Orders from Waffle House were arriving curbside before 6 a.m. as No Shoes Nation lined up, hoping to just get inside the sprawling Flora-Bama Lounge, Package Store & Oyster Bar. While only 388 would cram into the Dome with decades of bras hanging from the ceiling, even proximity to Kenny Chesney’s freewheeling romp across ten years of No Shoes Radio on SiriusXM was enough to draw hundreds of people before daybreak.
By the time the East Tennessee songwriter/superstar took the stage with a 1, 2 sweep of “Get Along” and anthemic “Flora-Bama,” the crowd was singing as loud as the band – and a clearly emotional Chesney announced, “thank you is a word you’re going to hear a lot,” it was clear this set was going to distill all the joy, all the freedom and all the revelry that has defined No Shoes Nation, “a concertgoing community rivaled perhaps only by Parrotheads and Deadheads” according to Variety.
With a summer residency at Sphere in Vegas, FloraBama was the moment where Chesney could have fun with the music, veer from the set list – “The Good Stuff” after asking for the key, a forgotten, but obvious “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems” and a lost-in-it version of George Strait’s “Carried Away” – and also dial up the sing-alongs, the positive energy and life affirming truths with the rarely played “Guitars and Tiki Bars,” Chris Stapleton’s “Never Wanted Nothing More” and the put it aside make the moment “Save It For A Rainy Day.”
By the time a particularly robust “When The Sun Goes Down” was headed to the final verse, bombshell writer/superstar-in-the-making Megan Moroney rolled onstage in a grey No Shoes Nation “corset,” and picked up the chorus. After telling the live audience and everyone listening on SiriusXM Channel 59 the story of their friendship, mutual admiration and adventures, Rosie & The Revival swooped into Moroney’s “You Had To Be There.”
Announcing Megan had just joined the band, the pair shared the smoky “You & Tequila,” a song of knowing better and somehow giving in. That ability to make intimacy massive had defined earlier performances of “Island Boy,” sent out to Boat Captain Ben in Maine, a surging “When I See This Bar” dedicated to FloraBama pirate/poet Jimmy Lewis, and a jubilant “Three Little Birds” for good friend Ziggy Marley and the entire Marley family that led into the tropical “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven” that felt like personal witness.
“Some days, the songs are just bigger than you are, and they take you where they and the people want to be,” Chesney said of the show. “It was so alive, so free and we were all so glad to be together playing, being with the people, that energy took over everything. Whether it was up tempo or thoughtful, talking or laughing, it reminds me why music is the most powerful force to bring us together.”
Indeed, the turbo-shanty “Pirate Flag” came with all the swagger and bravado required; right down to a woman dressed in full wench regalia in the sweltering crowd. For a band built to rock, they kicked things into another gear. But “American Kids,” which closed the 90 minutes, delivered the loudest, biggest cheers and rush of what a great band can do.
“It’s crazy: people more on fire at the end than the beginning,” Chesney marveled. “When we hit that intro, you could feel the energy double and slam right into us. Talk about a wild ride! It’s the exact reason we do this, and the reason we can’t get to Vegas soon enough.
“I’ve lived a lot of life on No Shoes Radio. I am so grateful to SiriusXM for taking what we do and amplifying it all over the world. A whole lot has happened over the last ten years, and because of them, we’ve been able to live it with everyone who loves these songs.”
Photo Credit: Allister Ann