Review: Little Big Town brings Southern-fried party

Little Big Town is Nashville's answer to ABBA: Two men, two women, all sexy and fashionable young thangs who sing harmonies tighter than Dwight Yoakam's jeans.

Like the pop supergroup, Little Big Town's catchy songs work on a superficial level. In their case, it's Southern-fried party anthems and romantic two-steppers.

Again, like ABBA (and unlike a lot of country up-and-comers), the group's music also aspires to tell stories, not just string clichés together. Proof comes in nearly every song, from the farm girl breakup in "Wounded" ("You plowed over me like a tractor") to palpable description of what it means to be Southern in "Boondocks" ("I can feel/That muddy water running through my veins").

Although the group isn't in the same songwriting league as the Dixie Chicks yet, most of the originals Little Big Town played Tuesday night in Sullivan Arena hinted at significant country music contributions to come.

The group opened while the arena was still dark, harmonizing a capella and peeling back the sound to their church music core. Then they launched into the sassy "Good As Gone," a contagiously fun boot stomper with defiant sex appeal, thanks in part to the husky purring of Karen Fairchild.

Little Big Town's 90-minute set included all but one song off 2005's platinum-selling "The Road To Here," including "Bring it on Home," a ballad that's sincere and sweet without being saccharine. Their other big radio hit, "Boondocks," is "Louisiana Saturday Night" for Gen Y. The song paints an endearing picture of rural life while also poking some gentle fun at it, then sets the whole thing to a swampy, Southern kegger tune.

Because they've only released two albums, there was a mid-concert slump when the band marked time with their B material, including the sappy and redundant "Stay."

Thankfully, the band has a knack for picking cover songs. In the sultry cover of Stevie Nicks' "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," Fairchild and her husband/bandmate Jimi Westbrook lit it up fast and built the song into a tremendous, sonic bonfire.

The group – which also includes Kimberly Roads and Phillip Sweet – didn't reveal its full potential until the fourth-to-last song. And the musicians aren't entirely to blame for that.

Ask anyone who performs in front of a live audience, and they'll tell you they feed off the crowd's energy. Well, until the 15th song, the crowd acted as if there was Fixodent on the seats. The few who tried to respond to the party songs with some appropriate rowdiness were often tapped on their shoulders by annoyed spoilsports.

So, apparently during Aces games at the Sullivan, people can jump up and clang a cowbell next to your head until you need a Miracle-Ear, but when a Nashville country band is throwing a party, it's time for church pew stoicism? Please.

Little Big Town was clearly plugged into their audience, and when the crowd finally gave off a big surge of enthusiasm, the band took the concert to a whole new level (and I don't use that overused phrase lightly). During their last four songs – including a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way" –the band shifted into overdrive, pumping out some killer vocal runs and amped up stage antics.

Once security let audience members stand near the stage, band members had a blast working the crowd. They shook a zillion hands, tried on people's cowboy hats, and used audience members' cameras to take up-close pictures of the band -- enviable souvenirs of a rousing and respectable performance by a country group on the rise.