LITTLE BIG TOWN LIVE AT THE MET, PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY 30, 2020: CONCERT REVIEW

A beautiful Nightfall in a historic opera house, where Little Big Town turned country harmony into elegance.

(Updated from an article originally posted on tripmuze.com on March 5, 2020)

Country music’s quadruple Little Big Town started a unique U.S. tour to support their new album Nightfall at the beginning of 2020.

Kicking off in New York City at world-famous Carnegie Hall on January 16, followed by a spectacular Apollo Theater performance, the venues Little Big Town performed at were mainly historic, elegant theaters in selected cities, with multiple dates in each place. The concept was similar to Madonna’s recent Madame X Tour, her first theater tour, which brought a lot of excitement, controversy, and cancellations. Though Little Big Town’s concerts wouldn’t be theatrical like Madonna's, the reasons for their venue selections were unimaginable without their ninth studio album, which became available a day after their Carnegie Hall show. After listening to the Nightfall album, the reason became clear. The new album was beautiful. It was obvious Little Big Town sought matching venues that could reflect the elegance of the Nightfall album. Little Big Town always made an evolution with each album and tour. My first Little Big Town concert experience was at a small, all-standing Irving Plaza in New York City in 2013. Big progress compared with 7 years ago, they were having a theater tour in the Northeast where country music was less popular than the South, and the shows were nearly sold out (Nightfall Tour included only a few cities in the South, such as Charleston, SC, Atlanta, GA, and Clearwater, FL…and no Nashville). My selection of their concert was historical, The Met Philadelphia, a former opera house built in 1908, located in the north of downtown City of Brotherly Love.

Little Big Town started their concert just the way I expected, and wouldn’t be any better. That night’s opening song was a beautiful love song, “Next To You”, the first song of the latest album. It was a simple yet perfect choice. If the first song choice was different, the band’s bright idea about the whole concert concept would be corrupted. “Next To You” described the beautiful world of the Nightfall album the best way it could. Initially singing in the dark to make the match with the album title, Little Big Town vividly appeared when the thin black drape was dropped, and the scene changed to the beautiful mayflies-flying dusk as the harmonized chorus reached the climax. The dramatic sync of the beautiful chorus and the scene change made a perfect opening with a lot of heartfelt ovations from the audience.

(l to r) Jimi Westbrook, Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild, Phillip Sweet

To reflect the band’s confidence about the track order of the Nightfall album, the second song was also the same as the album, the title track. Following the same track order with an album was actually rare at a concert, but this simple idea helped the band to establish stability for the rest of the show while maintaining the same excitement as the album without disappointment. The third and fourth songs were the singles from their fifth Tornado album that put Little Big Town on the country music mainstream. The third song was “Sober,” which, with catchy Kimberly Schlapman’s voice, mellowed the audience’s mind, and the fourth was their summer country anthem “Pontoon”. Eventually, “Pontoon” experienced the first high voltage of the show. The first climax successfully inherited the first single from the Nightfall album, “Over Drinking”. Overall, the concert’s track order was thoroughly considered and organized to show the current Little Big Town in the best way. Despite the majority of songs being from the Nightfall album, which was only 2 weeks old and not exactly well known yet, Little Big Town successfully produced the elegance they currently have, like the new album’s theme, with the effective mixture of their classic hit songs.

The stage was very simple. The only material that enhanced the elegance was the stage-wide screen…but that screen had interesting shapes. The screen featured a half-circle like a big dome ahead of the full circle, and that full circle in the center was like a mysterious black hole. Sometimes that full circle just sat there without doing anything or showing other staff, and acted like watching the audience, while the rest of the screens worked hard, adding the visual mood. Then suddenly, the enigmatic full circle became the heart of the whole visual effects, like blooming a bunch of flowers in the circle or blowing so many birds. That strange full circle seemed like absorbing our souls…didn’t get bored paying attention.

Although there were 8 people on the stage, 4 Little Big Town members+4 other band members. The impression about the not-so-small stage was empty without any other standing sets, despite the concert being held at a mid-sized theater with a capacity of 3,500. Not even big amps. Maybe simpler than the smaller stage at Irving Plaza in NYC 7 years ago. But the elimination of unnecessary staff didn’t matter for the band to create a more elegant atmosphere with what they got: their voice.

The best parts of Little Big Town were the beautiful quadruple female/male vocal harmony and different lead vocals depending on the songs. Their blend of different vocal types was quite a chemistry (Karen Fairchild=deep and thick, Kimberly Schlapman=sweet and pretty, Philp Sweet=husky and blues, Jimi Westbrook=clean tenor and sometimes comical). Listening to their better vocal harmony over their hit songs at a live performance was what the audience mostly expected, and Little Big Town made a good score for the high-level expectation. Little Big Town’s vocals were uniquely characteristic because few bands were similar to them. There were many same-gender vocal groups, but not many cross-gender groups with different vocal ranges, even in other genres.

The main lead vocalist on their last few albums was Karen, and she took the major position with the concert, too. Karen’s vocals gave a favorable impression as her voice got more powerful as the show went on. While Karen’s vocals were the band’s staple at the concert, the eye and ear-catching performer on the stage was Kimberly. I’m not discussing her appearance. Kimberly’s cotton candy voice somehow matched Little Big Town’s country music very well, and with her active moves on the stage, she radiated a strong presence with elegance on the stage. Kimberly also proved that a light pop voice didn’t mean weakness. Her vocal performance was strong throughout the concert, as well as Karen. They were the same as my previous concert experience 7 years ago (Kimberly was more active back then with showing her multi-talent by playing guitar and organ. She didn’t play any instrumental in Philadelphia)

Karen Fairchild

Kimberly Schlapman

Little Big Town also had a hidden surprise with this tour. That was their band. I looked forward to seeing the performance of the guitarist, Evan Weatherford, who had played with Little Big Town since the Painkiller Tour and with Ryan Bingham previously. His moody Americana-style guitar performance fit Little Big Town’s music and indeed did a good job that night. Yet the stage had a bigger surprise behind the keyboard. Akil Thompson. Who was that guy? His keyboard performance was beautiful, and if he played the guitar solo, that was a blowout. So Akil had played with Little Big Town for a while, at least since 2017, though Nightfall was his first recording with the band…I didn’t know about him. Good to know another talented musician; that was the reason I couldn’t stop loving music. With those incredible supporting members, Little Big Town was a powerful force on the stage.

Guitar crash of Evan Weatherford (l) and Akil Thompson

Even though the concert was minimalistic, Little Big Town succeeded in producing a beautiful night, whether they played the low-key songs from Nightfall or their previous country-party anthems such as “Boondocks” and “Little White Church”. Choosing an opera house was a successful idea to reflect the band’s current keyword, which was elegance. They also paved an encouraging new chapter for country music that a country band could have successful shows at historical opera houses or classic music halls in northern cities, a little odd in the region where country music was less popular than in the South. The concert made me optimistic about Little Big Town’s future evolution.

At last, my personal disappointment and question… why don’t they play “Kiss Goodbye?” at their concerts, even though that became a single? I thought that the song would be a nice match with the concert’s concept. They didn’t play 7 years ago, either. That sentimental song was the reason I started listening to Little Big Town…my personal best song of theirs. Just saying.

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OVERALL SCORE: 94/100

• Performance: ★★★★+1/2
• Excitement / Fire: ★★★★+1/2
• Vocals: ★★★★+1/2
• Instrumental: ★★★★+1/2
• Sound: ★★★★★
• Setlist: ★★★★★
• Stage Setting / Lighting: ★★★★★
• Better Than the Recordings: ★★★★+1/2
• Chemistry with the Audience: ★★★★★