Kenny Chesney delivers vibrant, visually arresting feast at Las Vegas Sphere
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Kenny Chesney, June Carter Cash among Country Hall of Fame inductees
Kenny Chesney, Tony Brown and June Carter Cash's family speak after they are named the 2025 Country Music Hall of Fame inductees.
LAS VEGAS – About a third through the second night of Kenny Chesney's groundbreaking residency at the Sphere, the gregarious country superstar dipped into his 2004 hit 'I Go Back.'
It's a song steeped in nostalgia, with lyrics that reminisce about wistful moments. High school gyms. Hearing John Mellencamp on the radio. A friend gone too soon.
The accompanying video – well, better classified as all-encompassing graphics that sucked you into the visual vortex – of football fields and basketball courts pulled at the hearts of 17,000 people as Chesney sang of days gone by with his typical earnestness.
But for all its nodding to the past, the song represented a milestone in Chesney's awards-laden, 30-plus-year career as he performed it May 24. As he looked around in awe of the crowd and the enveloping video, there was as much a sense of 'How did we get here?' as 'Let's look back.'
Chesney, 57, is the first country singer – and the first solo artist, despite an ace six-piece band – to play the game-changing venue. His two-hour show, a technicolor wonder, continues for sporadic dates through June 21 and are his only live performances of the year. It's as much a concert as a sonic and visual roller-coaster ride pairing one of the most acclaimed stars of country with the evolving technological wizardry of the Sphere.
From the opening deep-sea dive that morphed into a fleet of pirate ships bobbing on the ocean while Chesney bopped through 'Beer in Mexico' – his skinny jeans tight, his sleeveless shirt baring biceps – a carefree vibe permeated the show.
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For years, Chesney has been a reliable stadium filler, a guy who feeds off his fans' adrenaline as he clocks tens of thousands of steps scampering around the stage. While he was slightly limited to roam given the Sphere's structure, Chesney found ways to maintain a lifeline to the front row of fans on the floor as he bent down during 'Keg in the Closet' to smack a palm or accept a Nevada license plate emblazoned 'Sphere.'
'Not only do we see you all, we feel you tonight,' Chesney said in one of his frequent humble acknowledgements of the crowd.
Typically, Chesney's concerts offer few embellishments. So to see a Ferris wheel looming over him (' 'Til It's Gone'), a live shot of No Shoes Nation devotees blasted onto the 240-foot-tall backdrop ('No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems') and Chesney on a towering cell phone surrounded by vibrantly colored fish (the prescient 'Welcome to the Fishbowl') elevated the fun quotient.
At his opening show May 22, Chesney brought Kelsea Ballerini to the stage. But on this night, Grace Potter, who croons with Chesney on 'You & Tequila,' was the guest of honor to sing that Grammy-nominated hit from 2011.
It was a breezy stroll for the pair, but when Potter, whom he introduced as 'one of my best friends in the world,' broke out her signature Flying V guitar, Chesney knew things were about to get rock-y.
'We were in Vegas that last time this happened,' he said, before the familiar sawing guitar notes of Rod Stewart's 'Hot Legs' filled the room (Chesney and Potter covered the song during his 2013 shows at the now-defunct Hard Rock Hotel).
It was a playful, if milquetoast version of the song sans Stewart's raspy vocal leering, but also an indication that Chesney plans to shake up the setlist each show and maybe debut more deep cuts.
The melancholic 'Seven Days,' from 2010's 'Hemingway's Whiskey' album, made its first live appearance at Chesney's opening Sphere show and he revisited it again for night two, complemented by a foggy lighthouse scene.
During 'Big Star,' fans will relish the vintage photos of Chesney posing with music icons including Reba McEntire, Loretta Lynn and Taylor Swift while sinking into the sensation of being dropped into a pinball machine. It was also another reminder of Chesney's longevity in an unforgiving industry.
As he cranked out the country rock of 'Living in Fast Forward,' which plopped the crowd into the driver's seat on a NASCAR track, Chesney punctuated the lyric, 'I still got some miles to go.' It was an ideal capper to a song that summarizes the focused Chesney. Even three decades into his career, he's hardly slowing down.
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Backstreet's Back alright! Backstreet Boys Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson delighted fans when they announced 'Into The Millennium,' their summer residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, which started on July 11. Now, their longtime choreographers and creative directors, Rich and Tone Talauega (better known simply as Rich + Tone), are spilling all about the ups and downs of putting on the spectacular one-of-a-kind show — and what left the team 'in a mad dash' up until the debut. 23 One of the visual elements of the show includes a giant space ship that transports fans into a futuristic experience. Justin Segura 23 Backstreet Boys Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson perform during opening weekend. Brian Prahl / 'I mean, it was a long road to get there,' Rich exclusively confessed to The Post following the group's opening weekend in Sin City. 'We started developing this at the end of last year, going into the new year.' The renowned choreography duo has worked with every major artist from Michael Jackson and Jennifer Lopez to Madonna and Usher. Rich + Tone have collaborated with the Backstreet Boys for decades, first as dancers for the group at the 1998 Billboard Music Awards before becoming creative directors and choreographers for several of their tours between 2008 and 2020, and finally, their Sphere residency. 23 The visuals at Backstreet Boys' Vegas residency concert. Rich Fury 23 At one point, the pop group is lifted in the air on a space-like platform. Rich Fury 23 A vantage point of the crowd at the Backstreet Boys' Sphere show. Justin Segura They explained that this 'amazing' experience was unlike any other. 'Just the venue itself was exciting. To know that we were gonna work with the Boys and actually put the first pop boy band in the Sphere for the very first time. So from so many different perspectives and angles, man, it was really, really exciting to see it open,' Rich reflected. The Sphere, which opened near the Vegas strip on September 29, 2023, has held several bands — but the Backstreet Boys are the first pop group, as noted above, and have quickly sold out the majority of their shows despite the dome-like theater holding up to 20,000 people. Due to the high-demand, they even added three additional shows to their August lineup. 23 The Las Vegas Sphere has two massive LED screens: a 160,000-square-foot interior screen and a 580,000-square-foot exterior screen. Rich Fury 23 The Sphere in Las Vegas turned into a massive party. Rich Fury 'And obviously, us being perfectionists, there were a couple of things, challenges, that were in our way,' Rich shared. Noting their residency team, which includes global phenomenon Baz Halpin, whose production company, Silent House, is the show's design studio, Rich continued, '[We just felt] we had to put everything from experience from 30 years of working in the industry' into the residency. 'We had to make sure that we'd come off on top in terms of this incredible venue, but opportunity, too,' he explained. 'And the boys were excited.' 23 The Backstreet Boys during rehearsals for their summer residency. Getty Images for 103.5 KTU All their hard work paid off, especially when Nick, 45, Howie, 51, AJ, 47, Brian, 50, and Kevin, 53, were finally able to perform in front of fans at their sold-out opening weekend concerts. 'The energy from the fans was the last missing piece for us,' Rich told The Post. 'Everybody was just excited and thrilled to finally break that venue wide open.' He also revealed that the show didn't fully come together until opening night of the residency 'cause the last piece of the puzzle was seeing the actual content in 16K high res, [the] highest resolution.' 23 Rich +Tone Talauega working behind-the-scenes with the group and their residency team. rtbrothas/Instagram 23 The Backstreet Boys dance and perform their classic hits during opening night of their residency inside The Sphere in Las Vegas. Brian Prahl / 23 The Backstreet Boys during dance rehearsals. rtbrothas/Instagram 'Obviously, the content took the longest to develop and tweak to get it just right for the actual opening. And I can tell you right now, probably, it was 90% done when we were on our first day in the Sphere, and it wasn't until 100% done until July 11,' Rich admitted. 'No one got to see 100% what the visual content was going to look like until the day of the show,' he went on, noting how 'anxious' they were to see the different aspects of the 90-minute performance 'mesh as one for the very first time.' 23 A look at the iconic show design for the Backstreet Boys' 'Into The Millennium' residency. Justin Segura 23 Another image from rehearsals. rtbrothas/Instagram 23 The Backstreet Boys with part of their creative team. rtbrothas/Instagram The choreographer said it was his first time working on a project of this magnitude in which everything was still coming together at the eleventh hour. Besides the iconic vocals of the best-selling boy band of all time (a record they still hold, per Billboard), there are incredible visuals in the show, including life-size dancing robots projected on the 160,000-square-foot interior screen and a gigantic futuristic platform that levitates each member of the group about 80 feet in the air. While he noted that the untrained eye might not have noticed, Rich stated there were 'a couple of hiccups here and there' during opening weekend with the vocals. 23 The band asked fans to wear white to the shows. Justin Segura 23 Another look at the Backstreet Boys' summer residency set design. Justin Segura 23 (Left to right): AJ McLean, Brian Littrell, Kevin Richardson, Nick Carter and Howie Dorough. rtbrothas/Instagram 'I want to say the venue holds 140,000 plus speakers. So that was the first time ever we dealt with that many speakers. We were in a mad dash to get it all mixed, ready and balanced and leveled for the actual show,' he said. 'But on the day of the show, there was a couple accents missing. Rich shared that at times, the bass was 'a little too low' and the vocals were 'very high' in terms of music. 'And so it wasn't really balanced per se for the venue. So, we almost needed a couple more days,' Rich explained before giving kudos to the music team. 'They were working around the clock,' he shared while revealing the team didn't sleep for the last couple of days leading up to the residency, 'because there were so many notes coming in from us, from the boys in terms of how it should sound and how the levels were, like, kind of uneven.' 23 AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson performing on the stage. Brian Prahl / 23 Nick Carter singing and dancing during one of the band's numbers. Brian Prahl / 'That was probably the most hiccups that we had in any department. But nonetheless, they made it work,' he added, admitting the difference between show one and two was 'night and day.' When asked if anything was scrapped from the Backstreet Boys' 'Into The Millennium' residency, Rich + Tone told The Post the one thing that didn't make the final cut. 'I wanted to see the boys do a song that was a cappella from beginning to end in that particular venue,' Rich said while sharing that they're 'very happy' with the flow of the show. 23 Behind-the-scenes of how the Vegas residency was put together. rtbrothas/Instagram 'I just feel like there was one song that could have been on there. The whole entire show in a whole 'nother stratosphere, but we didn't end up doing it. It got voted off the list,' he added. Rich + Tone previously told Billboard that this is 'probably the most ambitious' show that's been done at Sphere yet, alluding to the pre-shot visuals that are woven into the Backstreet Boys' live action performance. 'If I was a ticket-buying fan, I would want to buy three tickets to see it from three different places,' Rich said, describing the show as '50% a movie experience, 50% a concert experience, and the blend of those two elements is key.' 23 Choreographers Tone and Rich Talauega. Getty Images The theme of the concert pays homage to the band's Millennium era, which was the name of their third studio album released in 1999. Tone told the outlet that the show's visuals offer 'a historical sort of layout of the Boys' entire career,' blending 'something new' with 'something nostalgic and familiar.' Calling it 'very, very fresh, very modern,' Rich added, 'Working with these guys, we're reminded they're icons. Tone and I always love to bring that iconic energy to them and remind them that they are who they are.' 23 Backstreet Boys, circa 1995. Getty Images 23 Backstreet Boys in the late 1990s. Getty Images The Backstreet Boys broke records with their Grammy-nominated 'Millennium' album, landing at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart just over one month after its release and selling 1,134,000 copies in the first week, according to Guinness World Records. At the time, their accomplishment shattered Nielsen's SoundScan record for first-week sales, which was previously held by country superstar Garth Brooks. The album has reportedly sold 40 million copies worldwide, making 'Millennium' one of the best-selling records of all time, and with their summer residency, its sales have soared to nearly 12,000%, Forbes reported on July 26. 'Millennium' also earned the boys five Grammy nominations, including Album of the Year. For those who haven't gotten their tickets to the Backstreet Boys' Vegas residency, there's still time, but dates are limited. The last show is slated for August 24, marking a total of 21 performances over seven weeks.
