Concert Review—

Toby Keith Plays

Like The Best Of Them

By Eliza Hallabeck

Toby Keith lived up to, at least, the second half of his tour’s theme of Biggest & Baddest when he took the stage at Mohegan Sun Arena last Friday, January 23.

More than six months since his Biggest & Baddest Tour kicked off last June, the crowd still responded to the tour’s opening preview for Mr Keith’s latest movie Beer For My Horses, which opened in August.

The preview was loud, and shook the arena when horses entered a scene. Mr Keith entered with an equally loud bang of fire and went straight into a performance of “She’s A Hottie.”

Audience members seemed to immediately move closer to the stage, making it clear that he was playing to a room full of fans.

According to his website, Mr Keith’s 2009 tour kicked off just the night before his Uncasville performance with a show in Albany, N.Y.

From “She’s A Hottie” to “High Maintenance Woman,” Toby Keith started what would be a two-hour performance with little interruption from singing his long list of hits.

Compared to a performance for the summer tour of Biggest & Baddest last August at the Dodge Music Center in Hartford, Friday’s concert crossed more lines, brought out rowdier lines and curses, but still brought the audience to respond.

“What’s going on Connecticut?” Mr Keith said before going right into drinking references and swearwords that livened the audience.

As with his tour in the summer, the visual effects on the screen behind him brought out punches and laughs from the audience. When he sang “High Maintenance Woman” the screen focused on Mr Keith singing, but a manicured hand came up and stuck Post-It’s around the screen with little reminders on them for things that need to be fixed around the house.

When it came time for him to sing “Beer For My Horses,” a duet recorded with Willie Nelson, Mr Nelson’s image came up on the screen and the recorded version of him sang his part of the song. And when Mr Keith sang his song “Weed With Willie,” animated marijuana cigarettes marched across the screen. For some of the songs, Mr Keith performed funnier versions of what is played on the radio, and seemed to be playing with the audience when referencing certain aspects of his songs.

His performance of “I Love This Bar” did just that. Adding in different lyrics between the recognizable ones, and chiding the audience members when they prematurely began to call out. There was one more verse, he scolded.

For other songs his playful add-ins walked the line of being controversial for the younger audience members. He also made multiple references to certain parts of women’s bodies and name-called the audience a word that starts with B...  and he wasn’t calling them his Buddies. He must have been trying to prove that he is the baddest.

The song list for the night included some of his older hits (“How Do You Like Me Now?” among them) along with his newer ones like “That Don’t Make Me The Bad Guy”

When Mr Keith left the stage with his Easy Money Band, it did not take long for the audience to call them back for the encore. The performers responded by bringing out a red, white and blue guitar and singing “American Soldier” and “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue.”

For the sold-out crowd that was the Biggest moment.