Jason Aldean brought his Highway Desperado tour to Toronto while I was on vacation so I took it in. Jason brought along Mitchell Tenpenny, Corey Kent, Dee Jay Silver plus a surprise appearance by Meghan Patrick. This appears to be the lone Canadian date for Aldean’s Highway Desperado tour.
Corey Kent was the opener performing his songs including his hit “Wild As Her.” Corey was alright, he sounded good but there was nothing special about the performance as he mainly just stood there and would seldom use the catwalk. The 29 year old is just truly beginning to make a name for himself having a few top 50 songs in 2015/16 with “Wild As Her” being a top 10 hit for him. I’m sure their will be more excitement when his name gets bigger in Canada as fans weren’t quite yet in their seats yet.
Fans were still making their way in during Mitchell Tenpenny’s set. Tenpenny would hit the stage playing a strong performance including a guitar solo. We saw Meghan Patrick come out about midway through the set to bring him a drink. Tenpenny played some of his hits alongside his current single “We Got History.” Meghan would join her husband on stage to play the final song “B**ches.” An interesting song with kids in the audience given that Aldean’s songs don’t use that language and politics aside are family friendly.
Aldean would hit the stage to thunderous applause and cheers before starting the show with “Tough Crowd.” Aldean would mix in the newer songs with his classics. Song #9 of the 21 song setlist was the controversial “Try That In A Small Town.” In the intro to the song Aldean says he can say now that his new upcoming album that shares the tour name “Highway Desperado” is coming out in November and discussed a few songs that would be on it before saying this was the first single off the album which received thunderous cheers and Aldean would have a Canadian and America flag draped on around his neck, that he got from a crowd member. Aldean would show the flag which featured both flags and the message “We Stand with Brittany and Jason Aldean.” An odd reaction for a song that could be seen as bashing people from major cities, like Toronto was so loudly praised. Aldean would continue to crank out hit after until concluding the set with “She’s Country.” The crowd sang along with every song throughout the set.
Believe it or not the deemed controversial Aldean didn’t get political or do anything controversial of the sort. It was Tenpenny’s “B**ches” performance and song description alongside the middle finger drum kit that was the most controversial aspect of the show.
The show especially Aldean was one for the books. I saw Aldean years ago in London, ON when he headlined with Thomas Rhett and he was SO much better this time round and he was good back then. It goes to show the catalogue he has when you play 21 songs and that is missing a few hits.
Check out photos from those:
– Everett
