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Sugar is sweet for show at Covelli
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
It looks like country — or at least country-pop — is king at Covelli Centre.
Friday night’s Sugarland concert sold out the downtown arena, packing in more than 6,000 fans. The same thing happened just seven weeks prior when Miranda Lambert came to town.
Of course, Sugarland and Lambert are at the top of the heap. A better test will come May 7 when rising star Eric Church brings his tour to Covelli with opening acts Brantley Gilbert and Blackberry Smoke.
Kelsey Rupert, marketing director for Covelli, said the Church concert is selling very well, and she expects high attendance.
Sugarland dubbed its tour “In the Hands of the Fans,” and they meant it. The duo determined part of its set list by texts, emails, Tweets and signs held by folks in front of the stage.
Singer Jennifer Nettles literally held a clipboard with lyrics to get through some of the seldom-played requests, which included “Fly Away” and “Operation Working Vacation.”
“This is what we get for letting you be the jukebox,” she told the crowd.
Other than the “you pick them” gimmick, it was a surprisingly straightforward show for Nettles and the animated Kristian Bush on acoustic guitar.
Nettles’ powerful mid-range vocals were all the bells and whistles the duo needed. She conjured up rapture on back-to-back bare-bones ballads “Stay” and “Love.” On the latter, Nettles played the intro on a piano before the backing band swelled like an orchestra.
Sugarland, as its name suggests, can get pretty sweet, and with its pounding drumbeat, it sounded anything but country on “Find the Beat Again.”
Opening the show were Canaan Smith and Lauren Alaina, the 17-year-old who was a runner-up on Season 10 of “American Idol.”