Miranda Lambert RodeoHouston, Reliant Stadium March 13, 2012
Miranda Lambert has been "doing this music thing for 10 years now," and her mantra is simple: She's all about girl power and being a sassy southern belle. A Texas-born blonde with attitude up to her ears, she doesn't apologize for being curvy, liking cold beer or occasionally indulging herself with some chicken fried steak. In fact, she celebrates it.
Tuesday night, in front of about 60,000 screaming fans, Lambert and her band played a 14-song repertoire that had the crowd bursting with shrill screams and squeals of delight. Halfway through her set, she even brought the Pistol Annies onstage to perform "Hell on Heels" with her.
The show began with a montage of clips and pictures of iconic and influential women, ranging from Rihanna and Oprah to Reba McEntire, Dolly Parton and Kate Middleton (the Duchess of York), as Beyonce's "Run The World (Girls)" blared on the speakers overhead, setting the mood for a night full of triumphant anthems about womanhood.
Born in Lindale, just outside of Tyler, Lambert is proud to be from a small city, as she made clear with "Famous in a Small Town." She's also glad to be from Texas, specifically. "As we all know," she said to the cheering crowd before singing "Baggage Claim." "Hell hath no fury like a Texas woman scorned."
Not to be "shown up by no man," Lambert implored the crowd to be as noisy as they could be throughout her set. Specifically, she asked them to get louder than when her husband, Blake Shelton, performed a few nights ago.
Most of her songs were tuned down to be well within her range, which we understand giving any musician's touring schedule, but our favorite parts of the evening were when she had to strain to reach the notes. While some of her music sounds a bit too commercialized for our taste, when she hits those high notes with a fierce growl, she truly sounds like a woman who is not be messed with.
