Wild man of country, Adcock, stands on his music

When Gavin Adcock told the sold-out, overly young crowd that this was a wild crowd especially compared to New York (somehow New York is the butt of negativity when artists talk about the Big Apple in Beantown), he wasn't joking. And he was in the thick of it himself.

Adcock quickly took a swig of Jack Daniels soon after hitting the stage and repeated that at least a few more times during the show. He had maybe half a dozen beers, while also spraying the crowd a few times. Those in the upper level did the same by tossing objects and spraying fans on the floor throughout the night.

For their part, the wild people threw cups and bottles at the stage with one even hitting Adcock in the head, which did not seem bother him in the least. Nor did him falling down well into the concert.

The Georgia native and former college football player (he was kicked off the team at Georgia Southern for drinking beer atop a team bus before a game) also threw his colorful shirt into the crowd at one point, playing bare chested before a fan thew him a cut-off open shirt with an American flag as part of the design.

There was a concert going on too, and Adcock fared well on that score. He has one major label release to his credit with another one slated for this year, he said, and he's releasing new music regularly, including one song, "Never Call Again," put out only the day before.

Adcock was a confident performer. There are better singers (he was slightly off on a few songs) out there, but he also made it clear he was having a good time delivering his songs.

Sometimes they referred back to his roots. "Unlucky Strikes" was about life's bad turns, including his dog, who was hit by a car last year and died

There were a lot of sing-along songs including the closing one-two punch (there was no encore) of "Run Your Mouth" and "Deep End" with the latter about being down and out.

Like many country performers out there today, he's more a hybrid of country, rock and a bit more, although he also knows his way around a more traditional country song ("Last One to Know" was proof positive). A chunk of songs were acoustic based as well. Plus give Adcock credit as well for utilizing pedal steel on a few songs to give the material a more traditional feel.

His choice of covers worked as well. Instead of covering some recent rock song, Adcock went to the past for Hank Williams Jr.'s "Dinosaur," which the crowd sang along with, and Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock," which he picked up from his father. The former is a song from 1980 where Hank Jr. decries the changing sounds of country with Bocephus seeming to be a touchstone. Morgan Wallen may have been as well with it easy to imagine Wallen singing a good number of the songs (Adcock will open for him later this year).

Adcock came off like the wild man of country, but it was his music that stood up far more.