By Joanie Cox
Toby Keith may sing a song about not being as good as he one was, but the 49-year-old country singer seems to be at the top of his game. Keith performed before a sweaty swarm of people Sept. 4 at Cruzan Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. With his equally as popular opening act, Trace Adkins along for the American Ride Tour, the two together on stage are as explosive as the patriotic pyrotechnics they erupt at their shows.
Adkins opened his set with the energetic song “Swing Batter” and then proceeded to hit fans with a homerun of singles “Ladies Love Country Boys” and “You’re Gonna Miss This.” Adkins’ smooth, baritone voice lent itself well to a random cover he did of the R&B ballad “One In A Million You.” It was an odd moment sandwiched in Adkins’ set and felt a little like he was singing at a karaoke bar or even competing on “American Idol,” but he pulled it off.
The night of the show also happened to be his daughter Brianna’s ninth birthday, so he called his little girl out on stage to have the fans sing her “Happy Birthday.” Thirty seconds later he said “Now here’s a nasty song about her mama” as he broke into “Hot Mama.” While “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” could be the most gratutious song in contemporary country music, it morphed Cruzan Amphitheatre into a Bud Light version of a champagne room with women in straw cowboy hats grinding on each other.
Keith’s grandiose entrance rivaled a stunt from “The Dukes of Hazzard.” Busting onto the stage in a Ford truck that split open, Keith had 21 singles to get to including “Beer For My Horses,” “How Do You Like Me Now?!,” “As Good As I Once Was,” “Whiskey Girl” and “I Love This Bar.” “Weed With Willie” was particuarly amusing set to a psychedelic video backdrop of marijuana leaves and cartoon joints. His voice was consistently strong and on pitch throughout the show.
Keith also played some twangy tunes off his CD, Bullets In The Gun, which is slated for release Oct. 5. His song, “Trailerhood” is a kitschy, stereotypical look at life in a trailer park. It flaunts the lyrics “Our new tattoos and farmer tans, rodeo and Nascar fans.” For the finale, Adkins joined Keith on stage for “Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American).” Inspired by the Sept. 11 attacks, which happened nine years ago today, Keith and Adkins made a toast to America’s troops and firefighters and policemen and then he sang that part about putting “a boot up your ass.” And the crowd went wild and lit up the amphitheatre with Zippo iPhone lighter apps like the Fourth of July.
While the merch booth offered standard tour memorabilia such as T-shirts with dates listed on the back, Keith had a special shirt printed with his name on it and an American flag-painted hand flipping the bird on the back, emblazoned with the phrase “Never apologize for being patriotic.” I witnessed a drove of fans buying the shirts and high-fiving each other. Something tells me this same T-shirt printed with “Dixie Chicks” on the front instead of Toby Keith’s name in this crowd would’ve gone up in flames like well…the Fourth of July.
Although Keith changed many of the words in his songs to be raunchier and R-rated (he said “horny” and “titty” more than once in the show), whether you agree with his political beliefs or not, he’s still got the cojones to say what he feels and that’s as American as a Remington 870 shotgun, Kentucky bourbon and Dolly Parton’s rack.
