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Nobody was here for a revival meeting, and with malt liquor beverages more commonly found in fans' hands than softer drinks, it's no surprise that the star duo of the night came on with more party fodder than devotional accompaniments. Unless you're devoted to hearty partying, of course.

Against video screens spanning the breadth of the stage, B&D, their band and three female background vocalists worked their hits, and occasional album track, like a well-oiled machine: little stage patter (Brooks was given to more than Dunn), few song introductions and none to the band members and other singers and song after song peformed in close approximation to the radio versions that have made B&D  multi-million sellers. Not the most personable, perhaps, but soulful for sure.

Sometimes jarring, too. One of the guys' more redemptively pensive hits, "It's Getting Better All The Time" was followed by their #1 debut, "Brand New Man," which uses the language of redemption and baptism in its description of nigh regenerative romance. But it's tons more rambunctious than the song preceding it, too. 

Brooks, the less frequent singer on record of the two (if they've ever dueted, I ain't heard it), made for some of the show's more resonant moments. "Mama Don't Get Dressed Up For Nothing" filtered hard rock through serpentine boogie, while "You're Going To Miss Me When I'm Gone" is the gentlest of kiss-offs. Brooks is also responsible for vocal duties on probably my least favorite B&D single, "Rock My World (Little Country Girl)," though the ditty was livened in live performances with shots of a sexy blonde on those screens.

Whether by choice or coincidentally, Dunn has a penchant for songs with more narrative, almost journalistic tone. "She's Not The Cheatin' Kind" economically analyzes an account of a woman's comeuppance on her mate's philandering. "Neon Moon" meshes heartbreak and saloon imagery in one of Brooks & Dunn's most traditional-sounding country chart toppers. 

For a rare moment of crowd participation, Brooks invited up a little gal in a pink cowgirl hat to twirl with him to arguably the act's signature song, "Boot Scootin' Boogie." Whatever the images of a monster truck rally playing behind it were meant to signify is anyone's guess, but the couplet "The bartender asks me. 'Son, what'll it be?'/I want a shot at that redhead yonder lookin' at me" are words to live by for this listener.

Since they weren't playing a Springteen-esque marathon set, some things went missing.  Sheryl Crow and Vince Gill weren't around to sing background on their current single, "Building Bridge." Their fine hit cover of Roger Millers "Husands And Wives" didn't make the song list. Same for "Hard Workin' Man," which I heard was missed by one fan on his way out," and "Whiskey Under The Bridge," among others were left out, but omitting some hits is a price paid for being so successful for nearly 15 years.  

The encore-if you can call it that since they had backdrops to anticipate being called back on stage-was literally all about God and country. "Believe," about the friendship between an elderly black man and a white youngster protagonist and the faith in Christ the former shares with the latter, was intimately affecting musically even if the giant crosses made the stage look like TBN gone Eastern Orthodox. "Only In Ameirca," their rousing everyman anthem recently featured in Oliver Stone's The Twin Towers, was complemented by a quartet of Marines (locals, or are they on the tour bus?) saluting the audience and explosions of red, white and blue ticker tape.

Middle act Sugarland has hit a chord with country audiences for their sunny, rousing story-songs and singer Jennifer Nettles down-home good looks. With only one album out and another soon to drop, their 13-song set seemed a bit long. That said, "Down In Mississippi And Up To No Good" kicks enough booty to compensate for Nettles' duet with Bon Jovi, the philosophically questionable "Who Says You Can't Go Home" with fellow Sugarland'er Kristian Bush taking over for Jon Bon Jovi's vocals. THAT said, here's wondering why they opened up "There's Gotta Be Something More" with a verse of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers' "American Girl" (which sounds better covered by The Strokes as "Last Night").

Hungriest on the bill was opener Jack Ingram. The Austin, TX native has been around nearly as long as the headliners, but only recently has country radio warmed up to him. His two hits and three other numbers from his latest album, which recalls a more countryfied Petty and The Heartbreakers with a side of punky Americana thrown in, left him with the opposite of Sugarland's trouble: too short a set.
 
Jamie Lee Rake