FLORENCE β There's always a given when Big & Rich are on the Country Thunder lineup: There will be a party.
There will be dancing in the audience. Strangers will become accidental friends by virtue of slamming into one another while hopping and bopping along to Kenny Alphin and John Rich's raucous rap-rock hybrid country. And when they bring along Cowboy Troy as they did Friday night, all bets are off.Β
I was standing on the stage and it literally quaked beneath my feet courtesy the clatter of bass and percussion β and the 6-foot-5 220-plus pound Cowboy Troy jumping up and down.
Nothing is off limits for these guys, from their catalogue of hick-hop hits ("Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy") to covers of everyone from Madonna to Sir Mix-A-Lot performed with enough frenetic energy to shake the stage off its foundation.
The audience, spread throughout the festival grounds and crushed against the fence separating the lawn and reserved seating, created a dust storm with dance moves that seemed in the shroud of darkness and flashes from the stage lights like clumsy choreography. It was wildly crazy fun.
There's no doubt that Saturday's headliner Blake Shelton will knock it out of the ballpark, but it's not likely he'll raise anywhere near the dust storm.
