Review: Kenny Chesney, country’s king of summer, offers Seattle escapism on historic day

Concert review

They say it’s the summer of country.

2024 has already seen two of Earth’s biggest pop stars pivot toward country and suddenly, Seattle went from having one country radio station to three, literally overnight. And just this week, as Seattle welcomes its first stadium country bash of the summer, two crossover country songs — Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” and the Post Malone-Morgan Wallen team-up “I Had Some Help” — sat atop the mainstream charts.

That’s all well and good. But the tens of thousands of Kenny Chesney fans who flocked to Lumen Field on Saturday like seagulls to the waterfront Ivar’s couldn’t care less about which pop stars are cooking up country-ish records or whether country music is having “a moment.” The catchy twangified sounds have been the predominant popular music and a lifestyle reflection for roughly half the country since forever and will continue to be whether or not Posty keeps his Stetson on.

Over the last 20 years of his career, Chesney, country music’s king of summer, has cultivated a crossover sound of his own, blending his true-Wrangler-blue country roots with the island rock motif popularized by Jimmy Buffett, who died of skin cancer last year. Zac Brown Band, Chesney’s first mate on his Sun Goes Down Tour — a stadium run that ought to travel by cruise ship — is similarly indebted to the late aloha-shirted great and together, the country heavyweights offered a simpatico brand of white-sand escapism on a dark night for American politics.

Taking the stage hours after news of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump gripped the nation, Chesney made no mention of the headlines, but his high-octane distraction kicked in faster than a shot of tequila, opening with a pair of rocked-up ditties “Living in Fast Forward” and “Beer in Mexico.”

“For me it’s a beach bar, or on a boat underneath the stars,” an already sweat-drenched Chesney sang on “Reality,” an ode to mentally checking out to recharge, which felt strangely timely.

For a guy who’s made the umbrella drink lifestyle a big part of his brand, the 56-year-old country superstar performs with the adrenaline of someone who still runs 8 miles a day on vacation. Working through one country rocker after another, Chesney and his energized band turned a seasonally appropriate “Summertime” into a brisk dashboard tapper, with the leader of the No Shoes Nation fan base bounding around the large stage with more vigor than a “Sweatin’ to the Oldies” workout (RIP Richard Simmons).

The island-time swing of “Guitars and Tiki Bars” offered a brief cooldown with organs that flickered and rippled like a splash in a turquoise bay.

With three decades worth of hits, Chesney has become one of country music’s most reliable stadium fillers to the point that Chesney has played the Seahawks home field almost as many times as injury-riddled safety Jamal Adams did in his Seattle tenure. Apparently, he’s had good weather luck, too.

“We make the music, we don’t make the weather, but we’ve played this place nine times and all nine times there hasn’t been a cloud in the sky,” Chesney professed before the biggest barroom singalong of the night, “Get Along” — a roll-with-the-punches anthem. A few songs later, Chesney thanked local country radio brass for being early supporters of “Take Her Home,” the lead single off his new album, “Born.”

Released last year, the doe-eyed tune was a bit of a slow burn, inviting questions of whether Chesney’s star power is slipping after three decades at the top. While there were pockets of empty seats on Saturday, Lumen Field was comfortably full when Chesney’s Sun Goes Down Tour docked in Seattle.

A testament to her rising star, fans turned out early to see Megan Moroney, one of Nashville’s hottest newcomers, who broke out with 2022’s “Tennessee Orange” — a Romeo-and-Juliet love song crossing college football rivalry lines. While Chesney and Zac Brown Band spent more of their time splashing in shallower good-time waters, Moroney swam further out to greater emotional depths.

Wearing “emo cowgirl country” T-shirts — a fitting tagline for Moroney’s smart and confident in-her-feelings songs — Moroney’s dudely backing band brought enough arena rock thump to help the young star rise to the stadium gig occasion. But it was heavy-hearted weepers “No Caller ID” and ballad of the night “28th of June,” both from Moroney’s day-old sophomore album “Am I Okay?” that left the biggest impression, demonstrating that the 26-year-old is the total package next-gen country star.

Moroney later returned to lend supporting vocals to Chesney’s “All the Pretty Girls,” sticking around for Chesney’s father of all groaners, “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy.” It didn’t help the cringe factor when Chesney, who’s more than twice Moroney’s age, tweaked one of the lyrics to “We think that Megan’s sexy.”

Fortunately, Chesney quickly pulled the plane up with an extra perky “Young” and sentimental barn-party-starter “American Kids” — the best couplet of his two-hour set.

“Woo!” Chesney exclaimed off mic, exhaling for what seemed like the first time all night before goading the crowd into one more a cappella chorus.

Zac Brown Band, which played then-CenturyLink Field with Chesney back in 2013, made its case for America’s ultimate party band. Wearing a sleeveless Emerald City Guitars T-shirt, Brown and his versatile crowd-pleasing cohorts were tighter than a longneck bottlecap for most of their hour-and-a-half set. Brown & Co. mixed beach chair breeziness with smooth-edged Southern rock and New Orleans house band jams, hitting their peak during the freewheeling instrumental stretches, a pair of Buffett tributes and Brown’s barrel-chested soulfulness on “Colder Weather.”

Known for fun and sometimes unexpected covers, Zac Brown Band’s first of the night was predictable fiddle ripper “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”; their rendition as mighty as any. A spirited run through Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” later might have divided “American Idol” judges, but it was better executed than their karaoke-bro take on Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.”