Photo Credit: Ruby Gaunt

Darius Rucker has such a wonderful and fun, crowd-pleasing back catalogue of hit songs that everyone knows and loves that it would be pretty difficult to not have a great time at a Darius Rucker show. Mix those songs with a string of Hootie and The Blowfish classics and you have one of the best concerts you will ever go to.

Darius just knows how to put a fantastic show on! His zesty, soulful voice is so distinctive and rich that you can just feel every word that he sings and his always adorable dance moves are part of what make his shows so much more fun.

Darius engages with his audience in such a captivating way that it makes those collective sing-a-long moments incredibly powerful. Alright was one of those moments. With a Lyric video on the big screen, there was no excuse not to sing along and it just felt like home.

Darius and his band The Carolina Grey Boys are some of the most energetic performers in country music. Quite possibly some of the best musicians out there, the band blew everyone away with their exceptional talent. It wasn’t just their playing that was engaging though but their spirit, their crowd interaction and the way they and Darius perform like family.

Much like with Brett Young, the audience were up on their feet for his entire set. His music is just so much fun to sing to, to dance to, to make new friends to and he is just a man that makes you happy when he is on stage.

Let Her Cry (a Hootie song) is always such a special moment at a Darius show. One of the greatest songs from the nineties, it is even more beautiful live especially with the fiddle accompaniment. Tonight the arena looked and sounded amazing during this song.

Darius invited Brett Young and Scotty McCreery back to the stage for a hilariously good collaboration of Family Tradition. A typically great drinking song, this was such a great moment that we got to witness and be a part of.

Playing almost all his much loved songs the entire set was country music gold and of course the night had to close with Wagon Wheel. A surprise was met when UK singer Lucy Blu joined Darius on stage. A great moment for independent UK artists, the crowd went mad especially from her fans and friends. Wagon Wheel is a song that everyone joins in on so the crowd left on a major high as did Lucy.

Darius is always grateful to play in the UK. This really showed in tonights performance. Darius has deserved that headline slot for years so it was so great to be there for that. He even said it was a bucket list moment for him to headline the O2 Arena.

We needed Darius to be one of the first live acts we would see after Covid shut everything down because he would never fail to uplift a crowd.

Tonight was a celebration. It was a moment of unity, an evening we had all needed and longed for for so long that it was just simply a night that fans will never forget.

Photo Credit: Ruby Gaunt