"The comeback show" as I refer to it, Scotty McCreery brought live music back Friday night July 9, 2021 at The Pageant in St. Louis. Great venue, great beer, great crowd.
If you're unfamiliar with Scotty, he was the seventeen-year-old winner of American Idol season ten in 2011, who was known for his extremely deep voice at his age, but obviously captured the hearts across America. His debut album post-Idol "Clear As Day" went platinum in America that featured hits such as "I Love You This Big", "The Trouble With Girls", "Water Tower Town" and more. He followed up with a Christmas album, "Christmas With Scotty McCreery" in 2012 that went certified gold and featured classic hits as well as some of his own. In 2013, the title track from his third album "See You Tonight" was Scotty's first song to make the Top 10 in Country music. In summer 2017, he became the only person in Country music to release a chart-topping hit "Five More Minutes", without the backing of a record label. His fourth album, "Seasons Change" was released in 2018 which became his fourth Top 10 album as well and featured a very personal song about proposing and marrying his wife called "This Is It".
We arrived to the Delmar Loop (one of my favorite places in St. Louis) at about 4 pm, got some food and got in line at about 4:30. There were only a few people in line ahead of us, but it was perfect. We were given early entry wristbands at 5 that you wear on your wrist that allows you to leave the line for about an hour and a half and around 6:30, we lined back up in numerical order, according to our wristbands. While we were hanging out in the Loop, we went to Starbucks (for caffeine reasons), went shopping at my favorite record store Vintage Vinyl, and even stopped in the legendary and extremely famous Blueberry Hill for a bathroom break. We were let inside around 6:45 a few minutes before the general public was and when I was let in my favorite venue The Pageant for the first time since 2018, I was pleasantly surprised to see there was still room on the barricade. I was in the exact same spot I was in 2018 for Greta Van Fleet.
At 8, the night kicked off with one of Country music's newest upcoming artists Tenille Arts who performed hits such as Back Then Right Now, I Hate This, One Bedroom Apartment and even a familiar track from Taylor Swift, Love Story. She was so engaged with the audience and so humble, she got the crowd extremely excited for the main event.
Around 9, Scotty McCreery made his way onto the stage and the crowd went insane. Opening up with "We're All In The Same Truck", you could tell he was already having the time of his life. Even his band was fully engaged with the audience, smiling at everyone, making connections with the crowds through music. Scotty's latest hit that's currently cracking the Top 15 "You Time" was really what got the crowd going in the night. After that song, it was his oh so beloved track all the way back from Clear As Day, "The Trouble With Girls". During that song, which of course makes the girls swoon, his guys in the band were giggling because they knew how much all the girls loved it.
One of his greatest summer songs, "Feelin' It" was performed about halfway through the night and the crowd was definitely feelin' all of it. I'd assumed he was going to perform some type of cover because he always does. Now I was thinking more of Johnny Cash, George Strait, Garth Brooks, but he actually caught me off guard and performed a beautiful rendition of "Fire and Rain" by James Taylor... And man were people singing that one.
When he performed "See You Tonight", I could feel the crowd was so infatuated with the entire experience. Not only is that most likely my favorite song of his, but the way he was dancing, smiling and engaging with people during it made it that much more special. Before "This Is It" was performed, he told the entire story of him and his wife, how he asked her out on a date, how he proposed to her, it was so amazing to hear all of that. "This Is It" is one of those songs to make you cry happy tears. But if it's not happy tears, it's sad tears... "Five More Minutes", which is initially about Scotty's grandfather passing away, became his first-ever number one hit, and so many people around me were filled with tears. But if a concert or an artist can make you feel multiple emotions, that's when you know they're special.
Scotty closed out the show on a good note with "Boys From Back Home" , somewhat circling back to the opener. By the end of the night, the crowd was still so engaged. Unsure whether there was going to be an encore, the crowd started chanting "Scotty! Scotty! Scotty!". But the lights came on and that was the end. This concert was the perfect show to come back to. The Pageant is always an amazing experience. The best part about all of this is I barely even listen to country music a lot, but Scotty is definitely worth it. Instead of performing mainstream country hits, he performs more of true and authentic country music. Although I had not seen Scotty since 2014 due to accidentally missing him multiple times, I will be back and can not wait to revel with him again.
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