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Storyteller Tour promises to be memorable CARRIE UNDERWOOD
By GUY DASTOLFO
YOUNGSTOWN
It will be interesting to see how Carrie Underwood outdoes herself on her Storyteller Tour, which comes to Covelli Centre on Thursday.
The ubiquitous country superstar’s last tour, which came to Covelli in 2013, was a Disneyland of eye-popping props, lasers and digital special effects.
At one point, Carrie took a mechanical balloon ride through the venue, rising above the seats and slowly meandering back and forth the length of the floor. Then there was the tornado on stage, furiously swirling behind the singer during “Blown Away.”
Later in the evening she did a virtual duet with Brad Paisley, her CMA awards show co-hosting partner and occasional musical collaborator.
The Storyteller Tour is billed as a 360-degree show, with Carrie at center court. As such, the floor plan at Covelli Centre will be unlike past shows. The stage will be in the center of the floor, with four separate pit areas surrounding it on all sides. All the fixed seats will be sold, creating a true “in the round” experience.
The massive stage has seven elevator lifts and will span more than 150 feet across the arena floor, with a main center stage expanse of 48 feet in diameter that rotates 360 degrees. The center lift can raise Underwood 18 feet in the air.
There will also be four satellite stages and three concentric LED rings that hover in the air and move throughout the show for visual moments and effects, plus four larger oval screens that provide video for fans on all sides of the arena. There simply won’t be a bad seat in the house.
A unique spotlight technology called the Black Track system will follow Underwood wherever she goes, aided by beacons that have been built into her wardrobe.
The high-tech production is so massive that it takes 17 semi-trucks and eight buses to move the tour from city to city, which rivals the caravan of the Ringling Bros. Circus.
Judging from the reviews of her previous shows on this tour, Youngstown fans should once again expect to be dazzled by the visual fireworks and multiple costume changes – another staple of an Underwood concert.
Thursday’s concert at Covelli, by the way, is sold out, with the exception of a small number of single seats that are interspersed throughout the bowl.
Even when she’s not on an in-the-round stage, Underwood is at the center of the action.
She once again co-hosted the CMAs in November. Then she sang a duet with Sam Hunt at the Grammy Awards in February, where she was up for Best Country Solo Performance for “Little Toy Guns”.
She threw everybody for a loop a few weeks ago when she appeared on “Talking Dead,” the live zombie geekfest that airs after each episode of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”
And while Carrie is holding court inside Covelli on Thursday, St. Patrick’s Day revelers will be hoisting brews at downtown nightspots. Remember, it’s March 17.
It’s a fortuitous happenstance that can only add to the fun. It’s our luck that the “All-American Girl” is resuming her U.S. leg of the tour on St. Patrick’s Day in Youngstown. Ironically, Underwood will finish up a European tour leg tonight in Dublin, Ireland. But St. Patrick’s Day is conceded to be an American holiday – at least in the sense of it being an excuse to party – so it’s just as well that she won’t be on the Emerald Isle.
Underwood’s tour continues through May. She’ll take a break April 3 for the ACM Awards, where she is nominated for Female Vocalist of the Year.