Chase Rice may not be the biggest name in country music but he is certainly on his way. Pop-Break was fortunate enough to be able to catch him at his show at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, PA.
Opening for Rice is New Jersey musician, Dave Hangley. Now New Jersey may not be known for country music but music, in general, is a New Jersey speciality. Hangley may not be of the same caliber as Bruce or Bon Jovi but he certainly has a talent. His sound is very reminiscent of Christian Kane or the Kyle Bennet Band. He came out onstage with just a guitar and a guitarist and his ball cap low over his eyes. He starts by letting everyone know about his album, American Made and no one seemed to know who he was or anything about the record. By the end, he definitely won over a few fans. His song, “Love Like a Man” is a sweet romantic ballad that really stuck with me. It sounds a bit like Edwin McCain’s “I’ll Be.” There were times in his set that boredom struck many people in the crowd but he always seemed to win them back. He is talented but needs to be polished just a bit.
Once Chase Rice took the stage, the audience exploded but the screams came non stop for the second song of the evening, “Fifty Shades of Crazy.” Women love Chase Rice. He’s damn attractive so I completely understand. After that he sung “Let’s Ride” which is one of his more popular songs and the crowd kept going wild.
As a relatively newly “known” talent, it’s always difficult to know what an artist is going to do. Not every new artist has enough music to do a complete set and, even if they do, there’s a chance they can lose the crowd if they play a bunch of songs that not everyone knows. To remedy that problem, Rice covered Luke Bryan’s “Drunk on You” and the crowd loved hearing it but that was not the only cover he played. He kept it going and transitioned from that song into “Ignition” by R. Kelly but he wasn’t finished yet. Rice told a story about driving around when he was 16 years old listening to a specific song over and over again and then busted out Nelly’s “Country Grammar.” Finally he brought it back around to “Drunk on You” and ended his little medley. The crowd seemed flabbergasted and ecstatic to hear all these songs they know and love and grew up on as well. It was a smart way to fill a set.
Rice didn’t only play covers though, he has a few singles under his belt at this point. He took the time to play his new single, “Gonna Wanna Tonight.” At this point in the show Rice really slowed it down to just him and an acoustic guitar and played a song he said was something real, “Jack Daniels and Jesus” and a few other slow songs and the crowd seemed to grow restless and rightfully so. The energy seemed to be sucked form the room. To try to get the audiences attention he decided to bring up a girl whose birthday it was and said, “We’re about to bring sex on stage for a minute” and sung her a song that he kept telling the kids in the crowd to put earmuffs on for, “Ride.”
To pick the crowd back up after his sexual serenading he started playing “My Own Worst Enemy” and had the entire crowd jumping, threw in a chorus of “Jump Around” and then starting singing his own song, “Whoa” and had a battle between his guitarists. Each guitarist represented a side of the audience and he had the crowd see who was louder. When one side lost someone flipped him off and he goes “Don’t flip me off! Flip yourself off!” He had the whole crowd laughing and pulled out a device to measure the decibels. The winning side hit 120 but it could have been louder if it did not take so long. In the end, he had the guitarists battle and let them play any song they wanted and the band would pick it up and play it through. The first one played Puddle of Mudd’s “She Hates Me.” Not to be outdone, the other guitarist chose blink182’s “What’s My Age Age Again.” Apparently Chase Rice wanted to time hop us all night back to the late 90s early 2000s. The bassist grabs a microphone at this point and said “I thought we were playing a country concert” and started playing Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places.” To highlight the final musician of the band, Chase gave his drummer the opportunity to play a little. He busts out a drum solo then takes it a step further, blindfolds himself, gets called Mr. Christian Gray by Rice, and just kills it.
One of the best moments of the night was when Rice came back out to do an encore. His first song was “Cruise,” a Florida Georgia Line cover. The reason that song is more important than any other cover of the night is Chase Rice was a cowriter on that song. For him, he said it was even more special because not only is Nelly on the remix, but it was his first number one single as a songwriter. After that, Rice, of course, does the Nelly part of the song. It was phenomenal. He finally closed out the show with his first hit song, “Ready Set Roll.”
As a new artist, it can be difficult to put on a concert with a complete set list. Not everyone knows all of your songs and you can’t risk losing the audience. With the covers, originals and shenanigans on stage at the Sands, there was no doubt that Rice won over a score of new fans, impressed his old fans, and blew people away. He is a talented songwriter, singer and performer and if you ever get the opportunity to see him, go but just be aware that he may be doing a few covers to fill in his set.
Set List:
Do It Like This
Fifty Shades of Crazy
Beer With the Boys
I Like Drinking Cause It’s Fun
Drunk on You medley including Ignition by R Kelly, Wiz Khalifa’s No Sleep and Nelly’s Country Grammar
We’re Goin Out
Gonna Wanna Tonight
Jack Daniels and Jesus
The Dance (Garth Brooks Cover)
Ride
My Own Worst Enemy (Lit Cover with Jump Around by House of Pain mixed in)
Whoa
She Hates Me (Puddle of Mudd Cover)
What’s My Age Again (blink 182 Cover)
Friends in Low Places (Garth Brooks Cover)
How She Rolls
Encore:
Cruise
Ready Set Roll
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Lisa Pikaard is a senior writer of Pop-Break who can be read weekly as part of Pop-Break’s Singles Party. She can also frequently be found reviewing and interviewing hard rock bands but her photo is secretly (or not so secretly now) on the Backstreet Boy’s Never Gone album booklet. Country, pop, rock, the genre doesn’t matter; she loves it all. Lisa also likes to dabble in book reviews and somehow convinced Monmouth University to award her a Master’s in English for writing a thesis called ‘Harry Potter and the Rhetoric of Terrorism.’ While her dream is to interview musicians on a daily basis, she is currently works as Group Sales Account Manager at Brooklyn Nets. Music, football and literature are her passions. Follow her on Twitter: @nygiantsnjgrl
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