Vocals rule for Little Big Town, Sugarland; Halloween, less so

Considering that it was Halloween, maybe it was the costumes or lack thereof that went to the heart of the performance by Little Big Town, headlining the big arena.

The opening act, The Castellows, smartly were decked out in American Revolutionary soldier costumes. Well done, considering they were in Boston, the heart of the Revolution. Sugarland came dressed up as Mr. Rogers and his neighborhood, a throwback, but chances are with an older crowd in attendance, they were tuned in.

And then there was Little Big Town. Four songs into their stint, Karen Fairchild said, jokingly, "I just came as a plain old Karen."

The music from LBT wasn't plain. Time and time again, Fairchild along with bandmates Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman and Jimi Westbrook (who's also her husband) served up great four-part harmonies. In fact, they started out that way with the perfect opener of "Bones," rising together on a platform towards the rear of the stage. There's power in them vocals without heavy duty musical accompaniment needed.

That would happen often during the 90-minute show, although each member had turns on lead vocals. Fairchild tended to have most of them as the quartet with a backing quartet of musicians sailed through their hits plus a number of deeper cuts. With their holiday album just out, they didn't play anything from there.

LBT was on sure footing with "Bones," "Little White Church," "Pontoon," "Day Drinking" and "Bring It On Home" out of the box.

Really, there was not a weak presentation in the 21-song set. Sweet did a nice take of "I'm With the Band," easily segueing into "With a Little Help From My Friends." Ditto for Fairchild on "Better Man," which they recorded with Taylor Swift, and has more of a pop sheen.

LBT certainly veers more pop. You weren't going to hear any traditional country sounds. Covers also were always telling.

Considering that LBT is the country Fleetwood Mac, their take on "The Chain" played to their strengths. Westbrook had no problem tackling Elton John's "Rocket Man" with an animated reading.

Sugarland came out for The Dream Academy's dreamy, folkie "Life in a Northern Town" and the low point (even though it was well performed) Phil Collins' "Take Me Home." There are a lot better songs than that to offer. Sugarland's Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles made their time together with LBT humorous by coming out on "burros" and later prancing off the stage.

Bottom line – none of the five covers were country songs.

LBT finished strong with the one-two punch of "Girl Crush" and in effect closing where they started with the four-part harmony of "Boondocks."

So while lots to like, what was the problem? There just wasn't that much connection with the crowd, which was markedly subdued for almost the entire show. The group talked sparingly and just didn't engage all that much (far more so on "Boondocks"). Fans were leaving towards the end of the show.

That was in marked contrast to Sugarland. There was a spirit and energy in their set missing from LBT. Nettles oozes charisma.

You can't say it was the costumes, although seeing Bush in a wig (Bush and Nettles dressed themselves onstage at the outset of the show) was humorous (he's bald). One also had to smile at the opening two songs of "Mr. Rogers Theme Song" with "There Goes the Neighborhood."

It boiled down to Nettles, the star and obvious focal point of Sugarland, and in fact, the whole night. She was simply a powerful, full-bodied singer as the group played their hits. Sugarland smartly mixed Nettles' vocals high, well above the backing music, and she made the most of it.

Getting into the emotion of "Stay" was a high point in another set of decidedly pop country material. It was no surprise that Sugarland received a big hand when closing with "Something More."

While only catching two songs of The Castellows – "Miss America" (not about the beauty pageant, but, instead, the state of America) and "Hurricane," the sisterly trio were excellent. Lead singer Lily Balkcom can sing. With sisters Ellie on acoustic guitar and Powell on banjo (they are two-thirds of a set of triplets), The Castellows are on the traditional side.

They wore the soldier costumes well and being on either side of 20, showed tremendous amount of promise. There's something to be said for sibling bands.