Florida Georgia Line brings party to a packed Verizon Arena

A drum solo? Seriously? In 2015? A drum solo?

Florida Georgia Line, the tattooed and tattered-T-shirt duo of Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard, packed Verizon Arena Saturday night and clearly fulfilled the expectations of the screaming fans there to see one of the top acts in country music.

The result was a huge weekend party with Kelley and Hubbard coming across as the goofy yet grateful hosts. This is the first tour that Florida Georgia Line has taken on as the headliner. This caps a meteoric rise for a group that has only recently released its second full-length album. Thought they don’t have years of hits to call upon, they played the ones they do have with energy and volume – lots and lots of volume.

Self-appointed country music purists have derided Florida Georgia Line as lightweights at best and heretics to the Nashville faith at worst. Saturday night’s show would not have changed their mind one bit. Songs like “Round Here,” “Get Your Shine On” and “This Is How We Roll” were subtle as jackhammers. One of the best songs of the night, “Dirt,” jumped out of the pack because the band pulled back on the throttle a bit. One of the members of the backing band occasionally played a banjo but you could hardly hear it in the mix. Lyrics for the songs also got lost in the onslaught on the collective eardrums.

It didn’t matter. This was good time party music for the current age and it seems silly to hold a grudge. It is odd, however, how the youngsters in Florida Georgia Line resurrected toward the end of the set that curious artifact from the bloated Monsters of Rock era. The drumming in the solo, done by a demon wearing a headband and a Pantara shirt, was fierce, mind-blowing and utterly pointless.

Middle act Thomas Rhett provided an earnest and awkward mixture of ballads and quasi-dance songs. Opening act Frankie Ballard, a young guitar slinger, performed as if music had not advanced an iota after the first Van Halen album in 1978.

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