Ohio University students and Athens residents will have the option to spend their beer money on some country music this weekend. Kip Moore is slated to perform in Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Friday.
Known for his gritty, rock-country style, Moore will strip it down for an acoustic set. Athens is just one stop on his Room To Spare Acoustic Tour.
The tour focuses on his seven-track extended play Room To Spare: The Acoustic Sessions. Moore had promised his loyal fanbase an acoustic album because of the acoustic songs he has performed live in the past.
The performance will be the Georgia-born singer’s first time to Ohio University, but Andrew Holzaepfel, the senior associate director for student activities, hopes it won’t be his last.
Holzaepfel is looking forward to bringing a “fresh face” to MemAud. The last two country acts who have crossed the stage, Josh Turner and Scotty McCreery, have performed in the venue for a combined total of five times. Lee Brice, another popular country artist, will return to OU for a performance in April.
“We are excited to have Kip,” Holzaepfel said. “We’re pretty excited to have him doing this acoustic setup he’s doing this spring.”
The songs off Room To Spare will be the focus of the setlist, but Moore has performed tunes from his previous albums at other venues on the tour.
One of those tracks is the love song “Hey Pretty Girl,” which peaked at No. 8 on Billboard’s Hot Country songs chart. Moore earned his first No. 1, “Somethin’ ’Bout A Truck” back in 2012, which was quickly followed by another No. 1 in “Beer Money.” Those two singles are more upbeat, but “Somethin’ ’Bout A Truck” has consistently shown up in Moore’s encore list for the Room To Spare Tour.
Maija Johnson, a junior studying nursing, likes Moore’s grittier take to country music.
“It’s not poppy like some other country music,” Johnson said.
“Somethin’ ’Bout A Truck” is Moore’s most listened-to song on Spotify with more than 75 million plays. It’s followed by “More Girls Like You” with 65 million plays. That song was featured on his 2017 album Slowheart.
Liesl Ludwig, a junior studying nursing, likes that the university brings in a variety of artists. She saw Parmalee and Chase Bryant when they visited in 2017 and said that was an opportunity she wouldn’t have taken had it not been such a local concert.
“I would go see people I wouldn’t normally see because of that,” Ludwig said.
For people who have seen him before, the acoustic setting will offer something a little different, but Moore’s hits will still engage the audience.
“You’ll be able to walk into the show and be able to sing along, even if you’re a passive Kip Moore fan,” Holzaepfel said.
