highlight moment of the Hootie and the Blowfish lead singer's fourth live performance in a one-mile radius (including last weekend's CMA Fest) in 18 days.

As the crowd briefly settled before being revived to wildly receive a rendition of Brooks & Dunn's 1993 hit "We'll Burn That Bridge," Ronnie Dunn offered a brief homage to both he and Kix Brooks' roots in "beer joints" in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas.

While there, the best advice they were given was to keep the patrons dancing to remain employed. To wit, there was never a moment in Brooks and Dunn's 90-minute set that felt dull or not filled with some manner of "Boot Scootin' Boogie" (the night's first encore) or honky-tonk style fun featuring, at times ("Play Something Country," for starters) seven guitars playing, simultaneously.

Ronnie Dunn made an impromptu call to Miranda Lambert for "Neon Moon" because his trademark tenor was impaired by the fact that he was overcoming a cold. Thus, his extra-long final note of the duo's trademark song was impossible. However, that did not preclude Dunn from finding a comfortable range beneath his highest register to deliver a show-stopping take on the duo's 2005-released gospel country track "Believe."

This represented one of the few times in the evening that deviated from party-ready form. However, it did highlight the presence of Dunn, one of music's truly great vocalists, in country music or otherwise.

The evening closed with Brooks & Dunn singing their second encore, 2001 album "Steers and Stripes" single "Only In America." As patriotic, red, white and blue streamers fell over the audience, the band was joined onstage by uniformed members of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, who saluted the crowd and were met with the evening's most enormous overall ovation.

In late February 2022, Kix Brooks advised The Tennessean that Brooks & Dunn "still cranked up their guitars and played from the heart." After spending an evening with the legends at Bridgestone Arena, he was unquestionably correct.

Brooks & Dunn Set List

• "Brand New Man"

• "Put A Girl In It"

• "My Next Broken Heart"

• "Mama Don't Get Dressed up for Nothing"

• "We'll Burn That Bridge"

• "Honky Tonk Truth"

• "You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone"

• "Ain't Nothing 'Bout You"

• "Red Dirt Road"

• "Lost and Found"

• "Hard Workin' Man"

• "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink" (Merle Haggard cover)

• "Play Something Country"

• "Cowgirls Don't Cry"

• "Neon Moon" (Miranda Lambert duet)

• "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)"

• "Believe"

• "My Maria"
  
  ENCORES
  

• "Boot Scootin' Boogie"

• "Only In America"

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Brooks & Dunn bring heartfelt, honky tonk energy to Bridgestone Arena