By: Amy Dolkas
The Burnin’ It Down tour was welcomed by a rowdy crowd in Chula Vista on Thursday night. Jason Aldean put on a great show complete with fire covering the stage and microphones. As great of a headliner as Aldean is, opening band Florida Georgia Line stole the crowd’s excitement with an energetic and captivating performance.
Florida Georgia Line’s two-man team (Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard) generates energy from each other and loves building off the crowd’s excitement. Individually, both guys bring excitement that becomes infectious. They are magnetic performers who seem to be having the time of their lives singing up on stage.
FGL’s two members were extremely grateful to the crowd, expressing thanks on several different occasions to their fans that have made their dreams reality. They engaged with the crowd throughout their set- making toasts and cheers to the crowd with a bottle of Fireball whiskey they passed around. Their gratefulness was genuine and they in turn wanted to give the crowd a great show- and they did not disappoint.
Despite only having one full album, “Here’s to the Good Times”, and a few new singles, the duo had enough hits from their limited discography to fill up their time slot. I am a huge fan of their album and I was left wanting more after their set was finished. Florida Georgia Line was without a doubt the most fun country show I have ever attended.
After FGL got off stage, I sat wondering how Jason Aldean was going to follow that up.
Aldean entered the stage from a high platform atop a giant burning “A” letter that took up the whole stage. It was quite an extravagant entrance, but absolutely needed if he wanted to top FGL.
Aldean proceeded to put on a fantastic show, moving around the stage and bringing energy to all of his songs. His voice sounded perfect, even better than his recordings. I was amazed by the amount of hits Aldean has- he played for almost two hours and the show consisted only of top radio hits- plus one new song that is sure to be a chart topper called “Two Night Town”. His performance showcased a successful career full of beloved music.
The night’s first performer was Tyler Farr who has been graced with a few hits lately such as “Whiskey in my Water” and “Redneck Crazy”. Unfortunately Farr’s voice-while musky and on key- was drowned out by his band’s instruments, making it almost impossible to understand any lyrics of his songs. This issue seemed to bring down the energy of the show, and his performance was overall good but nothing special. To his credit, he announced that he had missed some nights of the tour due to a sickness, which may have led to his quiet volume. I was not a huge Farr fan going into the show, and his performance did not help win me over.
