Even a drunk could (eventually) appreciate Brooks & Dunn at Stagecoach

Here’s some advice: Definitely enjoy yourself, but try not to drink too much if you ever find yourself at Stagecoach.

Otherwise, you might end up like the fool standing near me at Brooks & Dunn’s Sunday, April 26 Mane Stage set who spent the first 25 or so minutes repeatedly yelling for the band to “play some real country” as they blasted through a set containing some of, oh I don’t know, just the greatest country songs of the last 30 years.

Now, you might be thinking that the he was intending to yell for the band to play their 2005 song titled “Play Something Country,” which wouldn’t you know it, was eventually played toward the end of the show.

That was my first thought too, but one I was dissuaded of as his repeated calls grew more and more annoyed while those around him repeatedly laughed at his audacity and yelled back that the band was, in fact, playing some of the realest country we’ve seen at this year’s festival.

But while that fact was apparently lost on my apparently wasted friend, it was very much not on the rest of us who basked in another successful Stagecoach trip by some of the festival’s most favored performers (the band has played the fest four times).

Yes, this was far from Brooks & Dunn’s first Stagecoach rodeo as the band, clearly grateful to be back, noted on more than one occasion during their show.

The most touching of those came when singer Kix Brooks declared that Brooks & Dunn classic “Red Dirt Road” just doesn’t sound as good until it’s played in front of a good crowd like the one the band was playing in front of at Stagecoach on this night.

And he was right, it was a very good crowd (minus my drunk neighbor) that joyously belted out the lyrics of classics like “My Maria” “Ain’t Nothing Bout You” and closer “Only in America” during long sections of the show when the band left it to the crowd to belt out the words in epic fashion.

At multiple points in the show, Ronnie Dunn seemed to say that his voice was strained after the band played a freezing show in Reno the night before (admittedly it was difficult at times to make out both his and Brooks’ exact words when speaking, although their vocals came through wonderfully while singing).

But that admission only seemed to heighten the dramatic aura of the moment when Brooks first told the crowd to sing the final dramatic high note in “Neon Moon” only to say he likely couldn’t match that effort tonight and shouldn’t try it, before singing it beautifully anyway.

It was the kind of moment that demonstrated Brooks & Dunn, now nearly 40 years into their wildly successful and sometimes volatile partnership, still have it, even on nights when they said they don’t.

And oh, by the way, I didn’t hear any more bellyaching from our drunk friend about the need for the band to play real country after that. Turns out, even a drunk can appreciate the genius of Ronnie Dunn hitting the high note to end “Neon Moon.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Even a drunk could (eventually) appreciate Brooks & Dunn at Stagecoach