PHOENIX — I saw Garth Brooks live only once, way back in 1994 at the Buffalo Auditorium in Buffalo, New York.
It was the first night of a three-night run in the Queen City and Brooks put on a show that for me was life altering.
I became a country music fan that night, seduced by Brooks' outsized personality, infectious and frenetic stage presence and a catalogue of rocking country songs, most of which I had never heard before that night but have since committed to memory.
On Friday night at Talking Stick Resort Arena, I felt like I was back at the Aud. Nevermind that a lifetime had passed, most of which Brooks has spent off the road raising his three kids. But you couldn't tell from his performance — his first in Phoenix in 19 years and the first of six concerts he will perform at Talking Stick between now and next Saturday night — that any of this was new again.
Brooks on Friday night was the same rowdy, unbridled artist, the guy whose engine constantly revs on high. He raced around a circular stage singing "Two Of A Kind, Workin' On A Full House" to all sides of the full arena, leaping around with an acoustic guitar slung over his shoulder. He two-stepped at a runner's pace during the murderous tale of "Papa Loved Mama," then pumped his fists in the air to emphasize the urgency of "Thunder Rolls."
He grabbed the stage camera from its operator during "Ain't Going Down 'Til The Sun Comes Up," sprinting the length of the stage then racing around the back side as he aimed the camera into the crowd, their images blasting on the big screen overhead.
He got momentarily winded just before launching into the ballad "Unanswered Prayers," and the audience took over, singing impressive harmonies loud enough to fill the arena and silence their host. Throughout the night, the audience sang along, sometimes so loud that Brooks could easily have stopped singing and the music would have continued uninterrupted.
Brooks slowed down when his wife, fellow country superstar Tricia Yearwood, joined him for the couple's Top 5 duet "In Another's Eyes." When they finished, he turned the stage over to Yearwood, who found that the crowd that loved her husband also had a crush on her. They sang along to her hits "X's and O's" and "She's In Love With the Boy," and her most recent single, "PrizeFighter."
Brooks returned to the stage and blasted into his rocking "Shameless," the Billy Joel penned song that was one of Brooks' early hits. And once again, the audience chimed in with their harmonious chorus that had Brooks sitting back and smiling before he took them on a raucous ride to "Callin' Baton Rouge" and his ubiquitous drinking ode "Friends in Low Places."
He feigned shock with the audience wanted him to sing "Friends" third verse, the one that tells the singer's lover what she can do with her rejection. He said that he had decided on this leg of his 2015 world tour he would forgo that verse. But what the heck, he said, let's break some rules, and the audience all too happily joined in.
It was a moment.
From the scorching encore "Standing Outside the Fire" to the heart-tugging ballad "The Dance," Brooks captured moments, little flashes of time that folks in that arena will be recalling 20 years from now.
Brooks returns to the stage tonight at Talking Stick. There are some single tickets available. He's back in Phoenix Oct. 23 and 24 for two shows each night.
