Concert Review: Carrie Underwood shows off her powerhouse voice at DeSoto Civic Center : GoMemphis.com

As she took great pains to point out Sunday night, Carrie Underwood has come a long way in a short amount of time.

A video shown to the crowd of about 7,200 early on during her concert at DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven traced the Checotah, OK., native’s rapid rise since 2005: Her “American Idol” win, the release of her record-setting debut album Some Hearts, the seven straight No. 1 singles, the slew of awards she has picked up, the magazine covers she has graced, even her “Oprah Winfrey Show” appearance.

The video, whose functional purpose was to pad the show during one of Underwood’s costume changes, was probably meant to portray the singer’s fairy tale princess-like transformation but the actual effect was more like tacky self-aggrandizement. It was one of several bad notes in the staging of a concert that, musically at least, was pitch perfect.

As you would expect from an “Idol” winner, Underwood is a powerhouse vocalist, and she showed off her instrument with great success throughout her 90-minute performance. Backed by an ace, energetic eight-piece band, she deftly tackled a number of styles, from upbeat honky tonkers like “The More Boys I Meet” to sophisticated torch songs like “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” At one point she delivered an incongruous, note-for-note cover of Guns ‘N’ Roses “Paradise City” that gave Axl Rose a run for his money. Her vocals elevated even weak songs like the tepid pop number “Some Hearts.”

Though the talent is clearly there, Sunday night’s performance proved that Underwood has not had time in three very hectic years to develop the stagecraft necessary to completely pull off a big, ambitious show like this. Her between song banter, for instance, while possessive of a certain aw-shucks charm, was horribly strained at times, as when she brought a 9-year-old Collierville girl on stage to help sing her hit “All-American Girl,” and peppered the poor child with too many questions.

At other times Underwood seemed lost as she wandered the huge, glitzy stage, which included a runway that jutted out in the audience, a satellite stage where Underwood awkwardly strummed a clearly-not-plugged-in acoustic guitar for a couple of numbers, and a catwalk behind the band from which Underwood occasionally popped up and down. This last bit of business provided one of the weirder moments of the night when, as Underwood built to the powerful climax of her ballad “I Know You Won’t,” the platform that she was standing on shot the singer 10-feet up in the air. Though meant to heighten the drama of the song’s final chorus, it seemed more like a technical malfunction and that Underwood was in danger of hitting her head.

The strangest occurrence came at what I’m still not quite sure was the end of the show. Underwood and band nailed a high-octane version of her song “Get Out Of This Town” and then abruptly stopped and left the stage. No “thank you and goodnight” or similar pleasantry that is part of the rhythm and ritual of an arena show. The audience stood around awkwardly not sure if this was just a break or if they should be begging for their obligatory encore. Eventually, everyone returned to the stage, and by the time Underwood delivered a knockout “Before He Cheats,” complete with a blanketing snow of confetti, for the finale the gaffe had been almost forgotten.

As the opening act, the vocal quartet Little Big Town had none of the stage tricks and toys that Underwood had at her disposal. And musically, they were backed only by a bare-bones rhythm section of guitar, bass, and drums. Instead, the group relied on its unbelievably tight and intricate vocal arrangements to provide the flash in their set of harmony-rich country-ish rock.

This was most evident in their cover of the Dream Academy’s “Life In A Northern Town,” a moody ’80s folk-rock hit that found its way back on the charts this year when the group released a live version recorded with Sugarland and Jake Owen. LBT’s own take was more bombastic than either of the other two but, in a tour de force of arranging, was laced with wonderful breakout parts and harmony layers.

Other standout songs in their performance included “Bring It On Home’ and their small town anthem “Boondocks.”