A cow got loose during a cutting horse competition in Reliant Arena early Thursday afternoon, and nobody got hurt.
It took some very capable officials quite a bit of time to get the animal corralled back onto the arena floor, but I bet that the Zac Brown Band could have lured it there with just a few measures of their mesmerizing Southern music.
A Georgia native, Brown and his troupe of bearded musical wonders specialize in a lively, modern take on traditional southern rock and soul. As affable as his band, which included Jimmy De Martini on fiddle and Clay Cook on mandolin, was, the music was even better.
I can't think of a better band to cap off such a wild day than Brown and his capable team of merry songsters entertaining a Reliant audience who never seemed to sit down.
The musicians made the most out of an hour-long set, which was seasoned with fan favorites "Chicken Fried" and "Jump Right In" along with a several harmonious ballads like "No Hurry." Towards the middle of the set, a surprisingly faithful rendition of Metallica's "Enter Sandman," featuring a fork-bearded John Driskell Hopkins on vocals and Zac Brown on bass guitar, surprised the already energetic crowd of 64,174.
As the searing cover song ended, the band somehow found a way to seamlessly segue into a prayerful fiddle passage before moving on to "Free," a much slower and more contemplative offering.
In the same way that good gospel music at the end of the week can make me feel nice and refreshed, Brown's set had a charming quality to it that just felt right after a long day of smelling horse debris and watching chickens hatch in Reliant Center.
In fact, hours before the doors at Reliant Stadium opened up, I was traipsing around the grounds, looking for the seldom-seen parts of the weekday rodeo in anticipation of this show.
After seeing what I saw on Thursday, I've come to one conclusion; There is a completely different Rodeo Houston world outside of Reliant Stadium going on during the week. A world in which you can eavesdrop on two bee keepers talking shop about how the drought has affected the honey harvest, or take in a sloth and anteater show on the Kids' Country stage put on by a group from...Wisconsin?
I can't think of a better band to cap off such a wild day than Brown and his capable team of merry songsters entertaining a Reliant audience who never seemed to sit down.
Brown must have felt it, too, as he was often milling around and hooting like a mountain man between songs, to wild applause.
He and his band seemed genuinely happy to be in Houston. The fact that they were playing in one of the largest sports arenas in the country never once seemed to faze them. Reliant Stadium could have been the Armadillo Palace or the recently endangered Blanco's Bar & Grill for all that this band cared, and the show was all the better for it.
How else can you explain a set list that can go from a Metallica cover to a soulful Appalachian ballad without missing a beat?
Set:
"Keep Me In Mind"
"Walkin'"
"Knee Deep"
"The Wind"
"No Hurry"
"Toes"
"Uncaged"
"Colder"
"Enter Sandman"
"Free"
"Jump Right In"
"Goodbye"
"America, The Beautiful"
"Chicken Fried"
Brown felt the crowd's energy as he often hooted like a mountain man between songs, to much applause.
