Dierks Bentley Headlines A Night Of Country Fun At AMSOIL Arena

Dierks Bentley brought his 'Burning Man 2019' tour to Duluth's AMSOIL Arena Friday night, offering four hours of country music bliss to a sold-out crowd of fans.

It isn't often that the headlining act opens the concert, but that's exactly what happened Friday night. Bentley's alter-ego Doug Douglasson and his rag-tag parody band "Hot Country Knights" opened the evening. Donning 90's costumes and wigs, the band scuffled and fumbled around on stage, all while performing fun and engaging covers of 90's country hits like Travis Tritt's "TROUBLE", Brooks & Dunn's "Brand New Man", and even Shania Twain's "Man, I Feel Like A Woman" as part of a short, but fun set to kick off the night.

Following up was Canadian Tenille Townes, a newcomer who onto the American Country music scene last year with her song "Somebody's Daughter". The Alberta native introduced the crowd to a series of her original songs like "White Horse", "Where You Are", "Jersey On The Wall", and also shared a cover of U2's "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" before closing with her debut radio single "Somebody's Daughter".

Jon Pardi followed Townes with what felt like a headlining performance of his own. Pardi opened his set with his 2014 song "What I Can't Put Down", rolling right into his current radio hit "Night Shift". Aside from a couple deeper cuts, Pardi's set gave fans a taste of his biggest songs, including "She Ain't In It", "Heartache on the Dance Floor", "Head Over Boots", and his finale "Dirt On My Boots". During his set, Pardi declared "I'm coming back in the summer!", laying the groundwork for what would be a fun show at Bayfront, if it happens.

Dierks Bentley returned to the stage, sans costume, full of vigor and ready to entertain. He opened his set with "Burning Man", which happens to be the song his tour is named for. From there, Bentley's performance offered a blend of dance-worthy, sing-along songs like "Somewhere on a Beach" and "5-1-5-0", and deeper songs like "Black" and "Woman, Amen", which included images of big names among women in country music on the screen behind the band.

As a callback to earlier in the evening as well as a nod to it being International Women's Day, Bentley welcomed Tenille Townes back on the stage mid-set, where he challenged her to sing some 90's songs. She offered up Pam Tillis's "Maybe It Was Memphis", Trisha Yearwood's "She's In Love With The Boy" and Dixie Chicks' "Wide Open Spaces" before joining Bentley in a duet of his song "Different For Girls".

During the course of Bentley's set, he paid homage to the Northland and winter sports like hockey and curling, calling out the Minnesota high school hockey tournament as well as declaring his love for hockey. He discussed how he loved hockey hair and how he considered showing up with some hockey hair of his own. He also talked about his connections with Duluth's Cirrus Aircraft and also welcomed Olympic curlers Matt Hamilton and Chris Plys to the stage during his encore while performing his closing song "Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)".

In all, the full house of fans at AMSOIL Arena got a fun night full of great music entertainment. Here are some photos from the show: