Las Cruces country music fans enjoyed a star-studded concert at the Pan American Center as Blake Shelton brought his “Country Music Freaks Tour” to town Saturday night, Feb. 17, 2018. The sold-out concert starred Carly Pearce, Brett Eldredge, Trace Adkins and Blake Shelton as the headliner.
The concert started out with rising country music star, Carly Pearce. After her opening song Pearce greeted the crowd and got everyone going by saying she was in Aggie country and “Go Aggies!” During her performance she told funny stories about how certain songs came about and how singing country music has always been her passion. Pearce started singing at the age of 11, performing with a traveling bluegrass band.
Before ending her set she thanked fans for allowing her to live her dream of being a country music star. Country music fan Chris Santos said after the concert, “I hadn’t heard of [Carly Pearce], but I really enjoyed her music and energy. She got everyone going for Brett.”
Many fans were excited to see country music star, Brett Eldredge take the stage. The young 31-year-old country music star captured the hearts of the crowd with his voice and country boy charm. During his song “Mean to Me,” he stopped singing after the first verse and asked fans to turn on their phone lights to emulate fireflies before he started singing the next verse. The Pan American Center shown bright with everyone’s phone lights glowing like fireflies as he continued.
Fans danced in the middle of the floor as Eldredge serenaded them throughout his set. As many Brett Eldredge fans know, he loves his dog Edgar more than anything. Before he sang his last song, Eldredge brought out his Weimaraner/Vizsla mix dog and introduced him to the crowd. The crowd cheered for the dog as he performed a trick for them. Eldredge thanked fans at the end of his set and got them ready for the main event, Blake Shelton.
As the lights went out and music started playing, the Pan American Center exploded with deafening cheers as Blake Shelton began to sing and walk out on stage. After his first song, he welcomed the crowd and told everyone how heartwarming it was to see so many “country music freaks” in the audience. Shelton received a huge cheer from the crowd when he congratulated the NMSU football team for winning its first bowl game in 57 years.
Shelton went on to tell fans how happy he was about being able to open up a few hundred more seats that day for the concert. He told fans the truck with his jumbo screen and huge overhead lights had gotten in an accident and was not able to make it to Las Cruces from Lubbock. Shelton joked that he was happy the overhead lights did not make it because, “I feel like they’re going to fall on me every time.”
After the jokes, Shelton went on to perform an amazing show for fans with Trace Adkins. Fans danced and sang along to all his top hits and some new songs from his November 2017 album, “Texoma Shore.” Afterward, fans raved about the concert. Marie DeSantos, said, “It was an awesome show. I had so much fun and I loved it all.”
Joshua Zamora, an NMSU student working the event, said he was glad he got to be at the concert even though he was working it.
The Country Music Freaks Tour may have moved on, but the fun experience of this concert will certainly stay with many country music fans for a while.
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