There was a dress code in Buffalo on Tuesday night: Cowboy boots, white lace dresses, cowboy hats resting on top of bouncy, curly hair and lots of denim.
Carrie Underwood performed with special guest star Hunter Hayes at the First Niagara Center on Tuesday to a crowd of around 20,000 country music fans on her Blown Away Tour.
Hayes started the show on a low note by informing the audience he had a sore throat and would need its help to sing his chart topping hits. That wasn't a problem for the audience, as he started his set with "Somebody's Heartbreak" and held the microphone out to the masses.
The audience let out a resounding cheer as Hayes sat down at the piano and played the first few notes of "Wanted," his current hit single. The voices of thousands of fans came together in unison and sang the chart-topping hit's chorus as Hayes played along.
Hayes concluded his set with a twang as he sang "Storm Warning,"and despite the issues he had, Hayes gave the song his all and thanked the fans "for being too good to him."
If anything, at the end of his short set, the fans had more of a sore throat than Hayes.
"I won't be able to talk for a day," said Holly Loveless, a junior at Utica College, who attended the concert with her boyfriend.
The country music fan waited anxiously, along with the rest of the stadium, for 45 minutes until Carrie Underwood started her performance.
It has been 10 months since Underwood's latest album, Blown Away, was released in May 2012 and fans couldn't wait to hear her sing their favorite songs.
When the lights went out, Underwood enthusiasts screamed as three movable screens appeared on stage. The screens showed the six-time Grammy winner strutting through desolate farmland and then running from a tornado accompanied by her five-person band.
Another screen rose from the floor with the projection of a door, and Underwood boldly entered singing "Good Girl" in a shiny royal purple gown that showed off her long legs.
Underwood and her fans clapped and sang along to her 2010 single from Play On, "Undo It," her 2007 single "Wasted" and two of her new songs - "I Told You So" and "Two Black Cadillacs" - without a break before a welcoming "How's it going Buffalo?" from Underwood.
Her rendition of "Two Black Cadillacs" maintained the exuberance as wind blew up from the stage floor, giving the American Idol winner an aura of confidence and control over the audience that would last for the duration of the performance.
Renee Sowden, 52, has been following Underwood since she was on the hit show on Fox, and she loved every bit of the performance.
"To see her now, in person, is so cool. All of her songs are beautiful; I can't even pick a favorite," Sowden said.
After a quick wardrobe change, Underwood brought the energy in the room down to a low buzz as she mentioned the $1 donation to Red Cross that came with every ticket purchase. Underwood expressed that, as a star, she "might as well help others, because that's what we were put on this planet to do: to help each other out."
Underwood continued the heartwarming spirit by introducing her next couple of songs as tracks that have meant the most to her throughout her musical career: CMT award-winning song "Temporary Home" and 2005 hit single "Jesus Take the Wheel."
The spell Underwood put over the audience was chilling as she sang "Jesus Take the Wheel." Although many spectators took a seat, they participated by swaying their arms in the air in support of the emotional star.
For Loveless, the song held almost as meaning as it did to Underwood.
"[Jesus Take the Wheel] was my favorite song she performed," Loveless said. "It's a family and religious thing, but it really meant a lot to me that she sang that one."
Underwood underwent another quick outfit change after performing another song, reemerging with jean shorts, a t-shirt and a long frayed vest, singing "Get Out of This Town." She and three band members then walked to a wooden fenced-off area in the front of the stage, where it slowly rose off the stage and floated into the audience.
The songstress ran through a few other songs - including the Grammy award-winning "Before He Cheats" - before closing out the show with her emotional hit single, "Blown Away." It was a dramatic conclusion, complete with a video of a tornado ripping through a home behind her, real paper flying around the stage, a funnel of smoke bellowing behind her and artificial wind blowing her hair. The set up made Underwood look invincible.
Fans screamed the emotional lyrics along with her, creating a reverberating effect throughout the stadium. Before she left the stage, she signed a 7-year-old girl's cowboy hat and blew a kiss to her audience.
The performance left the members of the audience smiling and even converted an old-time country music fan to "Team Underwood."
Renee's husband, Torrey Sowden, 52, is an old-school country music fan. But after sitting through the concert with his wife, he has a newfound appreciation for the entertainment value of new-school country music.
"Normally, [country music singers] just get on stage, sit and then play songs, but with Carrie Underwood, it's a whole theatrical thing," he said. "It was beautiful and awesome."
Underwood will also be performing at the WFCU Centre in Windsor, Canada on March 29.
Email: arts@ubspectrum.com
