Despite the heavy winds and the torrential downpour Friday night, hardcore country music fans still turned out to party at the sold-out Blake Shelton show at the Forum in Inglewood.
“It’s Friday night! It’s raining like hell! Let’s celebrate some country music in here,” Shelton called out to his rowdy devotees after coming off his opening song, “Neon Light,” and diving straight into “All About Tonight.”
The 40-year-old country superstar and lovable coach on NBC’s “The Voice” is currently out on his 13-date Doing It to Country Songs Tour, which kicked off in Bakersfield on Thursday. The tour title is exactly as cheeky as it sounds, but is a nod to a track he did with genre legends the Oak Ridge Boys of the same name off of his latest release, “If I’m Honest.”
He played plenty off his new album including “A Guy with a Girl,” “Came Here to Forget” and the cleverly written “She’s Got a Way with Words.” He also debuted a brand new song for the L.A. crowd, “Every Time I Hear That Song,” and brought out his girlfriend and No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani for “Go Ahead and Break My Heart,” a tune the duo co-wrote for Shelton’s album.
“Hey, that’s a big deal,” Shelton said following their performance as the crowd roared in response. “Ya’ll owe me big time now.”
Keeping the energy high, Shelton also threw in a few covers with the late George Jones’ “Ol’ Red,” the more sultry track, “Who Are You When I’m Not Looking,” which was originally cut by country artist Joe Nichols and in the encore he channeled his best Kenny Loggins and the crowd danced along to “Footloose.”
Since the Forum is famously filled with giant iconic photographs of artists that have headlined the venue throughout the years, Shelton encouraged management to snap his photo for the wall as he asked fans to light up their cell phones and he sang his cover of Michael Bublé’s “Home.”
“That’s incredible,” he said, visibly taken aback as the song ended.
This particular audience was so loud as it sang along to Shelton’s hits that at one point he even stopped the show, put on his “The Voice” coaching persona and critiqued the room.
“What the hell was that sound?” he asked with a laugh. “Ya’ll were irritating. I’m a coach on ‘The Voice’ so I have to tell you these things. It doesn’t do ya’ll any favors if I don’t tell you what I’m thinking … the tone of your voices is just shocking.”
Mid -et, he took a break from the main stage with enough bright lights, speakers and screens to rival any mainstream rock tour and made his way to the end of the small catwalk with just a mic, a stool and an acoustic guitar.
“For me, this is how it all started,” he shared. “A guy with a mullet and glasses … shut up.” He added that he roofed houses all summer when he was a teenager just so he could buy a guitar similar to the one he saw Garth Brooks playing. He started with the sing-along of “The More I Drink,” before getting into “Nobody But Me” and his first No. 1 single, “Austin,” which he put out in 2001.
The evening wrapped up with Shelton delivering on his hits “Sangria,” “Honey Bee” and he brought back out his opener and former “The Voice” contestant, RaeLynn, for “Boys ‘Round Here” before the encore with “Footloose” and Shelton’s take on Dave Barnes’ powerful track, “God Gave Me You.”
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