Garth Brooks' honky-tonk energy shines at Amazon-broadcast Friends In Low Places concert

In his estimation, Country Music Hall of Famer and Grand Ole Opry member Garth Brooks has played over 15,000 live concerts.

The "Dive Bar" one that streamed for millions on Amazon Prime that he played on Black Friday 2023 redefined his already incredible creative legacy.

The event was held in front of an invite-only crowd of diehard fans at his soft-opened Friends in Low Places Lower Broadway honky-tonk.

"This is the first home game for us. You have spoiled me to death for not just today but my entire career," stated Brooks as he neared the end of his 55-minute set.

Fans lined up outside 411 Broadway for 18 hours before the event's 6 p.m. CT start. Via the streaming broadcast, it was clear that they congregated anywhere they pleased once they were inside the venue's two open levels. Were they standing 18 inches away from their favorite performer? Sure. Crowding a staircase while screaming lyrics in his face while awaiting a fist bump, high-five, or hug? Absolutely. Upstairs on the second-floor balcony facing the stage? That was fine, too.

Maybe that will not be the protocol every night through Friends In Low Places' expected weekend schedule through Valentine's Day 2024. However, as Brooks noted, his $50 million honky-tonk is the "house that [his fans] built." On its opening night, they had free reign and he -- alongside "Rodeo Man" collaborator Ronnie Dunn and his wife, Trisha Yearwood -- was the guest entertainment.

Moreso than anything, the concert highlighted precisely what the vibes would be inside Friends In Low Places.

Ronnie Dunn took to the stage to pair for "Rodeo Man," Brooks' lead single from his new album "Time Traveler."

Hearkening back to 1985, Dunn, alongside Kix Brooks and yes, Garth too, cut their teeth at Tulsa, Oklahoma's now-closed Tulsa City Limits honky-tonk.

That space was a roughly 1,000-capacity room where live music, "boot scootin' boogies" and a fun, raucous atmosphere were the perpetual expectation.

Watching Brooks and Dunn -- but this time, substitute Garth for Kix -- onstage at Friends In Low Places felt like watching a '90s country video, like, say, the one Kix and Ronnie shot at Tulsa City Limits for "Boot Scootin' Boogie" in 1990.

Timeless, too, was Yearwood's appearance to perform her and her husband's take on Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "A Star Is Born" duet "Shallow," plus her own 1991 classic "She's In Love With The Boy."

Brooks, clad in his trademark cowboy hat, "Just Ledoux It" Chris LeDoux sweatshirt and blue Wrangler jeans, hugged his wife, clad head-to-toe in a black leather pantsuit. Add Ronnie Dunn's blue jean jacket to the mix and the timeless vibe Friends In Low Places is looking to cultivate was readily apparent.

At the mini-concert's penultimate moment, Brooks highlighted how his original G-Men band member, Steve McClure, was still his steel guitarist. At various points during the show, the idea that Brooks was achieving his greatest moment as a multi-millionaire Nashville entrepreneur while standing with someone who had played with him when he headlined in front of millions in New York City's Central Park a quarter-century prior became apparent.

The power of that full-circle moment behind cuts like "That Summer" and "Two Pina Coladas" increased the profundity of their performance.

Noteworthy is the nearly ten minutes Brooks devoted to an extended take on his 33-year-old hit "Friends In Low Places," the song for which his bar is named.

On Nov. 20, Garth Brooks stood in the middle of the Lower Broadway area he rechristened the "Neon Neighborhood" and offered that the bar earned its name because "the song outlives the artist. Whether you like me or don't, you love 'Friends in Low Places.'"

On the first of what will likely be many Friday evenings in the "Neon Neighborhood," the entirety of Friends In Low Places loved "Friends In Low Places."

He sang every verse of the song, diving into the third verse from the song's live version, too.

Couple that response with the fact that the half-circle beneath the second-floor overhang has the song's opening lyrics constructed onto it in bold lettering and realize that this venue was built with fans who are Brooks completists at the forefront of the architects, curators and developers' minds.

Brooks closed the set with a stirring take on his 1989 hit "The Dance."

"How's the new house doing?" queried Brooks.

The full-throated, sweat-drenched and tear-jerked quintessential honky-tonk singalong that ensued answered that question.

Garth Brooks Friends In Low Places "Dive Bar" mini-concert setlist

• Rodeo

• We're Two Of A Kind

• Two Pina Coladas

• Shallow (w/Trisha Yearwood)

• Trisha Yearwood - She's In Love With The Boy

• The River

• That Summer

• Rodeo Man (w/Ronnie Dunn)

• The Thunder Rolls

• Friends In Low Places

• Friends In Low Places (live version, third verse)

• The Dance

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Garth Brooks' honky-tonk energy shines at Amazon-broadcast Friends In Low Places concert