Day three of Boots and Hearts was filled with excitement and exhilarating performances from early afternoon until well into the night. It was difficult to tell whether the festival grounds were getting busier or simply if more individuals were flooding the entertainment area earlier than they had been for the past few days.
To kick the day off, Elyse Saunders took the SiriusXM Front Porch Stage, while Lauren Watkins treated VIP ticket holders to a show in the SiriusXM Barn! Lauren stunned the crowd with a performance of three original songs, including, “Mama, I Made It,” “Leavers Leave” and “Anybody But You.”
Fans then made their way to the first performance on the main stage of the day with Edmonton-born singer Alee. Dressed in eye-catching cheetah-print heeled boots and a dazzling charm necklace, she wowed the crowd with a powerhouse performance, having last performed at the festival in 2017. She sang original hits such as “Drivin’ Horses,” “Better With You,” “Time for That,” and the title track of her latest album, “Love, Again.” Alee also joined SiriusXM in the VIP Barn later on in the afternoon for another short, intimate performance, following Taylor-Rae’s mid-afternoon slot.
As the day progressed, Texas King and Lauren Watkins performed on the Front Porch Stage while the Hunter Brothers could be found on the main stage, just prior to NEEDTOBREATHE. The Hunter Brothers also closed out the SiriusXM Barn for the night with the fourth and final performance of the day. While it was a logistical struggle to fit all five stools, microphones, instruments and brothers on the stage at first, they certainly made it work. The band packed a full house into the Barn and even sang one of their latest singles, “Train (Station Edition).”
After Jackson Dean’s performance on the Front Porch Stage, it was down to the final two performances of the night on the main stage: Matchbox Twenty and Thomas Rhett. The crowd dynamic was certainly interesting to see since the beloved rock band has been releasing music together since 1996, while Thomas Rhett has been on the country music scene since 2010. Both have very different sounds and if you asked fans who were in the pit on Saturday night, most had a strong preference of who they were truly there to see or who they knew best. However, the two worlds did collide when Matchbox Twenty brought Thomas Rhett out early to perform their song, “3AM,” together.
Matchbox Twenty delivered an outstanding performance all around, with an electric set list that pleased both lifelong and new fans. Rob Thomas, the band’s lead vocalist, was full of energy and ran up, down and across the stage for the entire hour and 15-minute performance. Paul Doucette hilariously brought his bottle of wine out on stage and the crowd had an amazing time singing (maybe more comparable to screaming) and dancing the night away.
To cap off the night, Thomas Rhett took the stage for his one-of-a-kind performance. With thousands of people packed in front of the stage, Thomas pumped the crowd up with an array of original hits, colourful lights and pyrotechnics at the back of the stage. Throughout the show, he strayed from his own music and played a slew of hits from the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s including Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September,” Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl,” Smash Mouth’s “Allstar,” and DJ Khaled’s “All I Do Is Win.” Thomas also brought a fan up on stage from the audience to help him sing the second half of Garth Brooks’ “Friends in Low Places.” The fan, John, was helped up on the side of the stage by security and sang his heart out during a night he will surely remember forever. During his performance, Thomas sang his own hit songs including “Vacation,” “T-Shirt,” and even performed two of his latest singles from his upcoming album, Overdrive, “Beautiful As You” and “Gone Country.” To say the country star absolutely crushed his headlining performance would be an understatement.
With day three of Boots and Hearts wrapped, fans were ready to soak up the final day of the biggest Canadian country music festival of the year.
