Dallas Delivers Sirius-ly Solid Snowed-In Show at Commodore Ballroom
Any weather-related irony (Vancouver got snow the day before) was quickly forgotten by the long line of country fans who shuffled into The Commodore Ballroom on Wednesday night. And several video cameras were rolling, catching their excitement for the SiriusXM recording of ‘Dallas Smith Snowed In‘ performance.
Jeans and plaid were the dress code of the evening with the men being outnumbered 5-1. But the women could care less, they were only interested in the country hunks on the stage.
Opener Shawn Austin showed he belonged up here with solid, well-delivered vocals. And despite being a newcomer, his fans were singing along with his debut single “Paradise Found”…almost word for word. He had good stage presence and didn’t hesitate to reach out to the hands of the ladies in the front. He took the time to thank local country station JRFM for the airplay and clearly these girls were listening.
And usually at this time for openers here, the venue simply isn’t very full. This was NOT the case tonight. A good 75% of the crowd was jockeying for position or at the good tables already.
Andrew Hyatt followed up as the next act, with his ball-cap, tattoos and blue-collar swagger. He made it clear it was his mission to fire the crowd up for Dallas Smith and delivered on his promise. He was high energy the entire set, bouncing around the stage, reaching out to the audience and rocking out with the band. His new single “Do It with You” was well received and is doing very well on the radio.
The buzzing crowd was singing along with all the tracks being played in between sets, including a rousing rendition of “Drunk on a Plane” by Dierks Bentley (ironically the very concert shirt I was wearing up front, waiting for my “First 3, no flash”…which was followed up by “Shut Up and Dance”.
Dallas Smith came out to screaming fans and launched right into “Side Effects”, the title track of his latest album. It then became a blistering set full of his latest hits. He barely stopped to breath between songs. The Dallas Smith lovefest/sing-along was in full swing and didn’t stop except for some nagging bass rig technical problems that had interrupted the earlier sets as well. And of course the latest hit for the wedding crowd, “Autograph” had the fans crooning every word.
The big takeaway from this night is that these are three artists on the edge of the next level. Dallas is clearly just a few albums in his catalog away from headlining venues bigger than Abbotsford. His writing, delivery and production have been at a consistently high level since he started; good artists have strong first singles and this is certainly the case for Dallas Smith.
After the brief set/obligatory pause, he came back with “Tippin’ Point” and “Cheap Seats” for the perfect way to end a pretty perfect night of solid Canadian country music. One of the best shows for The Commodore this year and a pretty nice present for local country music fans. And who knows, SiriusXM might pick up a few new subscribers just to hear the broadcast.
5/5
Watch Shawn Austin. I predict big things for this guy.
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