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 On Sunday night, Kenny Chesney played north of the border at the Craven Country Jamboree outside of Regina, Saskatchewan:
“We’ve been on the road since 1983 and I’m quite certain we’ve never played here … What a crowd. We needed you,” the 42-year-old Chesney told the audience.
“Several hours ago on that highway out there, we pulled up on the bus and I have never seen so many campers in my life. I told my buddies, ‘If that was us, I know what we’d be doing.’ ”
What he was doing was putting on a dynamic and high-energy performance that proved he’s earned his reputation as one of country music’s top live acts. Taking the stage in his trademark jeans, sleeveless T-shirt and white cowboy hat, Chesney got the blood flowing with “Beer In Mexico,” “Keg In The Closet,” “Big Star” and “Summertime.”
Chesney’s music is about more than just the lyrics and tune — it’s a philosophy of life. “Don’t Blink” is a perfect example of how Chesney views life: “This song is about doing exactly what we’re doing here tonight, living life to the fullest and taking nothing for granted.”
He also understands the nuances of day-to-day life, from having fun and enjoying life to finding the love of your life. So his set list included fun tunes like “Living In Fast Forward,” “Young” and “When The Sun Goes Down,” and emotional songs like “Anything But Mine,” “Never Wanted Anything More” and “How Forever Feels.”
It would have been easy for Chesney to sit on his laurels — his 17 No. 1 hits make for an impressive resume — but he worked the crowd like a newbie trying to develop a following. A big show needs a big band and Chesney came armed with a big band — 12 musicians, including a four-piece horn section. Chesney was constantly in motion, working both sides of the stage and zipping out onto the catwalk at every available opportunity.
View the set list for the show here.
 Kenny Chesney played The Joint again Saturday night in Las Vegas. The set list was largely the same as Friday night’s show, though Chesney played two more songs on Saturday for a total of 28.
Here’s the full set list (thanks to Steve and Krysten):
- Beer in Mexico
- Keg in the Closet
- Live Those Songs
- Big Star
- Guitars and Tiki Bars
- Summertime
- Ain’t Back Yet
- Don’t Blink
- Out Last Night
- No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
- The Life
- I Go Back
- Anything But Mine
- Old Blue Chair
- On the Coast of Somewhere Beautiful
- Key Lime Pie
- There Goes My Life
- Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven
- Back Where I Come From
- Living in Fast Forward
- Young
- Never Wanted Nothing More
- When The Sun Goes Down
- How Forever Feels
Encore
- Hungry Heart
- Don’t Happen Twice
- Boston
- She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy
Did you attend either show this weekend? How was it?
 Kenny Chesney rocked The Joint at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas on Friday night and sent it out around the world on No Shoes Radio.
Chesney’s 26-song set included all of the favorites, plus two tunes that he said he hadn’t played live before: “Ten With A Two” and “The Life.” Check out the full set list from the show here.
Thanks to all who joined in our live chat during the show. We even had NSR staff sign on and chat with us for a while! Next Friday we’ll fire up another chat for the CMT Crossroads broadcast. Be sure to join us.
No Shoes Radio will be broadcasting Jon and Tambo from the Hard Rock Pool at Noon PT (3 pm ET) on Saturday. Chesney plays The Joint again Saturday night but it doesn’t look like that show will be broadcast. If you attend the show, please pass along the set list here.
 First off, sorry for the issues with the site the last two days. Our sister site Jimmy Buffett World was hogging resources on the server. Hopefully we’ve found a permanent fix. Now on to the story…
On Sunday night Kenny Chesney finished off the two-day Bayou Country Superfest playing to over 50,000 at LSU’s Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Towards the end of the show Kenny was joined on stage by Uncle Kracker. New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton also made an appearance, much to the delight of the Louisiana fans.
CMT has more details:
A crowd at least as big as Saturday’s audience filled Tiger Stadium Sunday when Chesney capped the festival’s second and final day. Opening with the high-spirited “Beer in Mexico” and wearing his customary sleeveless T-shirt, hat and tan, Chesney instantly connected with the stadium full of standing fans, many of whom knew his songs’ lyrics nearly as well as the star himself. Along the way, he introduced some of his friends, including Uncle Kracker and New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton.
After his opening number’s climactic sax solo, Chesney struck a preacher-man stance, asking his giant congregation, “Is everybody alive tonight?! Is everybody alive tonight?!”
Like Swift the night before, Chesney expressed his delight about playing in the Tiger stronghold.
“Technically, this is a year off for me and the guys, but we’re so happy we’re here,” the amiable singer said.
As if he even needed to, Chesney encouraged crowd participation and stadium-wide sing-alongs.
As part of the Memorial Day weekend festivities, Chesney’s show was broadcast live to Louisiana National Guard members serving in Iraq. The troops’ pre-show appearance on the stage’s giant video screens inspired a chant of “U.S.A.! U.S.A!”
View the set list from the show here.
(photo Rick Diamond / Getty Images)
 Kenny Chesney went all out over the weekend for two shows at The Joint in Las Vegas. On Friday night, Kenny played for 2+ hours and then topped that on Saturday night playing past midnight for a total of 4+ hours (we’re still looking for the set list for this show. E-mail us please).
“You know, when people thought I could go a whole year without playing live, I wondered who they were talking about,” Chesney laughed. “Certainly not me. I love making music, especially making music for people, too much! There was no way… I needed to get my foot off the gas, but that didn’t mean I wanted to cut off the thing that makes me happiest.”
Broadcasting live on No Shoes Radio (www.noshoesradio.com) the first night, Chesney’s freewheeling set was the essence of Keg in the Closet: obscure older songs, rock, alternative and country covers and all the hits that the fans want to hear. Clocking in at 2 hours, it was the best of the traditional shows fans have come to expect and the ragtag Keggers that are as much about the music that influenced the man as is own hits.
“We blew it up Friday night,” said Chesney. “We knew we were broadcasting on No Shoes Radio and that the Hard Rock was matching donations at the door, so we were going for it… and the fans were loving it, so why stop playing?”
How does one top that? A marathon 4 hours and 15 minutes the following night. “We knew we were gonna be putting it up for another month, so we figured we’d go as long as they stayed… and we hit everything! I did ‘Hungry Heart’ acoustic… We played ‘I’m Alive’ for the first time, and ‘You Save Me,” half the Be As You Are record… a buncha covers form the Violent Femmes to Steve Miller… and we went and we went and they stayed and they stayed, and then we played some more.”
Kenny’s next show is at the end of the month in Baton Rouge, followed by BamaJam Music Festival in June and then he’ll return to Las Vegas July 2nd and 3rd for two more shows. See his full 2010 (With a Two) Tour Dates.
The Las Vegas Sun has a review of Kenny Chesney’s show in Las Vegas on Friday night: “Unrehearsed Kenny Chesney still at top of his game at The Joint”
Country superstar Kenny Chesney told the audience last night at The Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel that his band and he hadn’t rehearsed and performed together since last September as part of their break this year from arena touring, but neither Chesney nor his fans missed a beat in an energetic two-hour and 30-song performance that include a small catwalk, giving fans on the floor an up-close-and-personal, hand-shaking and high-fiving experience.
From the opening “Ain’t Back Yet,” Chesney’s latest and gazillionth hit, to his final song, John Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good,” an especially tan Chesney, in his requisite muscle T, tight faded blue jeans and (white) cowboy hat, had the audience dancing, singing and partying the entire time. Chesney is widely known for his stamina and endurance onstage, performing his big catalog of hits before launching into covers of other artists’ songs, and last night was no different.
Read the entire review here.
Did you attend Saturday night’s show? Please e-mail us the set list!
 Kenny Chesney finished out the 2009 Sun City Carnival Tour on Saturday night at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The show was bittersweet for Kenny, as it was the final show of the year coupled with the fact that he is taking next year off from major touring. He had to fight back tears while singing “Better As A Memory” for the show closer.
The Indianapolis Star has a review of the show:
Familiar songs were easy to follow. Thankfully, Chesney has no shortage of hits.
Most rolled out in recursive loops of lyrics focused on nostalgia, tropical fun and landlocked fun.
Yet amid “Live Those Songs,” “When the Sun Goes Down,” “Summertime,” “I Go Back,” “Beer in Mexico” and “Keg in the Closet,” Chesney carved out a serious streak with love/parenthood songs “Anything But Mine,” “Down the Road,” “Me and You” and “There Goes My Life.”
Chesney’s most personal moment arrived with show-closer “Better As a Memory,” an emotional challenge he nearly lost — perhaps because he’s announced there will be no blockbuster summer tour in 2010.
Read the full review here. The article also has a Photo Gallery with some great pics of Kenny during the show.
We’re still looking for the set list from the show. If you have it, please email it to us.
Did you attend the show? Share your experience on our discussion board!
Photo by Matt Kryger / The Star.
 On Saturday night Kenny Chesney entertained 49,215 fans in a town that has had a rough go lately: Detroit.
“We weren’t sure about going into Detroit again,” admits Chesney. “Things have been so tough there… you know, you want to be sensitive to the community. But then I got to thinking about it, and if anyone needs a night to forget about all of it, to just have fun and feel young and free and happy, it’s somewhere like that. So we decided to go ahead… to reach out… and before we knew it, we were looking for ways to release more tickets.
“I think in Detroit we went in and found places we could open up seating three times before it was over! And I gotta tell you: those fans came out, they cheered, they danced, they sang along. They had the time of their life – and man, we’ve always had the best audiences, period. But this year, you can really feel the way people need to connect with the music, with us, with each other – and it’s powerful! This has been a whole other kind of summer in terms of how the fans are reacting, and in some ways, it’s the most rewarding year we’ve ever had!”
Kenny also recently added one more show to the Sun City Carnival Tour: Bloomington, Illinois.
“I’ve always wanted to do a college town tour beyond the SEC, but by the time school gets back in session, we’re usually done and long gone…,” Chesney says of the surprise arena show. “You know, there’s nothing like that feeling of going back to start another year… All the unknowns, all the promise, all the fun you know you’re going to have and the things you can’t imagine you’re going to learn. For me, going back to school, as much as I hated the summer ending, was always such a great time. I think it’s great that this year, we can plug into that.”
Check out all the tour dates that remain and get tickets for them here.
 The weather has been pretty good to Kenny Chesney this summer, with the exception of the Frisco show in May where the show had to be canceled and rescheduled, but it struck again Thursday night in Toronto forcing a 35 minute delay. The Toronto Sun has a review of the show: “Chesney shines in rain-delayed show”
With a torrential downpour, lightning that was much too close for comfort and menacing looking clouds, there was an extremely good chance that the show Thursday night at Toronto’s Molson Amphitheatre would join Nickelback’s as being postponed at best, cancelled at worst.
However, Chesney and the near sold-out (and soaked) horde of cowboy hat-wearing faithful persevered, the storm subsided and about 35 minutes later than scheduled, the singer made his first Toronto visit ever on The Sun City Carnival Tour.
And while he started later than anticipated (as did openers Miranda Lambert and Lady Antebellum), the performer definitely wasted no time from start to finish, cramming what should have been a near two hour set into a near seamless 100 minutes beginning with Live Those Songs Again and Summertime.
One of the surprises of the night came when the musician decided to do a song he originally wasn’t going to perform. Strumming a guitar and putting it in tune, Chesney mentioned how the worst singer he ever heard was current Blue Jays player Kevin Millar performing Old Blue Chair. Chesney started the number and Millar sauntered onstage, brew in hand and singing off microphone which got a nice reaction.
Read the full article here and another review by the Toronto Star here.
We need the set lists for this show and the Ottawa show. Please e-mail them to us.
The Sun City Carnival Tour continues Saturday at Ford Field in Detroit.
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