KACEY MUSGRAVES SETLIST
KACEY MUSGRAVES TOUR DATES JAN 26 Wells Fargo Center Philadelphia, PA
JAN 27 TD Garden Boston, MA FEB 3 Capital One Arena Washington, DC FEB 5 Madison Square Garden New York, NY FEB 9 State Farm Arena Atlanta, GA FEB 11 Bridgestone Arena Nashville, TN FEB 14 American Airlines Center Dallas, TX FEB 16 Ball Arena Denver, CO FEB 19 Oakland Arena Oakland, CA FEB 20 Crypto.com Arena Los Angeles, CA FEB 25 Scotiabank Arena Toronto, Canada JUN 2 Primavera Sound 2022 Barcelona, Spain JUN 19 Pinkpop Festival 2022 Landgraaf, Netherlands JUL 1 Lollapalooza Stockholm 2022 Stockholm, Sweden JUL 22 Splendour in the Grass 2022 Yelgun, Australia KING PRINCESS TOUR DATES JAN 26 Wells Fargo Center Philadelphia, PA
JAN 27 TD Garden Boston, MA FEB 3 Capital One Arena Washington, DC FEB 5 Madison Square Garden New York, NY FEB 9 State Farm Arena Atlanta, GA FEB 11 Bridgestone Arena Nashville, TN FEB 14 American Airlines Center Dallas, TX FEB 16 Ball Arena Denver, CO FEB 19 Oakland Arena Oakland, CA FEB 20 Crypto.com Arena Los Angeles, CA FEB 25 Scotiabank Arena Toronto, Canada APR 21 The O2 London, United Kingdom APR 23 Utilita Arena Sheffield, United Kingdom APR 27 Resorts World Arena Birmingham, United Kingdom APR 29 OVO Hydro Glasgow, United Kingdom MAY 4 AO Arena Manchester, United Kingdom MAY 14 Palau Sant Jordi Barcelona, Spain JUN 11 Primavera Sound 2022 Sant Adrià De Besòs, Spain AUG 6 Allegiant Stadium Las Vegas, NV SEP 1 Bank of America Stadium Charlotte, NC MUNA TOUR DATES JAN 26 Wells Fargo Center Philadelphia, PA
JAN 27 TD Garden Boston, MA JAN 28 The Englewood Hummelstown, PA JAN 29 Higher Ground South Burlington, VT JAN 31 L'Astral Montreal, QC FEB 1 Gateway City Arts Holyoke, MA FEB 2 Asbury Lanes Asbury Park, NJ FEB 3 Capital One Arena Washington, D.C. FEB 5 Madison Square Garden New York, NY FEB 7 The Orange Peel Asheville, NC FEB 8 The Underground Charlotte, NC FEB 9 State Farm Arena Atlanta, GA FEB 10 The Basement East Nashville, TN FEB 11 Bridgestone Arena Nashville, TN FEB 14 American Airlines Center Dallas, TX FEB 16 Ball Arena Denver, CO FEB 17 The Depot Salt Lake City, UT FEB 19 Oracle Arena Oakland, CA FEB 20 Staples Center Los Angeles, CA Read More
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Now this is the way to excise any lingering heartbreak demons--
Country chanteuse Kacey Musgraves made a stop in Kansas City at the T-Mobile Center on her star-crossed: unveiled tour, one of only fifteen North American shows.
Given the currently non-improving public health situation, it’s a minor miracle that live performances are still carrying on at all, especially large arena shows, and the crowd seemed to really appreciate the combined effort involved to pull it off and to be able to attend.
Respect also to Musgraves for inviting two musically solid, LGBTQ+ supportive opening acts along for the ride, Los Angeles-based trio MUNA and Brooklyn’s King Princess.
MUNA (Katie Gavin; Naomi McPherson; Josette Maskin) would be up first, with a six-song, twenty-five-minute set that was determined to get the crowd moving en masse, and succeeded due to their restless stage presence and catchy, mostly uplifting songs including set opener, “Number One Fan”. Two slower tempo, more “country-ish” songs were done mid-set, including a yet-to-be released new song earmarked for their next album, “Kind of Girl”.
The beat would pick back up with 2017’s peace-loving “I Know a Place” and the band singing, “it’s hard to love with a heart that’s hurting, but if you want to go out dancing…” with the crowd complying and ended with arguably the best single of 2021, “Silk Chiffon” which on record featured Phoebe Bridgers, the band even signing with Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records last May.
A longer-than-usual delay between acts due to some equipment issues unfortunately cut the anticipated set from King Princess down to a mere twenty minutes, “Sorry, I’m late” singer-songwriter and bandleader Mikaela Straus apologized. Fans were quickly forgiving and happy to hear the set opening brand new single “Little Bother”, a collaboration with NY soul singer Fousheé followed by “For My Friends”, both being a taste of the upcoming record due out later this year, a follow up to the highly successful 2019 debut, Cheap Queen.
Their 2018 second single “Talia” addressed a love lost, set to a Kate Bush-like drum rhythm and things would end with their debut breakout single, “1950”- an ode to both queer love and the related seminal Patricia Highsmith novel, The Price of Salt.
Heartbreak was still fresh in the air, both from King Princess’ songs and the entrance music of the “When Doves Cry” cover as Kacey Musgraves emerged for her ninety-minute headlining set. While we didn’t get the giant heart shape on actual fire behind her as she sang (like on opening night in St. Paul and the MTV VMAs last Sept), the entrance was still dramatic as she began with the new album’s title track, “star-crossed”.
As she walked about in glittering sequin top and comfortable pants and shoes, “good wife” from the latest record was especially biting, as Musgraves quipped near its end, “I was a great wife!”. “cherry blossom” (yes, all titles from the new album are stylized in lowercase) also from new record found the large screen behind she and the band with a pastel digital backdrop and falling electronic petals. “I did make quite a depressing album” she admitted of the new record about her recent divorce, “I had to get that out”.
“breadwinner” saw Musgraves pace from end to end of the large stage, dispensing dollars from a money gun over the fans near the front and the audience really came alive with the title track from 2018 Grammy-winning Album of the Year, Golden Hour. Attendees were all also given RFID bracelets, which would collectively blink/light up during certain songs (i.e., yellow during “Golden Hour”, though Coldplay used them better).
The heartbreak continued with 2018 hit single, “Space Cowboy” and Musgraves (and the audience) crooning, “I know my place, and it ain’t with you” as a disco ball from the top of the arena spun around and was not afraid to call out condescension on “High Horse”, putting on a fan-thrown glitter cowboy hat that perfectly complemented her outfit.
Musgraves paused to mention her afternoon in town, eating barbecue and going antique shopping before the somber “camera roll”, about re-living past happier times through cellphone photo files. The mood would pick back up with her 2012 debut single, “Merry Go Round” and letting a lucky audience member select their “Kacey-oke” cover song of the evening, a Fugees/Roberta Flack version as song lyrics streamed across the screens.
“there is a light” brought three very unlikely things together at once– laser lights, confetti cannons, and an extended flute solo, and the main set would end en español, with the all-Spanish “gracias a la vida” and Musgraves making her way back to where she first entered, then gracefully falling straight back as lights went to black and the curtain closed.
The encore began with the campfire sing-along of “Slow Burn” from 2018’s Golden Hour and Musgraves complimented the crowd on their many attention-getting outfits and signs before ending the show with 2019’s “Rainbow”, performed sparsely with only piano accompaniment.
Questions may have lingered about whether or not Kacey Musgraves would be able to pull off her first arena tour- playing in the middle of winter in support of a downbeat divorce record, and having to overcome the logistic obstacles of an ongoing pandemic.
In the end she succeeded- the result of having good songs and a loyal still-growing fan base, an honest on-stage personality, and helped by inviting rising queer-friendly acts MUNA and King Princess as support.
Heartbreak and the subsequent collective healing never looked so good.
(click on any image to enlarge and see in full)
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Kacey Musgraves at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City, MO (2022-01-21) |
| john ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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