Riser Tour
One of the most anticipated country stadium concert tours of 2014 in North America has been Dierks Bentley’s RISER Tour featuring Tim Hicks and Randy Houser. Thanks to our friends at Open Road Recordings I was able to attend the first Ontario stop on the tour last night at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa and boy did it live up to the hype!
Tim Hicks sets the pace for Tuesday night #RiserTour stop in Ottawa
Ontario’s own Tim Hicks kicked off the night in style jumping right into the show with his smash hit “Here Comes the Thunder” which really ignited the crowd like few opening acts I’ve ever seen have managed to do, not that I’m surprised it is Tim Hicks afterall. As Tim told Corey in their most recent interview 30 minutes isn’t a lot of time so you need to do your best to fit as much power into that time and Tim clearly has it mastered as he hit home run after home run and the crowd loved every second of it.
Tim correctly predicted how the night would play out when he performed the song that was a smash hit for him and BlackJack Billy, whom we saw perform the same song just days before, “I Got A Feeling”
We’ve got a feeling too @timhicksmusic #itsgonnabeagoodnight #RISERTour
A video posted by Sound Check Blog (@soundcheckblog) on Dec 2, 2014
Tim performed all of his major hits from “Get By” to “She Don’t Drink Whiskey Anymore” and then capped off his set with a crowd sing-a-long of “Stronger Beer“. One thing was crystal clear Tim knows exactly how to get a Canadian crowd rilled up on any night of the week and he did just that, and in doing so he set the bar really high for Randy Houser and Dierks Bentley. Before he wrapped up his set he made an announcement of his own, Tim will be headlining the Sparks Street New Years Eve festivities in Ottawa this year…on December 31 in case you didn’t know what day New Years Eve was. The event is 100% free for all and I can guarantee you won’t find a better way to ring in the New Year in the Nation’s Capital.
Randy Houser during the Riser Tour stop in Ottawa on December 2, 2014
Randy Houser took to the stage next and started it off almost immediately with a “Goodnight Kiss” which unfortunately, for me, felt like an ending more than a beginning. Don’t get me wrong it’s one of my favorite songs by Randy Houser but following Tim Hicks with a song like that is like driving a bus into a brick wall at 90 miles an hour.
Randy did his best to recover but still couldn’t match the power of Tim’s performance, a lot of time was spent whaling on guitars and smashing on the keyboard and not enough time performing the actual songs that we were there to hear. He did manage to crank out a few of his biggest hits including “This is How Country Feels” and “Top of The World” finishing with his latest “Like A Cowboy“.
The best moment of Randy’s set was likely when he was possesed by Garth Brooks and pulled off one of the best covers of “Friends in Low Places” I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately for me I’d much rather have seen a long set by Tim Hicks followed by Dierks Bentley and based on discussion in the audience around me others felt the same way too, love Randy Houser just wasn’t feeling it with his set. Here’s a clip of Randy after he was possessed by Garth Brooks.
@randyhouser channeling his inner @garthbrooks #RISERTour A video posted by Sound Check Blog (@soundcheckblog) on Dec 2, 2014
Dierks Bentley quickly managed to get the pace back on track bursting onto the stage with his recent smash “5-1-5-0″ and running straight onto the runway that stretched out into the crowd. Having seen Dierks just 2 summers ago at Boots and Hearts I know that this guy knows how to work the crowd and expected no less.
Click to view slideshow.What I missed at Boots and Hearts (because I was too far from the stage) I definitely got last night and that was his personality. For me one of the key factors that helps me pick what artists I listen to is their personality on and off stage. Some artists have swollen egos that give off the impression that they are above everyone else and I can’t stand that in an artists. Dierks comes across like a guy you could run into in the bar, share a beer with, get a pat on the back, heck sometimes you can do that in the middle of his show too as one fan discovered last night.
It’s also very clear he loves what he does and he loves his fans, this was even more clear at the end of the night when he was using a fan’s crutch as a prop and accidentally walloped a young lady in the front row. He wasted no time bringing her up onto the stage, checking her over to make sure she wasn’t hurt and then making her the luckiest girl in the audience by giving her an autographed guitar and allowing her to join the band in their final curtain call. It’s honestly one of the classiest acts I’ve ever seen by an artist.
Dierks Bentley, his band and the young lady who he gave a guitar to at the show in Ottawa on December 2
Musically Dierks was right on the mark, he told the crowd that the last time he played in Ottawa was at Barrymores Music Hall in 2005 where he had to lug his own equipment up the stairs and now 9 years later he was headlining at Canadian Tire Centre. He was clearly blown away by both the size and the noise of the crowd telling the fans numerous times how surprised he was that it was only Tuesday. At one point he said “you guys are louder than fans in Minnesota are on a Friday night.”
Another thing was clear, Tim Hicks made his mark on Dierks. Even though he had two opening acts he couldn’t stop gushing about Tim Hicks and, of course, every time someone offered him a beer he’d go on about how Tim was right and Canadian beer is stronger and took every chance to get digs on on fans that were drinking the “river water” like American beer (they call it river water because if they are drinking a beer while fishing and it gets water in it it still tastes the same).
Dierks Bentley and Tim Hicks getting Sideways in Ottawa during the Riser Tour on December 2
One of many highlights of Dierks’ set was when he brought Tim Hicks back out onto the stage to join him for “Sideways”, it was the perfect ending to an amazing show and an incredible way to wrap up a wild week for me, two major concert tours, two cities in just 5 days. Was starting to feel like a rockstar myself!
I want to thank the amazing people behind the artists at Open Road Recordings. They have been incredibly supportive of us and we love to support them. I encourage you to support their artists as they are some of the best in the business. Without their support we wouldn’t be able to attend these shows and cover them for you!
Dierks capped the night off with two of his biggest hits of late “Drunk on a Plane” and “Home“. Be sure to check our Flickr and Facebook pages for more photos from the #RISERTour stop in Ottawa and don’t forget there are still 3 more stops in Ontario before the tour winds to a close. First up is Hamilton tomorrow night, Friday night in Oshawa, Saturday night Corey will be covering the final show in London so be sure to watch for his review sometime on Sunday. If you can get to one of the three remain shows do so, you won’t regret it for a second!
