Review & setlist: Kenny Chesney gets fired up at Gillette Stadium

When the country star took the stage on Friday, he was simultaneously delivering a self-contained concert, kicking off a three-night stand, and closing out a summer-long run of dates.

Kenny Chesney, with Zac Brown Band, Megan Moroney, and Uncle Kracker at Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Friday, Aug. 23

To get a sense of how big Kenny Chesney really is, it’s really only necessary to note that he can take an act like the Zac Brown Band – capable of headlining multi-night stints at Fenway Park all on their own – and slot them in as an opener. That’s how strong Chesney’s gravitational pull is. And nowhere is that gravitational pull stronger than at Gillette Stadium, so near and dear to Chesney’s heart that he likes ending his tours in Foxborough, the more dates the better.

So when the country star took the stage on Friday, he was simultaneously delivering a self-contained concert, kicking off a three-night stand, and closing out a summer-long run of dates. But if that’s a tricky needle to thread, energy-wise, you wouldn’t have known it from watching Chesney. He was fired up in a way that was sustainable over two hours and change without losing either steam or control.

The steady vroom of “Living In Fast Forward” kicked things off with a good-time charge, and Chesney never let up on that front. Even when the tempo and mood downshifted, it was never to lament choices made or sigh at the fickle turns of fate. Instead, songs like “Just To Say We Did” and “Here And Now” captured his zeal for grabbing life by the horns (as did “Keg In The Closet” and “Beer In Mexico,” in a few different ways).

Whether it was party anthems, a slow piano ballad of gratitude like “There Goes My Life” or the more big-picture philosophical rumination of “Never Wanted Nothing More” and “I Go Back,” Chesney (like Brown) offered up country as contentment music: none of the heartache, hardship and sympathetic catharsis that make up the genre’s foundation, swept away in favor of aspirational dreams where all is as it should be. That sort of thing can come across as cloying and smug bragging, but Chesney sold it with a matter-of-fact verve that didn’t so much as bump up against the notion that he was luckier than the average schmo. “Somewhere With You” might have been moodier and more spacious than most of his material, but he still sang it like a celebration.

The stage setup was similarly minimal – nothing more elaborate than a riser for the drums and keyboard, some flashing lights and an unadorned T-shaped stage extension – but it came across as a large-spectacle show nonetheless, and that rested almost entirely on Chesney. He was able to direct all of his energy at one person and make it feel like it was directed out at the entire stadium, and vice versa.

He was also a generous performer, bringing WKLB DJ Carolyn Kruse out to shower her with appreciation ahead of her impending retirement and sharing the stage with openers Uncle Kracker and Megan Moroney. The latter didn’t offer a whole lot to the fueled charge of “All The Pretty Girls” beyond some simple shared vocals, but she helped honor the silliness of “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy” by constantly trying to crack Chesney up (starting with driving out in a kid’s toy tractor behind his back), and her own “Am I Okay?” felt triumphant in its second performance of the night.

Unlike Moroney, Chesney didn’t actually seem to reveal much, in his songs or out. He never used his handsome baritone to show off, but he also never really let it betray much emotion; even when he let loose, his voice remained hooded like his eyes under the brim of his cowboy hat. No matter; even if he didn’t let himself get overwhelmed in the closing “Don’t Happen Twice,” he still captured a degree of awe in being on the happy side of life’s many turns. He never appeared to lose sight of how lucky he was to have so much to be happy about.

Standing next to Chesney, Uncle Kracker’s pinched, unsupported voice put the richness of Chesney’s baritone in sharp contrast, but on his own in his opening, he put in a solid if overeffortful showing with good-time country colored by a wisp of soul. Bright-eyed and eager Megan Moroney followed, saying, “Two things you should know about me is that I write songs and I have terrible taste in men.” Her voice, just this side of ragged, gave her both character and clarity, helping her nail the pang of melancholy in “No Caller ID” and the attitude of “Sleep On My Side.” And the reach-for-the-sky, overwhelmed love-panic anthem of “Am I Okay?” (backed by a stadium full of women singing the title) proved that she has the spark to support her own big-ticket show; she just needs the resources and the profile.

With his easygoing command of the stage and the beachy vibes that started right away with “Keep Me In Mind” and “Toes,” the Zac Brown Band (officially co-headliners) proved themselves more than capable of carrying on the mantle of Substitute Jimmy Buffett if Chesney ever relinquishes it. Even “Same Boat,” a song with more than vacation on Brown’s mind, found its central metaphor in beach life, and with covers of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “The Devil Went Down To Georgia,” “You Can Call Me Al,” “Take It To The Limit,” “Into The Mystic” and “Sabotage,” they were like the club band at an upscale resort, where they would have played just as many Zac Brown Band songs.

Setlist for Kenny Chesney at Gillette Stadium, Aug. 23, 2024

• Living In Fast Forward
• Beer In Mexico
• Keg In The Closet
• Here And Now
• Reality
• Summertime
• Just To Say We Did
• Save It For A Rainy Day
• Guitars And Tiki Bars
• Somewhere With You
• I Go Back
• Get Along
• Never Wanted Nothing More
• Take Her Home
• When The Sun Goes Down (with Uncle Kracker)
• Drift Away (Dobie Gray cover) (with Uncle Kracker)
• Boston
• Out Last Night
• There Goes My Life
• All The Pretty Girls (with Megan Moroney)
• She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy (with Megan Moroney)
• Am I Okay? (Megan Moroney cover) (with Megan Moroney)
• Young
• American Kids
• Setting The World On Fire
• Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (David Lee Murphy cover)
• How Forever Feels

Encore

• Anything But Mine
• Don’t Happen Twice

Marc Hirsh can be reached at [email protected] or on Bluesky @spacecitymarc.bsky.social.