New, young country star Taylor swiftly steals show from Flatts

The ticket stubs might have read ‘Rascal Flatts with special guest Taylor Swift,’ but Taylor… The ticket stubs might have read ‘Rascal Flatts with special guest Taylor Swift,’ but Taylor Swift was anything but simply a special guest. The headlining Rascal Flatts put on an extravagant and energetic show, but Swift, the teenage Reading, Pa., native, stole the spotlight for the first hour of the show. She performed an incredibly high-energy opening set that included all of her hits. Swift kicked off the sold-out show with her recent hit, ‘I’m Only Me When I’m With You.’ Then she quickly transitioned into her first No. 1 hit, ‘Our Song,’ which kicked off a string of crowd sing-a-longs of all of Swift’s hits from her self-titled debut album. She frequently reminded the enthusiastic crowd of her Pennsylvania roots as she brilliantly belted out her songs. When the crowd gave her a deservingly raucous cheer after each song, she was bashfully modest about the crowd’s reception, and she might have even blushed a few times. Swift has come extremely far in country music throughout the past few years, and it is clear that she is still extremely grateful to her fans for her success. After she ended her set with the angry-ex-girlfriend anthem, ‘Picture to Burn,’ her home-state crowd gave her a well-justified deafening applause. Swift clearly did her job of warming up the crowd for Rascal Flatts, as there were fans dancing in their seats and on the lawn during intermission while waiting for the headliners to start their set. Suddenly, Rascal Flatts band members Jay DeMarcus, Gary LeVox and Joe Don Rooney exploded onto the stage playing their latest hit, ‘Still Feels Good.’ The band rocked its way through its extensive set of hits, including ‘Love You Out Loud’ and ‘These Days.’ The crowd gladly sang along during nearly every song. ‘Life is a Highway’ might be a cover song, but the fans were clearly appreciative that the group played its version, as the crowd was most vocal during this song than during any other played that evening. The reigning Country Music Association Vocal Group of the Year tried to cram too many songs into its set, unfortunately. This led to abbreviated versions of crowd favorites ‘I’m Moving On,’ the tear-jerking ‘Skin’ and ‘Feels Like Today.’ But the most disappointing aspect of the evening was the decision of the group to leave out one of its biggest hits, the back-in-the-day-type song ‘Mayberry.’ Thankfully, the lack of ‘Mayberry’ was the only negative aspect of the evening. Rascal Flatts rocked the Pavilion from the first song to the last. The band presented not only its vocal talents but also its musical talents. Rooney performed several solos on electric and acoustic guitar, and the band’s instrumentalists also demonstrated their honorable skills. It also paid a respectable amount of attention to those sitting way back in the lawn, especially in ‘Here’s To You,’ a tune that gives a tribute to the ‘guys up there,’ an allusion to those in the nosebleed seats or the lawn. The group returned to the stage for a two-song encore that included the wild ‘Me and My Gang’ and ‘Bob that Head,’ the song for which its tour is named. The atmosphere in Burgettstown was heated not only from the weather, but also from some of the hottest and most rowdy music that the Post-Gazette Pavilion has seen all summer.