Last night Kenny Chesney played at the new Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Salt Lake Tribute has a review of the show that focuses on the not-so-intimate venue: “Rio Tinto stadium dwarfs Kenny Chesney concert”

For years, country superstar Kenny Chesney has been one of the most popular touring acts of any genre, blurring the line between pop and country while making his shows feel like one big party at the beach.

He continued his shtick without adding many surprises to a near-capacity crowd at a sweltering Rio Tinto Stadium Thursday, but the biggest disappointment was that his bells-and-whistles show still revealed the limitations of the newest venue in Utah, Rio Tinto Stadium.

The sparkling, still-impressive Rio Tinto is not alone in its problems. It is like every other stadium in the United States, where the design of the venue is usually to accomodate sports, and music is secondary. Despite great acoustics and a huge set with state-of-the-art lighting and visual elements, the stage, positioned at the far south side of the stadium, makes each performer seem so much smaller. Even someone like Bruce Springsteen, or an Old Testament prophet, would feel overwhelmed and distant in such a stadium, and that important personal communion between artist and fan is lost.

Read the full review. The Tribune also has a photo gallery from the show that you can view here.

Also check out the set list from the show here (thanks to Mike K), which included an extended encore of cover songs.

Update – On our forum, thefewsnafu tells us that Mac McAnally was at the show and sang with Kenny on “Down The Road” and also on some of the encores.