Kane Brown makes hot impression in first-ever Tucson concert

It should also have mentioned the flame towers shooting bursts of orange hot flames that penetrated a blast of heat from the stage through the reserved seats and nearly to the lawn.

We weren’t expecting it that first time, when the flames shot up one chorus into Kane’s twangy rocker “I Can Feel It,” But when they blasted again during the spirited “One Mississippi,” the crowd didn’t seem a bit phased as they sang along: “One Mississippi, two Mississippi / Three shots of whiskey / Are you on your way?”

The pyrotechnics and flashing strobe lights might have seemed like eye candy, but to the fans squeezed into the lawn and filling every seat in the reserved section, it was like chasing a 24-ounce Modela with a Red Bull: pure adrenaline.

Not that Brown needed any enhancements to get the crowd going as he sang about loving his woman “Like I Love Country Music” and pondering a relationship’s “What Ifs,” which earned him his first No. 1 hit.

His concert was filled with sing-along chart-toppers including the finger-snapping uptempo ballad “Good As You,” the stroll down memory lane with “Famous Friends” and the twangy rocker “Bury Me in Georgia.”

Brown’s burnished baritone was exceptional when he sang “Thank God,” a ballad he did with his wife Katelyn. When her voice chimed in on cue over the speakers, Brown cautioned, “Don’t get excited; she ain’t here.”

He scaled his baritone range on the soulful “Homesick,” which he performed after publicly thanking military members in the audience for their service; “Backseat Driver,” dedicated to his daughter; and his new pop-leaning single “Woman.”

Brown also dipped into his hip-hop influences when he covered two rap songs karaoke-style, briefly scanning the lyrics on his phone before singing. He got a little assist from hundreds of people in the audience, who seemed more familiar with the songs than Brown.

He also performed his hip-hop country hits “Grand” and “Miles On It.”

Early on in Thursday’s concert, Brown mentioned Tucson’s blistering summer heat in passing, but his biggest complaint was for our “pterodactyl mosquitos.”

“I ain’t gonna lie; you got some big (expletive) mosquitos out here,” he told the audience. “Does anyone have some Off (mosquito repellent)? I’m being attacked.”

He was still swatting away a few of the pests as the end of the night, as two fans out on the lawn were bantering back and forth about whether Brown would perform his hit “Heaven,” a song that early on cemented his place as one of country music’s biggest new stars.

Just as it seemed the night was coming to a close, the opening chords of the song’s signature finger-picked melody filled the air. The two men fist-pumped as the audience applauded as they sang along loud enough to nearly drown out Brown’s sultry baritone.

Brown’s soldout show Thursday was his first in Tucson in his 10-year career.