Garth Brooks – Minneapolis, MN – November 15, 2014

To say that Garth Brooks’ eleven day stint in Minneapolis is amazing would be putting it mildly. It isn’t often that downtown Minneapolis has to set up detours due to a concert because there are so many people lined up at one time that it stretches into the street outside the venue. It is even more rare that this would happen when it is below ten degrees outside. However, this is the case on November 15, 2014, the last night of Garth Brooks’ run of Minneapolis shows.

The city is abuzz with excitement, filled with fans of not only country music, but music in general. That is something very interesting about these concerts. People who enjoy all types of music are attending. There are people who attend the Motley Crue show in Saint Paul, only to race over to Minneapolis to attend the late Garth show. His shows and overall passion for what he does have that kind of effect on people.

The last show of the night is incredible. For having done as many shows as he had already done, his voice was in great shape and he was running around the stage like it was the first night of the entire tour. He mentions to the crowd that when he goes to a show, he wants to hear a band’s greatest hits, which is what he is going to play. And let’s face it, we all think the same thing when we attend a show. He didn’t disappoint.

The first song of the night was from his new album, but he quickly rolls into “Rodeo”, “Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House”, and the haunting, “Beaches of Cheyenne”. The set continues with such hits as “The River”, “Unanswered Prayers”, “If Tomorrow Never Comes”, “The Thunder Rolls”, and many more. Every word of every song is sang back to Garth by the audience, as the audience is just as pumped as him every second of the show.

Halfway through the set, Trisha Yearwood, Garth’s wife and fellow country musician, joins him onstage. There are many people at the show that may have actually been more excited to see her than him at that point. She sings a duet with him, “In Another’s Eyes”, but then proceeds to sing five of her own, including, “XXX’s and OOO’s” and others. When she sings her hit, “She’s in Love with the Boy”, the Target Center goes crazy with fans singing word for word back to her.

Garth continues on after she leaves the stage with hits like, “Callin’ Baton Rouge” and “Shameless”, as well as a nine minute version of “Friends in Low Places”. He completes the initial set with the beautiful song, “The Dance” and leaves the stage, only to return with his cover of Aerosmith’s “Fever” for an encore.

For a final encore, he treats the audience to the cover of Bob Dylan’s “To Make You Feel My Love”, a song made popular by the “Hope Floats” soundtrack. He then closes out with “I’m Much Too Young to Feel This Damn Old” and “Standing Outside the Fire” before both he and Trisha Yearwood take a final bow.