Carrie Underwood set to 'Cry Pretty' at Pechanga Arena San Diego

The elaborate staging of the “American Idol” alum’s new “Cry Pretty Tour 360” is designed to visually enhance Carrie Underwood’s music.

San Diego Union-Tribune

Sept. 5, 2019 9:12 AM PT

Carrie Underwood may be upstaged, literally, at her Tuesday concert here. But it won’t be by Maddie & Tae or Runaway June, the two opening acts for her ongoing “Cry Pretty Tour 360.”

Rather, it will be by Underwood’s elaborate concert production and her in-the-round stage itself, a hydraulic wonder that rises, drops, seemingly changes shape and has nearly enough pyrotechnics to fuel a show by Kiss.

This visual razzle-dazzle is designed to complement the 40 or so selections Underwood will perform (some in medley form).

A high-point could be her 10-song salute to such country music trailblazers as Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton.

And, in the wake of the nation’s latest mass shooting tragedies, expect Underwood’s heartfelt 2018 ballad, “The Bullet,” to take on a sad new resonance.

Carrie Underwood, with Maddie & Tae, Runaway June: 7 p.m. Tuesday. Pechanga Arena San Diego, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway District. $46-$96, plus service charges. axs.com

Updates

9:12 a.m. Sept. 5, 2019: The second word in the country music group Runaway June’s name was incorrectly spelled “Jane” in the original version of this article.

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George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”