NASHVILLE, TN. (kenny Chesney Official Website) -
Kenny Chesney has never been one to not come all the way to the line - and for his stadium-sized Somewhere In The Sun concerts, the scope of everything the reigning Country
Music Association and Academy of Country
Music Entertainer of the Year has expanded accordingly. With his first mondo-show this Saturday at Washington, DC's FedEx Field already under construction, the numbers are staggering.
"Hey, if you're gonna go in there and play," says the Luttrell, Tennessean non-chalantly, "you wanna play."
The 209 feet wide stage - for the show which features current ACM Male and Female Vocalist Keith Urban and Gretchen Wilson, Grammy-nominated Texan Pat Green and pop/soul/hopper Uncle Kracker - weighs in at an impressive 345,000 pounds, with over 250 tons of gear being moved onto the field. Currently, 102 people are working to construct the stage and support elements, and that number will swell to over 200 when the production aspects need to be laid in.
"It's just like we've got our own little factory in Landover, Maryland," says Chesney. "But instead of making cars or something, they're making this stage, the sound towers… so we can do this show for the D.C. area. It's almost like we're raising a skyscraper - I mean, they're using a 60 ton crane to lay in the stage towers and the PA structure is 35 feet tall! You don't think in terms like that when you're thinking about a concert, but THAT'S how big it is - and it kind of blows my mind."
No doubt Chesney will be on track to blow minds with his high-energy stage show and blend of progressive/traditional country music. With 280,000 watts of sound running through 125 individually remote controlled amplifiers, it will not only be loud enough for people to hear, but clear enough to understand as well… And with an additional 28 7k synchro lights ringing the stadium's upper balcony - each 30 amps with 3 phases each for an output of 2500 amps of power - it's gonna be bright as Broadway down on the field.
"If you're gonna do it, do it," shrugs the singer/songwriter with a laugh. "We've customized the stage for each stadium, so the spread runs from as far as it can one way to as far as it can to the other…with the biggest video wings we can find and a shell that reaches up 80 feet! We started working on this design almost as soon as we wrapped Neyland Stadium (the University of Tennessee's football stadium, where Chesney's 2003 Homecoming Show marked the 1st concert since Michael Jackson in 1984), because I figured if I ever got to this point, I'd want whomever came to see us to see something as strong as what we did in my hometown."
It more than takes a village - or hometown. Over 50 trucks of equipment - the field covering and chairs alone took up 12 trucks and the steel to construct the stage another 10 - there are 3 additional generators up and running on the ground. To that end, the 10-man culinary staff that accompanies the tour have been plenty busy feeding the various crews - cooking upwards of 2300 meals alone over the 4 days of construction and show day.
"It's gonna be big. It's gonna be fun. And, you know I can't wait," says the man whose frat rave remembrance "Keg In The Closet" is flying. "I feel like Ferris Bueller on steroids, and that's a pretty great place to come at a show like this from. After all, as much as we have normal-sized, this just takes it that much further."
In addition to the DC show, Saturday July 23 it's Foxboro, Massachusetts' Gillette Stadium, where current the Super Bowl Champion New England Patriots kick butt. Then Somewhere in the Sun Stadium-Sized winds up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 30 at Heinz Field, where the Stealers get it done.
