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2012 ACMs: The Performances Part 1

All right, so I'm finally getting to the performances from the 2012 ACMs. I've made up a list of everyone who performed and am pretty sure I have everyone. If you're reading this and think of anyone I missed, please let me know. By my count, there were twenty four performances which I consider to be a lot. Especially when you consider that there were only eight awards given out during the broadcast. Eight awards compared to twenty four performances. That's ridiculous. It is an awards show. But I've ranted about that already.

Moving on. These aren't going to be in any kind of order. I wasn't able to record the awards and have been relying on good ole youtube to watch everything again. So it's going to be in whatever order I think of them in and has nothing to do with what I may have thought of them. I'm going to be breaking these up into multiple posts because there's so many. I'm not going to be posting any of the videos for space purposes, but rest assured, if you have a strong desire to watch any of them again they can all be found online. The wonders of technology and the Internet.

So are you ready? Let's go.



Well, it just so happens that the first performance I'm going to be talking about is Carrie Underwood's which kicked off the show. That was one of the first ones that popped up in my search which seems fitting since I do remember that this kicked off the show. So the song was "Good Girl" which, if you read my review, is not one of my favorite songs of hers. But ignoring that, this performance was a little rough for me. It seems like she was having a hard time hearing herself, which was a problem throughout the night. I have no way of knowing for certain, but I'd imagine not being about to hear yourself could really mess you up. She was a little pitchy in parts of this, but considering how unusual that is for her, I'd blame it on any audio problems she was probably. The mix in general sounded odd to me, more so watching it again. I feel like there should have been more guitar. I don't know. It was just off. The bridge again makes me wonder how she plans on singing this every night on tour. I maintain my belief that the key is too high - it should be lower.

Other than that, I really didn't like what was going on on the screens behind them. Just too much for me and kind of hard to look at. That and it all just seemed so random to me. A lot of flashing colors and shapes and girls. Yeah...okay. Weird way to kick off the show. I know it might not seem like it, but I do like Carrie. This just wasn't her best. I will say that I love the way her microphone lit up at the end - that was cool.

Going from Carrie Underwood to Brad Paisley since for whatever reason he was next on the search. There's something fitting about that somehow. The song? "Camouflage". The mix sounded off on this performance too. The music didn't sound right and the background vocals were too loud. Brad's guitar sounded strange to me. This song is another one that's not one of my favorites. It's very repetitive for me, but I thought Brad sounded pretty good overall. Some rough patches. I'm wondering if the weather in Vegas was causing throat problems for some of them. Like Brad: it wasn't that he seemed pitchy or anything like that, he just sounded kind of rough to me. Some of the crowd reactions during this amuse me; which has nothing to do with the actual performance, but I felt a need to mention it anyway. All in all, I wouldn't call it a bad performance by any means, but not a great one. I'd put this in the middle somewhere. I did like lighting during it though.

Sticking with Brad Paisley for the time being, the next performance is "Whiskey's Gone" by Zac Brown Band and Brad. Okay, so I like the lighting and the stuff on the screens was mostly okay. Playing up the whole Vegas thing. There's one word that comes to mind when I watch this and that word in frantic. I know a lot of people love Zac Brown Band and I like them some, but this is an ongoing problem I have with them. The faster stuff almost always sounds frantic and on the verge on going out of control. It almost feels like they're trying to see who can get to the finish the fastest instead of playing as a cohesive unit. To borrow a word from my dad, I find their playing to be kind of muddy at times. Notes aren't always as clear as they should be. I did think Zac Brown sounded pretty good here, I'll give him that. And Brad coming out with a hat like Zac wears was amusing. All in all, this was just too much. The music being so crazed makes it hard for me to get into it. It starts getting a little tedious for me around the 2:40 mark. I'm ready for it to end by then. I just wasn't feeling this performance, but vocally speaking, it was fine.

And now to see if I can appease any Zac Brown Band fans who might be less than pleased with me, I'm going to move on to their other performance of the night "Keep Me In Mind". This one gets off to a good start since this happens to be one of my favorite songs of theirs. So Zac and the boys get a point in their favor straightaway. Visually, I liked the look at this one. The mix seemed spot on to me for the most part - the background vocals seemed pretty loud at times. But in terms of mixing, this is the best out of all the ones I've talked about already. Musically speaking, this performance highlights my ultimate issue with them. So many times with them it feels like it's every musician for themselves, but here? They're playing as a cohesive unit, as a band in the truest sense of the word. They make it about the song and it's so good. They definitely have the ability; it's just the execution is inconsistent overall. It's performances like this that help me understand the hype they get. If they always played like this, I'd like them so much more, maybe even love them. Very solid performance here.

All right, so now that I've finished with Zac Brown Band I'm going to go ahead and get what was easily my least favorite performance of the night out of the way. Namely "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith. I have not kept my intense dislike of this song a secret. I'm pretty sure I like it less the more I hear it. This may be the harshest thing I've ever said in my blog so far, but I think this performance was a waste of time. Time that would've been better spent on an Earl Scruggs tribute. Honestly the best things about this was some of the reactions of other country stars, namely Eric Church and his two cups with Larry Gatlin in the background, Keith Urban cracking up and Carrie Underwood right before. Ready for this song to be laid to rest.

Moving on from Toby Keith to focus on the rather bouncy Luke Bryan and his performance of "I Don't Want This Night To End". This performance is just bubbling with energy; so much that Luke can't seem to help himself. It's like the boy has springs in his shoes at times. Watching this again makes me marvel at how far he's come. He's always had something special about him that's been present from the beginning and it's been fun to watch that develop. And develop it has. He had the crowd in his hand from the start. I want to give a shout out to his band here - they sounded fantastic. They might be one of my favorite backing bands now actually. The playing is so solid and the energy they're putting out matches Luke's and it makes something bigger than each of them. No complaints about the mix here.

And soft, do my eyes deceive me or are their some closeups of the band during this? One of the few instances that happens during this show. I know that the guys in Zac Brown Band were getting featured; in their case it's different because they're considered artists themselves. Now, granted, I could make a very strong argument that every musician is an artist in their own right, but that's besides the point. The difference is musicians that share the spotlight with the lead singer as in the case of a band (i.e ZBB or the Dirt Drifters) and musicians that make up the backing band. And of the latter category, hardly anyone got featured during their solo which was one of my pet peeves of the broadcast. So seeing a shot of drummer Kent Slucher around the minute mark and seeing guitarist Michael Carter come zipping up to the front around the two minute mark made me happy. Especially the latter since he got featured for a good thirty second. And the fret markers on his guitar light up and I think that's kind of awesome. Nice solo as well. I loved the visuals of this performance too; one of my favorite performances of the night for sure.

This feels like a good place to conclude for now. Going to keep working on these though; my goal is to get this all done pretty fast just to move on. The nominees for the 2012 Billboard Awards were recently announced, so I'll be doing a post about my thoughts on the country nominations at some point. More reviews on the way - if there's any songs you want to see me review, let me know. Or albums or videos; really, if there's anything you want to see, let me know. For now, thank you for reading and expect another post fairly soon. :-)








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