I’d always thought that handmade signs were made for stadium
shows, but they were out in force for Chase Rice’s intimate gig at London’s
Borderline venue, with Sharpied ‘London Loves You’ and ‘It’s My Birthday (Follow
Me On Twitter)’ carefully sketched onto cardboard. Whilst never having toured
the UK before, Chase clearly has many a loyal fan this side of the pond.
The crowd last night was lovely – strangers took selfies
with each other, and we all joined in for a collective chorus of Maren Morris’ My Church. I stand by my opinion that country
music has the best fans so it was good to be surrounded by kindred spirits for
a night of good music.
At 8pm, opening act Twinnie took to the stage. She’s very
much an artist for the millennials with plenty of fun songs like It Won’t Stop and Better When I’m Drunk. Nowhere was this more clear than during
self-penned track Social Babies,
probably the only song out there to use ‘iOS’ (as in Apple) as a lyric. I
preferred the more heartfelt songs like Looking
Out For You, interestingly written from the point of view of her
grandfather, and Superhero, written
with the brilliant Lucie Silvas. Whilst some of the crowd chatted away at the
bar, it was nice to see others easily picking up the words to her songs and
singing along.
Chase’s set started in a way reminiscent of the man himself –
with no fanfare as he walked silently on stage and took a seat in front of the mic.
No ‘how you doing London?!’ or ‘you ready to party?’ that other artists would
be tempted to do, but the ideal entrance for a no holds barred artists like
Chase. He began with Do It Like This,
occasionally pulling his head back from the mic whilst singing to create a
sense of depth, difficult to do in such an acoustic setting.
As he began How She
Rolls, I found myself thinking that whilst his style worked well in such an
intimate gig, I could see easily how he could play the same songs to arenas
full of screaming fans as the opener for the likes of Kenny Chesney. No doubt
the songs would sound very different, so I would be interested to see how he
would perform in situations like this. We were told last night that he’ll be
returning next year with a full band, so I guess we’ll see then!
A lot of his songs are what I would call ‘Saturday night
songs’, party anthems like I Like
Drinking, Cause It’s Fun and Jack
Daniels Showed Up, which even if you’ve never heard before, you can guess
what they might be like. Nevertheless, if you wanted an artist to get the party
started on a Tuesday night, you’d be hard pressed to find one better than
Chase, with glasses raised all round.
As well as his drinking songs, Chase is far from a PG-13
artist, as evidenced by songs like 50
Shades of Crazy and Ride.
However, whilst the crowd may otherwise feel awkward singing some of those
lyrics in a room full of people, Chase helped to diffuse the atmosphere,
inviting a girl from the front row up for the latter song and jokingly
instructing her boyfriend to sing it to her at some point.
I must admit, my favourite songs from the night were the
less usual ones that showed what he termed his ‘sweeter side’ and I think as
well, his vocals. On softer tracks like Three
Cords and the Truth, Carolina Can, his
favourite song that he’s released, and the romantic Eyes On You, about missing all the sights the world has to offer
because you can’t take your eyes off the one you love, his raspy voice took on
a different tone to the ‘new country party sound’ of many of his other tracks.
He finished his set with some of his successful hits,
including Gonna Wanna Tonight (easy
to sing along to!), Ready Set Roll,
and one of the most successful country hits of our time, which I was unaware
that he had written, Florida Georgia Line’s Cruise.
Whilst certainly not an artist I imagine is to everyone’s taste, Chase has
very loyal fans and some great party tracks. For a Tuesday night, he sure put
on a good show.
Interested in more reviews like this? Make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry and let me know of any upcoming concerts you'd love to see a review of!
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