Country duo Dan + Shay emerged from beneath the stage Friday night at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, dramatically lit from behind and strutting to the final notes of Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood,” a song about betrayal.
Yet the 100-minute show that followed offered nothing but merry, breezy and infectious country/pop songs that had the capacity crowd glowing. The vibe felt a lot like it did back during the pair’s first local headlining arena show when they filled Target Center in September 2021 and gave each other a number of seemingly spontaneous hugs. (It was one of the first major country tours to hit the road after COVID restrictions began to lift.)
Dan Smyers and Shay Mooney first met in 2012 as aspiring songwriters living in Nashville. They hit it off, began writing together the next day and within two months had multiple offers for publishing deals. A year later, they issued their debut single “19 You + Me” and watched it sail into the Top 10. Friday night they played it and nearly every one of their 15 hit singles that have since followed, along with a few tracks from last year’s “Bigger Houses” album.
While Dan + Shay do occasionally mention alcohol in their songs — their biggest hit and perennial show-closer is 2018’s “Tequila” — they have little in common with the bro country that has been clogging up the charts over the past decade. The duo come across more like a 21st century Hall and Oates with a slight twang than peers of Luke Bryan, Blake Shelton and Jason Aldean. (In October 2022, Mooney took to Instagram to announce he had lost 50 pounds in large part due to cutting booze and sugar out of his diet. Friday, Smyers cracked a gentle joke about Mooney showing off his abs to the crowd.)
These guys sing about falling in love, getting married and feeling gratitude. The selections they played Friday say it all: “Alone Together,” “All of Myself,” “Show You Off,” “Heaven + Back,” “Nothin’ Like You,” “Glad You Exist” and so on.
The most overtly country song of the night, “We Should Get Married,” would have been the highlight of a night of line dancing at a ’90s country bar. They followed it with “From the Ground Up” and Mooney almost teared up as he told the crowd the song was inspired by the love shared by the pair’s grandparents. As he did several times throughout the night, he showered the audience with praise: “Thank you for changing our lives every single day!”
Yes, Dan + Shay’s endless cheer and claims that Twin Cities crowds are the greatest ever can start to feel forced. It was also a bit over-the-top when Mooney almost broke into tears a second time. But they clearly know what they’re doing and what their followers want from them. If nothing else, it was a pleasure watching them barrel through a cover of the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” with more energy and verve than I’ve ever seen from the band that wrote it.
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