GAME ON!
U.S country-pop superstar, gamer and all-round winning-guy, Kane Brown, has landed back down-under for his biggest Aussie tour yet, for his upcoming album ‘High Road’.
This champion was last here in 2022 for his headlining spot at Brisbane’s CMC Rocks Award Ceremony, plus a few extra stops around the country which launched Kane’s Aussie following straight up the high road to incredible heights, resulting in fans demanding his return!
I’m not usually into country music admittedly, but when my best mate saw him in 2022 and played his music for me, it intrigued me and caught my attention, so I guess I’m kinda like the villain in this game.
Let’s see if I can be turned from the dark side of the musical force…
So let me lay out the battlefield for y’all, I’m at the front barrier along the catwalk coming out from the middle of the main stage, well and truly impressed and warmed up by supporting artists Katie Bell and Cemeron Marlo, particularly Katie, as are the rest of the audience by the level of enthusiasm around me, and then it’s Kane’s turn.
Ima break this down into aspects, I guess kinda like Lego blocks.
First, the sound. At the front barrier of a concert, I opt for wearing my custom earplugs with their live music filters to both take the distorting edges of the sound to balance things out and make things generally more enjoyable, and of course, to protect my ears from damage. Tonight, yes, I do have my ear plugs in, but loosely, I ALMOST don’t need them. The sound is uhm, a bullseye, K.O, killshot, basically just insert whatever gamer adjective suits you. All sounds, Kane’s warm seductive vocals, the drums, piano, guitar and violin are all even and really well balanced for optimum enjoyment which, at the end of the day, is the most crucial aspect of a concert, the music.
But wait, THERE’S MORE! More? Yes Oliver Twist, more. Judging by the heat off to my right at parts, and that influx of light, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s pyros coming up from the main stage. This, added with confetti blasting a couple of times and screens and pretty lights, it adds a nice layer to complement the music just like the graphics of a game, so that’s pretty awesome.
Thirdly, throughout the show which is nicely flowing from song to song for its energy and feeling to rise and fall strategically in parts, without losing the crowd's attention even in the lower parts, which I was honestly thinking that would happen for me as I’m not exactly a “country” fan, but no, it’s keeping even my attention… wait, where was I going with that, my attention span isn’t good sorry.
Oh that’s right, even throughout the strategic song choices, it’s not just Kane strutting up and down the catwalk in front of me, apparently the guitarist and violinist are too, and not just once. I really like this, as a lot of the time it’s just the lead singer making use of the catwalk at shows and the rest of the band are back on the main stage left in the background, relatively unappreciated.
And finally, Kane’s nicely connected with the audience pretty constantly during and between songs, not personally connected with individuals that make some rare concerts truly special, but it’s far from fake with the way he connects with us.
All in all, the sound was pretty damn on-par, the stage setup and effect/niceties added a nice frosting to the cake, the length of the set was satisfying without dragging it out past the audience's expiration date, and the stage presence from Kane and his band were pretty damn ace too!
AND no cliche planned encore, just playing all the songs and telling us/getting us all pumped for the actual last song.
So, in summary, for someone who’s not really into country music, I’m actually going out of my way to play Kane Brown on my speakers now and finding it quite enjoyable, he balances country with pop and rock nicely!
So I guess you could say this is that scene in Return Of The Jedi, where Darth Vader sacrifices himself to save Luke from Palpatine, ending his dark tyranny for Luke.