Underwood took the point a little after 9 p.m. straddling a red divan and clean a Gothic trench coat and a gaudy choker. (Her openers were Billy Currington and Sons of Sylvia, who, at least judging by an autograph line that rivaled the one to the women`s room, were a hit with the crowd. )
Performing before a mostly sold-out arena, she kicked things off with three rousing kiss-off songs, "Cowboy Casanova," "Wasted" and "Quitter" that showed off an attitude fit for her big voice.
She was excellent in "Wasted," written by Lindsey, leading rather than keeping up with her energetic seven piece band.
Though she didn`t really move, overact, or, in fact, leave her red couch during these first few numbers, she`s a powerful enough singer that she still registered the cockiness the songs demand. Her back-up singer was left with not often to do but dance beside the fiddle player in the top hat.
She switched gears for the adjacent part of the show, slowing things down with "Only a Dream," the sort of song that sounds ripped from a Hallmark musical greeting card.
And so delivered a spiel she`s no doubt already recounted before many an award show: how she slept on the support of her mom`s car on her way to the "American Idol" audition, how she watched awards shows as a small girl, how she first heard the show to "Jesus, Take the Cycle" while cleaning her bathroom.
"The final 5 or six days have been pretty awesome for me," she said, the giant tree branch hanging behind her, looking sadly out of place, as false as all the view on stage.
Songs like "Temporary Home" and "Change" - both a serial of mawkish vignettes of stock characters who`ve fallen on tough times - were meant to act like sincere ballads, but sounded anything but. It didn`t help matters she sang the latter song behind an LCD dress that displayed images of rainbows and shooting stars.
She also misfired with John Denver`s "Take Me Home, Country Roads." Instead of acting it like the earnest ode to Americana that it is, she did it while riding a gaudy blue pick-up truck that didn`t feel like it had always been taken out of the dealership, let alone set foot in West Virginia.
Only when she performed her duet with Randy Travis, "I Told you So," did she assume the proper note on a ballad. Love songs don`t get to be overdone; they don`t get to do with a cloying montage of wedding photos - like "Mama`s Song" did - they can be stripped down and simple. With Travis performing on video, it was her most honestly country moment in an otherwise pop-ified set.
Thankfully, for the finale, she played three tunes that played to her strengths. On "Last Name," also scripted by Lindsey, she sounded sassy and defiant, a performance fit for a bachelorette party. And on "Songs like This," she sampled Beyonce`s "Single Ladies (Put a Mob on It)."
"Wanna find some boy/ rip his heart right out/First man I see, gonna take him down/It ain't the Christian thing/to do, they say/But someone, somewhere's gotta pay."
It was an appropriate mashup because Underwood, like Beyonce, sounds better when she`s on a rampage.
See photos from the show.
Set list:
1. Cowboy Casanova 2. Quitter3. Wasted4. I love you won't5. Some Hearts6. Just a dream7. Temporary Home8. Someday When I Stop Loving You9. All American Girl10. So Small11. Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver cover)12. This Time13. Undo It14. Jesus, Take the Wheel15. What Can I Say (duet with Sons of Sylvia)16. Change17. I Told You So18. Mama's Song19. Last Name
Encore:
20. Before he Cheats21. Songs like This Photo: Gene Sweeney Jr./Baltimore Sun
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