Take one great artist and one beautiful venue, and you’re
pretty much guaranteed to have a good night, so I had high expectations for
Darius Rucker’s show at the Royal Albert Hall. We love Darius here in the UK,
him having been a staple from the very beginnings of Country 2 Country and
always taking the time to come back across the pond to play for us every now
and then.
I headed to my seat, right in the pit in front of the stage
(I find at the RAH you can either have great seats if you’re in the lower sections,
so close that you could reach out and touch the artist, or rubbish seats if
you’re higher up and can barely hear anything) as the lights dimmed for the
opening act. Out rushed Russell Dickerson, dressed in a flowy shirt as if ready
for a summer barbeque. Without a word, he launched into twentysomething with huge energy, as if he were kicking off a rock
show.
From the get go, it was evident that Russell was overflowing
with charisma as he sang catchy songs like Billions.
He was certainly turning up the heat on this cold October night and seemed
to be the perfect act for a beach party or the like. As he moved on to Every Little Thing, he smiled and
pointed at people singing in the audience which I thought was a lovely move,
showing that he appreciated those who had come to see him.
I was surprised, given that the demographic of this gig was
slightly older than the usual pop-country gigs I go to, just how much people
seemed to warm to him. Cheers went up when he spoke about the song he’d written
with Florida Georgia Line, That’s My Girl,
and I saw the crowd visibly grooving to his slower paced tracks like Low Key, where he showed off some
impressive low notes.
With Russell, I found you just couldn’t help but smile as he
really knew how to work a crowd, jumping into the pit during a mashup of Girls Just Wanna Have Fun / I Wanna Dance
With Somebody and his own song MGNO (My Girls Night Out). He finished
the set with his two number one singles Blue
Tacoma, inspired by driving along listening to Shania Twain’s You’re Still The One which he treated us
to a few bars of, and Yours, a
wonderful love song I’m sure many have walked down the aisle to. I thought he
was an excellent pick for an opening act as we were certainly hyped up for the
main show.
Right on time, Darius Rucker waltzed onto the stage dressed
down in baseball cap, tshirt and jeans and my first thought was “he’s so
chill.” This is the vibe he exuded throughout the whole show as if he were here just to have a
nice evening with friends. He kicked off with surefire hits Homegrown Honey and Radio with some cute little dad dancing that made me beam from ear
to ear.
Even though it had been a while since I’d heard Darius’
songs, the minute he started playing them I felt I immediately knew all the words
as they’re just so recognisable and easy to pick up, exactly what you want for
a concert that’s basically just a big karaoke session!
It was a continuation of hit after hit as we moved through Southern State Of Mind, When Was The Last Time and self-proclaimed
one of the greatest songs he’s ever had the pleasure to sing, If I Told You. There’s no such thing as
a sad song in Darius’ vocabulary, so this was the perfect way to get the whole
crowd feeling good.
Like Russell, Darius had great interaction with the crowd,
heading off stage and into the stalls during This and getting us all to raise our hands during gospel/soul track
True Believers. He evidently cares
what his fans think, and had asked on social what we wanted to hear tonight,
and played a track from his short lived RnB career for those who had wanted it,
even though we know him mostly from country.
After Life’s Too Short,
he picked an apt moment to tell us that playing RAH had been on his bucket list
for a number of years, and how happy he was to have booked the venue, and not
only that but had to open up the seats in the back choir as it had sold out
within two weeks. We certainly were happy he’d made it.
It wouldn’t be a Darius concert without a throwback to his
magnificent years as frontman for Hootie & The Blowfish (which I’ll always
remember as Ross Geller from ‘Friends’ favourite band) so we all lit up our
phones as he played Let Her Cry before
he transitioned back to ‘country Darius’ for It Won’t Be Like This For Long. There are few who have experienced
such a versatile career as Darius, so hearing these different parts of his
musical career was a pleasure.
As well as his own career, Darius seems to be a lover of
covers as he took on Friends In Low
Places (a surefire crowdpleaser) and No
Diggity. These again proved his ability to move swiftly between pop,
country, RnB and even gospel which he somehow melds together in his own music.
The setlist continued through All I Want, Only Wanna Be
With You, Don’t, and Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It. There
wasn’t a single song that I thought ‘Eh, I don’t like this so much’ be that on
ballads like History In The Making or
the beatbox fuelled Alright. We were
all just out here having a good time, and it was evident that Darius was too,
as he played the parts of Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan and Charles Kelley during Straight To Hell, always a fun song to
see country fans sing along to.
The main show ended with hit after hit after hit, as Darius
brought Russell back on stage to sing Hootie’s Hold My Hand, followed by the heartfelt Come Back Song. I loved his choice of final song for the main set,
a cover of Oasis’ Champagne Supernova (which,
IMHO, sounded better than the original) in honour of the Manchester bombings
before flashing a winning smile, thanking the crowd and heading offstage.
We knew the show wouldn’t be over without his most famous
song with chants of ‘Wagon Wheel!’ echoing around the stadium. Darius returned
with a stunning cover of Adele’s Someone
Like You which the lady herself would be proud of, the sultry Hands On Me, and of course, Wagon Wheel. He took off his cap, signed it and handed it to a young fan in the crowd, and left us all cheering in his wake. In just two hours, we’d
been on a whirlwind trip of a very impressive career. Darius is a joy to watch,
and I hope he’ll be back soon.
I hope you enjoyed
today’s review! Make sure to stay tuned for even more country content on Twitter @CiarasCountry and drop me a message in the comments below with your favourite song from Darius' career - thanks for reading!
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