Kip Moore exploded into the country scene a few years back with his hit “Somethin’ Bout a Truck,” a song that makes you love it the second you hear it and is so short it leaves you wanting more. That’s a trick most songs and movies could take a lesson from. Leaving the audience satisfied but wanting more, that sums up Kip’s show at House of Blues Anaheim this weekend in the last stop on the USA portion of his tour.
The Cadillac Three opened the show. These proud Nashville rockers are a unique three piece with drums, guitar, and pedal steel. They play so loud and proud you don’t notice the missing bass guitar. They are more Southern Rock than country, but good live country sounds like rock and roll, so it’s always a perfect fit. The crowd was very familiar with the band and they had plenty of people singing along. The front-man Jaren Johnston even gave his guitar to a fan that had been singing along to every song. (Albeit temporary, as he traded it back for a drumstick. Which the band then signed.) They were a great opening act with a similar raucous style of rocking music as the headliner.
Kip comes out with “The Wild Ones”, the title track on his much delayed second album. The three years between his first #1 hit and his second album were a trying time for him, but he has continued to grow his fan base through his tour first attitude. He gives it all to the fans and they are a devoted group because of it. The venue was packed. It was like a double stuffed sardine can, but people didn’t mind as most people in attendance knew every word to nearly every song. When you’ve got two albums and are a headliner you pretty much get to play every song you’ve released, which is a pure pleasure to the fans not having to hope to hear that deep cut you love. His three big hits from his debut album: “Beer Money,” “Hey Pretty Girl,” and “Somethin’ Bout a Truck,” were filtered throughout his performance. Sprinkled in were his chart climbers from the second album, “Young Love” and “I’m to Blame.” Kip didn’t hold back on interacting with the crowd; constantly holding the microphone out to encourage the fans sing-along fun. Late in the show the song “Magic” had the crowd repeating the cheated rhyme of the chorus, “Give me some of that magic, magic. You know I’ve got to have it, have it.” It’s sings much closer to a rhyme than it looks in text.
As any faithful follower of my reviews knows I love a good cover song. Kip didn’t let me down. Early in the show he covered Jimmy Eats Worlds’ “The Middle.” Kip’s enthusiasm and energy in this song was tangible, you could really feel how he loved the song since the first time he heard it, and it’s success at the time proved many people did as well. During the song he was punching the air with his biceps so flexed the blushing women raised the room’s temperature. The punches were intense enough to make Superman jealous. Later in the show during an acoustic string of songs he played the first verse and chorus of the Temptations’ “My Girl.” You can never go wrong covering Motown.
Overall the show was very, very good, it was something that took you out of your world and put you in the here and now, of the venue and the music. Even with having to deal with the congestion of Downtown Disney on a Saturday night in which the 5 freeway was closed between Anaheim and Los Angeles, the show was more than worth it and made me forget about the freeway closure until I almost failed to avoid it on my return trip.
Anaheim, US