The band received three Platinum and one Gold award
Whiskey Myers were surprised backstage ahead of their sold out Red Rocks Amphitheatre debut on Monday (June 6th) night with four new RIAA certifications. The six-piece group was honored with Platinum awards for “Stone,” “Ballad of a Southern Man” and “Broken” while “Virginia” was certified Gold.
Strutting on stage backed by a live horns section, the band kicked off the show with a rousing live rendition of current single “John Wayne,” and thrilled the audience of 9,525 with 19 hard-rocking, genre-bending songs for more than two hours.
The energy continued to rise from there with two tracks off their 2019 chart-topping self-titled album; Top 20 fire-burner “Gasoline” and the reflective “Bury My Bones,” before bringing the crowd’s cheers to a new high with the fuzzed-out groove of their hit “Frogman,” a tribute to America’s Navy Seals that saw Cody Cannon summoning even more energy from the crowd with his hands in the air.
The newly certified “Broken Window Serenade” offered one of many crowd singalong moments of the night during a section of ever-popular songs from prior albums Firewater and Mud, as the volume was turned up once again during “Bar, Guitar and a Honky Tonk Crowd” and “Deep Down in the South” with the chorus of claps during recent single “Die Rockin’” reverberating off the iconic rock faces.
The set slowed down temporarily during the now Gold-certified ballad “Virginia,” which saw percussionist Tony Kent transition to the keys partway through the song as Cannon asked for the house lights up to see the still-standing crowd. Tucked among “Glitter Ain’t Gold,” “Early Morning Shakes” (which included one of the night’s many extended jam sessions) and “How Far” (punctuated by a rousing horns solo) was a sneak peek at yet-to-be released track “The Wolf” off the band’s sixth studio album, Tornillo, set for release July 29th via their own Wiggy Thump records with distribution by Thirty Tigers.
As the band left the stage to close out the main set the crowd never left their feet, reaching a fever pitch as Cannon returned solo. “Thank y’all so much for being here tonight, it means the world,” he remarked. “We’ve never played a place this nice before, so we had to go to the Goodwill to get us some suits and class it up a bit,” he joked of the all-white custom suits the band donned for the occasion before treating the loyal fans who sold the venue clean the day the long-awaited show went on sale to an acoustic version of “Reckoning.”
“It’s comin’!” he laughed as the still at-capacity crowd then began chanting the opening lines of “Ballad of a Southern Man” as if on cue. The full band rejoined him on stage to fulfill the fans’ request, launching into a five-song stretch to close out the memorable night. Lighters filled the Colorado night sky as Kent tapped out the opening chords of “Stone” before breaking out his famed cowbell high kick during beloved classic “Home.” Lead guitarist John Jeffers then took the lead on fan favorite “Bitch” before openers Read Southall Band and Shane Smith & The Saints joined the onstage party – along with the band’s family members – for the ultimate finale with a rock ‘n’ roll revival cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Refugee.”
The continues its Tornillo Tour next weekend with a performance at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, TN.
