Lady A Previews Their New Tour

Lady Antebellum just kicked off their 2011 Own The Night World Tour.  It’s their first full arena headline tour, and the first that uses their own stage.  Country Countdown USA’s Lon Helton asked the group what their fans can expect at the show:

Were you involved in the design of your stage? We helped design it, but a week before the tour began, we saw it for the first time, and it feels like a really big time show then.  When you see it, it’s huge, and such a culmination of five years of hard work and dreaming of getting to this point.  It was very overwhelming and amazing.  To think that this is ours.  We’ve played on some of those stages opening up for other artists.  We created a circular area on stage called the Inner Circle where 150 people are part of the stage.  So they’re inside the stage.  They’re completely encircled.  We interact with them too.  It’s really interactive, and we wanted that, and we wanted everyone else to feed off those fans.  Those people have to dance and sing, they’re a part of the show.

What else did you want to have a part of your stage? The lighting, and trying to make the big moments as big as possible, the intimate moments as intimate, we have a lot of dynamics, we have stairs going up to the top, a lot of bells and whistles, and lighting that’s important with three different people.

Does it feel like a right of passage to get your own stage?  Yes, it’s so funny, we were in rehearsals on the stage, and they were starting to tape it, to make it clear where the edges of the stage are so we don’t fall off, because it’s all black, and they started to tape it, and I said, ‘No, don’t do that!’ it’s like when you get new carpet, everyone takes their shoes off.  So we ended up doing little tick marks so we don’t fall off the stage.  But when it’s new and it’s yours, and you know how hard to get it, you take care of it, so it’s amazing.

You’re touring with Edens Edge, and Hillary, you have a connection with them: Yes, they’re dear friends, and my fiance Chris plays with them, and he also plays with us now.  It’s new.  He filled in for us a year ago, and we loved him.  So when we started this tour, it seemed like a good time to bring him into the band.

That’s a good thing, but you’re also together all the time: We’ve had some conversations about it.  If Hillary and Chris hadn’t been dating, he would have been our drummer.  Then we waited to see how the relationship worked out, and then we had some time, and at the end of the day, the music needs it, so we did it.  We wanted him from day one.  He rides the band bus, because we need our own space.  But so far it’s working so great, and the vibe and energy on stage is electric.

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