Rascal Flatts

By John Steele
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Sep. 8, 2009

This Friday at Camden’s Susquehanna Bank Center the ghosts of Merle Haggard, Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash will murder the members of Columbus, Ohio, hillbilly boy band Rascal Flatts with broken whiskey bottles. No ghost jury will convict them, because Rascal Flatts are a shiny, overproduced bastion of the soulless cash-grab modern country music has become. It seems cleverly written songs about pain, regret, loss, self-medication and the virtues of vice don’t sell sweaters at JCPenney (see their ad on the Rascal Flatts official website). Flatts songs sound like jingles for a sepia-toned American ideal, with just a hint of Jesus thrown in. Add frosted tips and flannel shirts, subtract all attitude or individualism, and you have a quintuple-platinum product. In an act of mercy, the marauding ghost band of country legends will spare opening act Darius Rucker. That’s right—Hootie, of Blowfish fame, is now a country star. And once you hear what he has been reduced to, you will agree he has suffered enough.

Fri., Sept. 11, 8pm. $73.25. Susquehanna Bank Center, 1 Harbour Blvd., Camden, N.J. 856.365.1300. livenation.com

Add to favoritesAdd to Favorites PrintPrint Send to friendSend to Friend

COMMENTS

ADD COMMENT

Rate:
(HTML and URLs prohibited)
User Guidelines