By “Tampa” Earl Burton
Sometimes a room can be filled with people but bereft of soul. That was the situation in Tampa on Wednesday night as musician Aaron Lewis with his country band, the Stateliners, performed the second of two shows at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s Event Center. Despite the 2,000-seat hall being filled on both nights (not sold out, but close), Lewis and his country band failed to bring any meaningful music to the Event Center, instead retreading the tropes for which country music is famous.
Heavy-Handed Stage Presentation Tarnishes Show
For those who entered the Event Center on Wednesday night, it was clear this wasn’t a concert performance but a statement. A massive U.S. flag was draped over the band’s stage, and it went downhill from there. The concert began with someone (unidentified, a recurring theme) singing the National Anthem, while the current president of the U.S. (lowercase intentional) recited something that obviously had to be on a teleprompter in front of him: the Pledge of Allegiance.
If I were at a sporting event, where this pomp and ceremony is expected, I wouldn’t have been annoyed. This is a CONCERT, people, not a political rally. The usage of the U.S. flag for this purpose annoyed the fuck out of this Marine veteran (the flag is NOT meant to be used as a prop), and it soured my opinion not only of Lewis and his collection of musicians (they weren’t his “band”) for the rest of the night.
The audience didn’t help to improve the situation, either. The homogenous nature of the Lewis crowd was plainly evident, and they didn’t seek to hide their affiliations either through stereotypical redneck bullshit. From the assorted apparel that supported different right-leaning elements of our system to the moronic chanting of “USA! USA!” through the show, it was a gathering that failed to meet a minimal standard of entertainment for the entirety of the evening (and, from what personnel around the Hard Rock stated, Lewis was more vehement on his political commentary on Tuesday evening).
Template-Driven Music Without Meaning
As to the concert itself, Lewis did little to take the mantle of “entertainer,” let alone musician. He had the personality of a wet burlap sack, with his commentary between songs extremely limited to “Someone told me I couldn’t do (insert subject here),” and then performing some song that satisfied the criteria. It became repetitive and boring, much like Lewis himself, who was never a kinetic frontman even when he helmed Staind.
The music that Lewis was doing didn’t exactly help him either. It was your usual template-driven country music, talking about guns (“Grandaddy’s Gun”), or how to pull yourself up by the bootstraps (“Duct Tape & Balin’ Wire”), or the road (a song called literally “The Road”). It was a monotone demonstration, with little deviation from the standard, Alan Jackson-ish flag-waving pseudo-patriotic bullshit, epitomized by “Give My Country Back” (news flash, Lewis…nobody ever TOOK “your” country).
Between every song performed, there was a minute-long pause as Lewis figured out what he wanted to play. Someone should have informed Lewis that this is why they have rehearsals for tours – to figure out the setlist before you get to the stage. Furthermore, Lewis never acknowledged the assortment of musicians behind him that served as the Stateliners; other than saying, “Here’s the Stateliners,” before he left the stage for almost five minutes (why? Your guess is as good as mine, as it was only thirty minutes into the show), Lewis did not introduce the men who were on stage with him. Considering there were four other guitarists, a bassist, a harmonica player you couldn’t hear, and the drummer, that’s a group of people you might want to give some kudos.
Overall, Lewis seems to have found a segment of the music community that will listen to his ramblings (“I find it odd that he just vaporized,” Lewis said about former President Joe Biden, “like ‘Where’s Waldo?’”). Is he a failed rock star who has become a right-wing sycophant as a “country” performer? Or a closeted country performer who always wanted to be out of the more stressful world of having to come up with varied presentations in rock music? Either way, the two shows featuring Aaron Lewis and the Stateliners may have been full of like-minded people, but it was bereft of the soul that you usually expect from a musical performance. Lewis will probably continue to have a limited reach among right-wing fans (he stated during the show that he has both a new solo album and a Staind album waiting in the can), but his days as a major concert headliner are long gone.
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