Jon Pardi Performs Saturday Night Set At Nissan Stadium for CMA Fest 2023

It feels right that Mr Saturday Night himself would don the Nissan Stadium stage for the penultimate performance on the Saturday (June 10) of CMA Fest 2023.

Jon Pardi, adorned in a majestic, bedazzled rose jacket, span onto the stage, his band immediately descending into the crowd for the heady singalong of 'Night Shift'.

What proceeds is a loose, drunken jamboree; one that, regardless of performance quality, sat just right with the pretty untethered crowd.

By this point of the night, the wind that would rear its ugly head the night after is playing havoc with the sound, washing out Pardi's vocals.

To his detriment, he's got a pretty heavy, drunken burl, one that needs turning up badly if you are going to make out anything he's saying or singing on the night.

Nevertheless, he rocks it; not hazarding to have a dance, that rose-glistened shirt of his becoming slowly more undone the further he proceeds through the set.

His band are super tight too; the fiddle player is playful, the electric guitar rips and the accordion works a lot better here than in Old Dominion's set. ‘Heartache Medication’ really gets the crowd dancing, that participation unequivocal whatever Pardi does.

"Here's to everyone drinking tequila," he gargles, before leading the band through a suitable salvo of his favoured hits. While 'Mr. Saturday Night' is sacrilegiously left out, the trombone solo that tears through 'Last Night Lonely' is a welcome inclusion into his live repertoire, while 'Dirt On My Boots' has always got butts out of seats, swaying and swigging on $20 Mich Ultra tallboys as Pardi sips on a whiskey.

"This is always fun; I hope you're all enjoying Downtown... I know y'all are enjoying Downtown," Pardi smirks, leaving the crowd on the feel good hoopla of 'Head Over Boots' that would have any Kenny Chesney crowd paying $80 to hug each other to.

That's the joy of Pardi live - no matter how it sounds or what sort of state you find him in, he's the consummate live entertainer. "Something special happened today", Pardi closes, "we're not sweating our asses off, and that's amazing!". Tell us you would have him any other way.

For more coverage on CMA Fest 2023, see below: