Celebrating their 25th year, Little Big Town rolled into Birmingham with absolutely nothing to prove. They've been consummate professionals throughout their whole career and have transitioned into that space now where they are above any genre boundaries after a series of hits, awards and albums that have positioned them alongside their peers & colleagues like Miranda Lambert, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton: bigger than the genre and no longer needing to play by Music Row rules.
Having Ashley Monroe as support was a fabulous start to the evening. Ashley is a terrific songwriter, artist and founding member of the Pistol Annies (Hippy Annie!) She came out and played an engaging and powerful set featuring songs scattered throughout her career. Starting off at the piano she treated the Birmingham crowd to a rendition of her new upcoming song, ‘There You Are,' a powerful and plaintive ballad that lets her vocals shine to the fullest. ‘Hands on You' was delivered with sultry skill whilst ‘Like a Rose,' told the Birmingham crowd the story of her life, alongside a funny tale about her writing the song with the legendary Guy Clark. Choosing to end her set with ‘rowdy' songs like ‘Weed Instead of Roses' rather than ‘The Blade' got the crowd toe-tapping and shoulder shaking along and the cheers and voracious clapping at the culmination of her set was well deserved.
Little Big Town have reached that stage in their careers where they feel almost semi-autonomous. Having played the game and ridden the Nashville train for two decades it feels like they have outgrown the genre and the town on their past couple of releases and pretty much can do whatever the hell they want, now, going forward. A ‘Greatest Hits' release followed by an upcoming Christmas album tells you they are in no hurry to follow up 2022's ‘Mr. Sun' album and also hints that they might even be looking to follow contemporaries like Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton into pastures new going forward in their recording careers.
The band also have a problem. A good problem, but still a problem none-the-less, in that a 20 song setlist just isn't big enough to do justice to all the great songs in their catalogue. So whilst the show was a fabulous one it was a shame that we didn't get to hear classics like ‘Painkiller' and ‘Your Side of the Bed' or modern gems like ‘Sugar Coat.' I'm generally not a fan of setlist nit-picking, however, so we'll move past that fairly swiftly and focus on what the band did play!
Opening with ‘Boondocks' is an easy win for Little Big Town. Jimi sings the intro off stage and then the band walk on with him finishing it off. A segue into ‘Hell Yeah' and then ‘Little White Church' gives both Philip and Karen a chance to shine at the microphone and what was obvious from the get-go was the effort and precision the band put into their vocals. You can't phone in a Little Big Town performance because there's just too much going on to wing it!
Kimberley sang what is easily is her best vocal on ‘Sober' and the crowd didn't let her down at the end as they joined in to finish the song off. One surprise of the night was ‘Tumble and Fall,' a fairly deep cut from the ‘Painkiller' album. (still the band's best release in my eyes) This isn't a song that makes it onto my ‘Best Of' playlists that often but I'm going to rectify that mistake going forward as here it was delivered with a passion and intensity that really made it stand out as a strong live song. A combo of ‘I'm With the Band' and ‘With a Little Help From my Friends' put Philip's gravelly, rock-tinged vocals front-and-centre again whilst Karen handled the delicate, plaintive ‘Better Man' in some style. Jimi rocked the Eagles-esque ‘Leavin' in Your Eyes,' another song that works better live than it does on record before a thunderous ending of ‘Tornado', ‘Stay All Night' and ‘Pontoon' got the Birmingham crowd up on its feet and dancing in the aisles.
Throughout the show the band dropped in little anecdotes about themselves, the songs and their career. They came across as funny, sweet, warm individuals and their stage personas helped to create an intimate atmosphere in which it felt like you were in a room with friends, some of whom just happened to be singing. A little hilarity around how to pronounce ‘Birmingham' was followed by Karen giving quite a passionate speech about being in a radio station 20+ years ago with none of the programmers listening to them and the band just about to play ‘Bring It On Home.' It felt spontaneous and heartfelt but was delivered 2-3 songs too early because the band were just about to play ‘Day Drinking!' Philip even said, ‘I didn't realise you cared so much about ‘Day Drinking' when you were giving that introduction' as the band fell about laughing.
Signing the poster of a young girl attending her first concert during ‘River of Stars' is testament to what big hearts the members of Little Big Town have. Indeed, Jimi even said to the crowd at that point, ‘You can see we are missing our own kiddos,' and throughout the set the band embraced the room as if they were nothing more than a set of friends. Let's not, however, downgrade the effort and the skill needed to pull off a performance like this. Nowhere was that more in evidence than on ‘Stay All Night' which ended in a full band extended jam session and a kind of tent revival-esque mood.
An encore of ‘Girl Crush,' ‘Wine, Beer, Whiskey' and ‘Friends of Mine' highlighted the variety and professionalism of the band. The former saw Karen receive an elongated reception from the crowd at the end whilst ‘Wine, Beer, Whiskey' gave Jimi the chance the orchestrate a bombastic and rowdy performance. Philip stepped into the limelight for the closer, helming ‘Friends of Mine' from the piano at the front of the stage and this warm, inclusive and harmony-filled evening was brought to an end in fine style.
This tour feels something like the celebration of what has gone before and maybe even the closing of a chapter in Little Big Town's careers. They've paid their dues and built up a beast that is bigger than the town that birthed it now. All those years of hard work, honing their voices, evolving their craft shone through in this performance tonight. Each song was a little 3 minute cinematic event of its own, delivered with passion and aplomb to an eager and appreciate crowd. It'll be interesting to see what comes next as the band continue to evolve and face the future on their own terms but one thing is for sure, no matter what they decide to do next in terms of sound, style and direction, there will always be a crowd here in Birmingham waiting for them to come around again.
Setlist: 1. Boondocks 2. Hell Yeah 3. Little White Church 4. Nightfall 5. Next to You 6. River of Stars 7. Sober 8. Tumble and Fall 9. I'm With the Band / With a Little Help From My Friends 10. Better Man 11. Night on Our Side 12. Day Drinking 13. Leavin' In Your Eyes 14. Bring it On Home 15. Tornado 16. Stay All Night 17. Pontoon 18. Girl Crush 19. Wine, Beer, Whiskey 20. Friends of Mine Venue: Birmingham Symphony Hall Date: September 17th 2024.
