Tonight it begins! Garth Brooks' week-long, civic-minded, triumphant return to onstage extravagance kicks off in less than eight hours — meaning I'll be getting wasted and wearing a hat very, very soon. And I won't be doing it alone for a change, but
with friends... in low places. And by low places I mean the lower bowl of Bridgestone Arena (section 108 specifically). I'm hoping hard he opens his show by levitating to the stage. Seriously. Big artists should always try and reel in the crowd by putting their best foot forward right away, and in Garth's case that means feet off the ground. Fingers crossed. While Garth didn't need my help in promoting, then instantaneously selling out his nine-night Nashville run, I figured I'd do my part anyway and thus contributed the Critic's Pick below, pointing out the singer's absolute awesomeness for raising both the spirits of, and millions of dollars for, the fine people of Middle Tennessee. Speaking of pointing, when you get done skimming past my pick, click on after the jump to see an epic gallery of pictures of Garth pointing at people. I compiled it myself!
Twenty years after playing valedictorian to country’s famed “Class of ’89,” Garth Brooks hasn’t forgotten his friends in low places … like Nashville. Brooks has never been a “cool” artist, but if raising $3.5 million in funds for Middle Tennessee flood relief isn’t cool, then what is? That’s how much the sympathetic singer raised when he sold out this nine-show residency at Bridgestone Arena — doubling down on a statewide single-day sales record set years ago by Michael Jackson. Not only is Garth stepping up — maybe even flying — to help out Nashvillians in their hour of need, he’s essentially coming out of retirement to do it. Brooks took an indefinite furlough from the road to focus on family life and hasn’t performed a proper concert in Music City since 1998. While he has spent the last year putting on a one-man show to crowds in Vegas, the singer has promised this Nashville nine-off will be a full-fledged return to the full-band, stadium-sized spectacle of Copperfield-worthy acrobatics, KISS-trumping pyrotechnics and heart-stopping victory lap of hits, hats and headset mics that made him the Springsteen of cross-over country. Since stadium country is the house that Brooks built — and since this is the only such extravaganza on Brooks’ books for the foreseeable future — keep your fingers crossed promoters release more tickets. Don’t forget to tuck in your two-toned button-down!
