Toward the end of country singer Scotty McCreery's 90-minute UA Presents concert Wednesday night, stagehands tossed out a half-dozen gigantic beach balls.
Folks nearest the stage swatted and punched the balls as high in the air as they could, and it likely dawned on someone with the University of Arizona arts organization that they might have wandered into entirely new territory.
It is a safe bet that never, in all the years that UA Presents has been bringing concerts, orchestras and dance events to campus, have beach balls sailed through the air at Centennial Hall.
And the organizers probably would have laughed at the sight of the older gentleman about two dozen rows from the front who jumped up and took a swing at one of those balls and swatted it four rows in front of him. And when it landed on a young woman's head, the man chuckled.
McCreery was the first-ever country artist to play on the UA Presents series, and judging by the generationally diverse audience's response, he shouldn't be their last. Many of the people in Wednesday's audience were newcomers to UA Presents, which is kind of the point of the group's mission: "To educate, enlighten and inspire by bringing performing arts and artists together with the diverse communities of Southern Arizona."
McCreery, who faced formidable competition from the hot country band Midland playing a sold-out show at Casino del Sol Wednesday night, brought in nearly 1,800 people. A large chunk of them, many dressed in blue jeans, skewed younger than the traditional UA Presents crowd. And among them there were likely hundreds who had never attended a UA Presents event. Once they took their seats, though, they made themselves at home, screaming and shouting so loudly that the patrons of the bars and restaurants along University Boulevard probably heard them.Β
Of course it didn't hurt that UA Presents' grand country music experiment featured an "American Idol" winner with an abundance of boy-next-door charm, a swoonable whiskey-smooth baritone and one of the year's top country songs.
McCreery brought along a five-piece band and a full stage setup with lights flashing from a raised platform that took up the back half of the stage.Β He opened the show with the summery, pop-country title track off his latest album, "Seasons Change," then criss-crossed his relatively young seven-year career with a mix of new and old: a medley of his early hits β "The Trouble With Girls" / "Forget to Forget You" /" I Love You This Big" β then cuts off the new album β the toe-tappers "In Between" and "Wrong Again."Β
He snuck in covers of traditional country artists that have influenced his neo-trad/pop country style β Johnny Cash, Alan Jackson, John Michael Montgomery, Randy Travis β with his own songs, including the ode to a small "Water Tower Town" and the rocking "Move It On Out."
And with little warning or fanfare, he started singing his big country hit, "Five More Minutes." The audience waited a full verse before singing along, as if they felt that the song and setting deserved a little decorum. But when he got to the chorus, they sang along, creating this united voice that seemed to echo softly behind McCreery's terrific baritone.Β
