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…