Dierks Bentley with Hot Country Nights in Austin

Dierks Bentley and Hot Country Nights
Austin360 Amphitheater, Austin, TX
September 20, 2018
Review and Photography by Michael Mullinex

On Thursday, September 20th, Dierks Bentley not only scaled The Mountain but brought it to the Austin360 Amphitheater to rock a packed house!

Dierks Bentley’s the Mountain High Tour was unique in many respects between crowd participation to his use of a digital background, but in one sense it was also unique in that he opened his own show. Even before the band Lanco took the stage the audience was treated to a medley of covers performed by a joke-ensemble cover-band calling themselves “Hot Country Nights.” The guitarist and co-singer happened to be Dierks in a gawdy wig and oversized shades, leaving people wondering why this suspicious lounge singer had a velvety voice.

At the end of the night, Bentley did return (thankfully leaving the wig backstage) and launched in with the emotionally packed, “Hold On.”  The headlining show was used to highlight songs from his newest album, “The Mountain,” which was the primary theme of his stage and digital background. New hits like “Burning Man,” “Living,” and “Woman, Amen” were able to sweep an audience into the proper dancing mood. But old classics were able to shift gears and mix up his performance, such as jumping into his own crowd to sing “Free And Easy (Down The Road I Go)” or when his digital background shifted to a tropical paradise during the smash hit, “Somewhere On A Beach.”

Bentley kept the Austin audience riveted for over an hour of chart-topping crowd pleasers that ended with
Dierks Drunk On A Plane
(the song, naturally).

DIERKS BENTLEY PHOTO GALLERY

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HOT COUNTRY NIGHTS PHOTO GALLERY

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Michael Mullenix

Growing up around the world, Michael developed a taste and appreciation for all styles of music. While studying film making at Boston University, he dove headfirst into a mosh-pit and never came out. It was in Boston that he combined his love of film and photography with his drive and passion for being a chronicler of the underground music scene. After graduation he headed to Los Angeles and for over a decade has worked with some of the top musicians and actors in the entertainment industry. Lured to Austin by the cultural explosion in the music and film scenes taking place there, he relocated two years ago and describes Austin as a cultural Shang Ri La!