“Opening night,” says Jim Ginger of Round Rock. “And already it’s my favorite outdoor venue in Texas”
Ginger was not alone in his enthusiasm. Nearly 14,000 Kenny Chesney fans gave a rousing welcome to the Austin360 Amphitheater on Friday.
Traffic and parking before the show ran pretty smoothly. Some attendees arrived as early as 4 p.m. We waited until 7:30 p.m. to leave downtown. Our trip took 30 minutes, including the short lines into the parking lots (we tried three before finding ours).
Ginger said his drive from Round Rock down Toll Road 130 took 35 minutes.
The approach to the venue is spectacular. It opens up like a metal lotus under the Circuit of the Americas tower, lit up red like the huge Austin360 banners that flank the stage and seating areas.
Kate and Rick Youman
The stage is enormous but not overwhelming in scale, in part because so much of the visual work is done by video screens. Chesney, who can fill 80,000-seat football stadiums, brought along enough 21st-century visual firepower to keep the screens on mesmerizing sensory overload.
Kate Youman of Austin likes the venue’s openness and subtle use of stone, which softens the metal superstructures.
“Love the layers of seating,” she says. “Everyone feels connected.”
Youman and her husband rated the super-special seats up close because her best friend’s sister dated Chesney, she says. Not a bad connection when the time comes.
Indeed, socially, the Austin360 is a unified theater. You soon forget — some guests didn’t even know — that the gathering spot sits in a deep elbow of a three-mile-long race track.
Despite the metal railings, it doesn’t feel industrial or particularly automotive. Streamlining — the design equivalent of speed — just makes the open space feel more enclosed.
Jason Burt of Temple saw Chesney at Cowboys Stadium last year. He and wife Deanna Burt have collectively caught his act a half dozen times.
“It’s much more intimate here,” Jason Burt says. “I don’t know about those sitting in the back.”
It was a cool night, almost nippy at points. The stars came out. If every Texas night was this gorgeous, this place would fill up for acts much less potent than Chesney.
For pure electricity, it’s hard to match the unstoppable country artist who has helped open up the Caribbean dream for down-home middle Americans. (Gulf cruise lines should pay him a fee for every fan who purchases a ticket.)
Jim and Danette Ginger
In our section very close to the stage, some guests were dressed in high-end Western wear, with tasteful bangles and fringes of fake fur. Further back, variations on checks and plaids dominated.
A few men wore muscle shirts and smooth tans like their idol, but none worked the look as hard as Chesney, who sweated through his flimsy T in just a few numbers.
Probably the best seats were on the stage. We instantly spotted Longhorns football coach Mack Brown and wife Sally Brown as well as Chesney concert promoter Louis Messina and wife Christine Messina within touching distance of the band.
From further back, the act still looks and sounds good. But you lose details. By the time you reach the lawn, the viewer is totally dependent on the superb electronic imaging.
We hear the lawn could be opened up to as many as 100,000 people. Can’t really picture that. And I expect the viewer experience would diminish a good deal, as happens while on the Zilker Great Lawn watching ACL Music Festival marquee acts.
Can’t report on the traffic snarls, if any, leaving the amphitheater, because we scooted out a bit early after exploring most of the venue. (Seems to be a need for extra permanent restrooms.) Chesney fanatics, however, stuck around.
“Oh my gosh yes!” Danette Ginger says about the live aspect of the Austin360 stage. “I want to get up there with them!”