Concert review: Little Big Town and Sugarland fueled by fun and friendship at Target Center

Little Big Town’s current tour celebrates the country band’s 25th anniversary and their concert Thursday at Target Center certainly felt like a party.

Good vibes permeated through the downtown Minneapolis basketball arena during sets from both the headliners and openers Sugarland, with a generous offering of both groups’ many hits from their late-’00s heydays. The pairing wasn’t accidental, either. “One of our very first tours we ever did was with Sugarland,” Kimberly Schlapman said from the stage, adding they’ve long since become friends. (Schlapman also riffed a bit on Target and jokingly lamented her Red Card balance.)

On the road for their first major tour in six years, Sugarland’s Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush were all smiles during their breezy 50-minute performance. They opened with a goofy take on the theme song from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and then jumped right into “There Goes The Neighborhood,” the title track of their recent EP.

From there, it was banger after banger, including “Stuck Like Glue,” “Want To,” “Settlin’,” “Baby Girl” and “Something More.” For the most part, Sugarland’s songs are as sweet as their name, but when they get serious, they’re tough to beat. Their deceptively simple ballad “Stay” stands as one of the best country songs of the ’00s and Nettles really brought out the emotion with her still-strong vocals.

As for Little Big Town, they’re not afraid to crank up the guitars in songs like “Stay All Night,” “Self Made” and “Bones.” The latter sounds a whole lot like Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain,” to the point LBT has mashed the two songs together on previous tours. On Thursday, they played “Bones” early on and dropped in a full (and totally rocking) version of “The Chain” later in the evening.

Little Big Town is the relatively rare band, in country or otherwise, to boast four lead singers. Schlapman and Karen Fairchild do most of the heavy lifting, but Phillip Sweet and (Fairchild’s husband) Jimi Westbrook each got his time to shine, both as the lead and in the frequent four-part harmonies. Like Nettles, their vocal power has yet to diminish. If anything, as the bandmates settle into their 50s, their voices have new strength and depth.

In addition to their originals — “Day Drinking,” “Girl Crush” and the dippy “Pontoon” among them — Little Big Town indulged in some well-chosen covers. They incorporated Joe Cocker’s take on the Beatles’ “With A Little Help From My Friends” into their own “I’m With the Band” and took Elton John’s “Rocket Man” to Nashville with a memorably twangy take. The latter was one of several stripped-down, mostly acoustic numbers they played midway through the set.

Sugarland joined Little Big Town for two particularly rousing covers, the Dream Academy’s early MTV smash “Life in a Northern Town” (which they first performed together at the 2008 CMT Music Awards) and Phil Collins’ 1985 hit “Take Me Home” (which they performed together back in April on the same awards stage). Not only was the friendship Sugarland and Little Big Town share crystal clear, it fueled a fun and memorable night.