Record-shattering, award-winning country superstar Miranda Lambert may want to see the desert from a painted palomino, but she doesn’t seem to mind actin’ up on the Zappos Theater stage in Las Vegas instead.
Hosting her first-ever Las Vegas residency, Velvet Rodeo, Lambert belts an extensive selection of hits from a catalog of tunes that couldn’t have been easy to prune into a single concert. With nine solo albums and four more released with Pistol Annies (a band featuring Lambert alongside Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley), the singer boasts more than 75 awards for the tracks that made her famous outside a small town. In fact, the Academy of Country Music acknowledged Lambert as its most awarded solo female artist during its 2015 award show, where Lambert also received a plaque from Guinness World Records for having the most consecutive wins in ACM’s “Female Vocalist of the Year” category.
Lambert clearly had a hankering for getting into something when she set out to create Velvet Rodeo, playing Nov. 26-27, Dec. 3-4, 8 and 10-11. The stage might as well be soaked in kerosene, because the singer lights on fire when the spotlight hits—sometimes literally, thanks to a jacket that shoots out sparks.
Enlivening Velvet Rodeo, ceiling projections, dynamic lighting and fierce pyrotechnics engulf the entire theater, teleporting its audience from day to night, from music video to animated background, from hit to hit.
No detail has been spared in this show, but flashy set design or not, raw, unadulterated talent has long been paramount to the star’s success. But those qualities aren’t found just within the singer, they wind throughout the entire production. It takes all kinds of kinds to curate an excellent residency, and Lambert’s kind is simply gifted.
Guitarists Ethan Ballinger and Jerry Massey stun while steel guitarist Spencer Cullum and bassist Jonathan Murray bring richness to the stage. Keys player Daniel Mitchell, drummer Max Zemanovic and backing vocalist Gwen Sebastian carry listeners through the songs, each bringing their own powerful sounds.
Together, the collective brings listeners their favorite songs, from ballads like “The House That Built Me” and “Carousel” to revenge songs like “Gunpowder & Lead” and “Mama’s Broken Heart.” Once you take your seat (which you probably won’t be sitting in for long), you’re in for 90 minutes of fun.
More than just a concert, this residency has a storytelling quality to it. As Lambert guides you from song to song, it’s almost as if she’s loaded you up into her little red wagon (hopefully she’s fixed the front seat and axle) and taken you on a ride through her musical journey. It’s not necessarily chronological, but by the time the curtain closes, she’s shown you what lies within a heart like hers.
Planet Hollywood Resort, ticketmaster.com
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