This was a great summer for Boston. The Bruins celebrated a Stanley Cup win, it was sunny nearly every day, and no one died from a shark attack. Along with those wonderful things came a nearly endless stream of major concerts that went through the Hub and its surroundings. I made it my mission to go and review as many shows as possible, and tried to separate the nights that will be remembered from the nights we want to forget.
Some things should be noted:
I only went to shows I thought would be good. For all I know, the Wiggles concert might have been a blockbuster for the ages, but I didn’t feel like rolling out of bed to go to it.
I’m only counting outdoor shows as summer concerts. To be fair, an indoor show is always dry and 72 degrees, so it would be unfair to compare something in TD Garden to its counterpart in Gillette Stadium.
The season started off with a bang. Weezer absolutely blew up the Bank of America Pavilion on May 19. Although it was frigid and rainy out, the place was filled to capacity. Rivers Cuomo and company played a greatest-hits set, fittingly called the “Memories” tour. The performance was weirder than anything I’d seen in a while, but it was fully enjoyable, and hearing so many classics from 1994 was awesome. Buddy Holly, The World Has Turned and Left Me Here, and Pink Triangle were standout tracks.
Jason Aldean and Eric Church delivered a fantastic country show at the Comcast Center in Mansfield on June 5. Country has really caught on in the Bay State over the last few years and big shows are becoming commonplace. This was the first of a few really great tours that came through the Comcast Center. Aldean’s Dirt Road Anthem and Amarillo Sky excelled. The whole staff joined the band onstage for the encore, a thunderous rendition of She’s Country. Eric Church was a badass, offering tunes like How Bout You and Smoke A Little Smoke.
On July 16, Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton played another great co-headline at the Comcast Center, but it lacked the same fire and over-the-top energy of Aldean and Church. Still, Paisley had some outstanding songs in his set, like Letter to Me and Working on a Tan. The opening tune, Mud On the Tires, was Paisley’s best. It had just the right amount of emotion to make the performance memorable.
The single best show of the season was Taylor Swift on June 25-26. First of all, if you’ve never been to Gillette Stadium for a concert, I implore you to get over to the next show asap. The stadium was the perfect backdrop to the 21-year-old country megastar’s “Speak Now” tour. She treated 55,000 screaming fans to emotional and powerful performances of every hit. Our Song, Dear John and Fifteen were highlight tracks. A stage show featuring dancers, elaborate visual effects, and fireworks accompanied the music, and Swift seemed truly grateful to the 110,000 fans who attended over the two nights. Massachusetts is starting to become one of the top tour spots for every summer concert, so we’ll most likely see more every year.
To read the full reviews for each show, search Jon Mael at www.umassmedia.com.
Summer Concert Series
Country singer Brad Paisly.
