Play On Tour

Tour by Carrie Underwood
Promotional poster for the tour
Associated album	Play On
Start date	March 11, 2010 (2010-03-11)
End date	January 2, 2011 (2011-01-02)
Legs	2
No. of shows	109 in North America
Carrie Underwood concert chronology

The Play On Tour was the third headlining tour by American country music singer Carrie Underwood, in support of her third studio album Play On. The first legs which contains dates only in North America, were announced on December 10, 2009. The second leg was announced on April 16, 2010. Tickets went on sale on April 24, 2010.

Underwood announced that 36 cents from each ticket sale would be donated to the Save the Children program, inspired by a line in her song "Change" from the Play On album.

In July 2010, Pollstar.com revealed the Top 100 tours of the first half of the year for North American statistics. The "Play On Tour" clocked in at number fifteen, bringing in a total of $18.4 million. It brought in a collective total of more than 375,000 tickets in its first four months.^[1] In December 2010, Pollstar.com revealed the Top 50 tours of 2010 for both North American and worldwide statistics. The "Play On Tour" clocked in at number nineteen on the North American ranking, and number thirty-one worldwide.

In December 2010, Billboard ranked the Play On Tour at number twenty-four for all tours of 2010. On January 4, 2011, official statistics revealed that Underwood played to over one million fans throughout the tour, becoming her largest tour to date.^[2]

Opening acts

• Sons of Sylvia March 11, 2010 – January 1, 2011
• Lady Antebellum March 11, 2010- June 20, 2010
• Craig Morgan Spring leg
• Billy Currington Fall Leg

Setlist

1. "Cowboy Casanova"
2. "Quitter"
3. "Wasted"
4. "I Know You Won't"
5. "Some Hearts"
6. "Just a Dream"
7. "Temporary Home"
8. "There's a Place for Us" (only in some concerts)
9. "Someday When I Stop Loving You"
10. "All-American Girl"
11. "So Small"
12. "Take Me Home, Country Roads"
13. "This Time"
14. "Undo It"
15. "Jesus, Take the Wheel"/"How Great Thou Art"
16. "What Can I Say?" (with Sons of Sylvia)
17. "Change"
18. "I Told You So" (with Randy Travis; virtual duet)
19. "Mama's Song"
20. "Last Name"

Encore: "Play On Video Segue"

1. "Before He Cheats"
2. "Songs Like This" (excerpts from "White Liar" and "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)")

Tour dates

• A^ This show was co-headlined with Brad Paisley.
• B^ This show was originally scheduled to be held in Billings, but due to tornado damage at the selected venue, the show was cancelled, and later changed to Bismarck.

Box office score data

Awards and nominations

Tour preparation

The tour was reportedly being rehearsed in Mobile, Alabama for two weeks behind locked and tightly sealed doors to keep all hints and clues about the tour completely unknown. Underwood was spotted with stage crew and 6 semi-trucks hauling stage props and pieces to the arena the tour was being rehearsed in. Underwood reportedly paid a near $500,000 for the stage preparation.^[5] In interviews, Underwood stated that there will be a lot of "moving parts" on the stage. During the show, she swings from vines, gets transported and lifted across the arena audience while standing in the bed of a large blue pickup truck, has interchangeable backgrounds for the stage backdrop, a lifting stage piece, and does a virtual duet with Randy Travis from what appears to be the stage of the Grand Ole Opry, performing her Grammy-Award-winning collaboration "I Told You So".^[6]

Crew member's death

On Saturday, March 20, crew members were carrying Underwood's set pieces from Atlantic City, New Jersey to Mashantucket, Connecticut for her show that day in semi-trucks when a trailer truck driving northbound on the opposite side of the medians began to lose control of the vehicle, causing the trailer truck to slide into the median for approximately 400 feet. Eventually, the trailer truck crashed through the separator, slashing open the semi-truck's fuel engine. The crash ignited a large fire, causing the driver of the semi-truck to lose all control of the vehicle. The truck crashed down a large hill and eventually landed in flames on the Interstate 95 running through Stonington, Connecticut. The fire was contained, but the entire truck was horribly charred, including the body of the driver. The body was unable to be identified through body or DNA identification, so officials resorted to using dental records. The driver, Robert Allen O'Bleness, was a native of Wichita, Kansas. He was 48 years old at the time of his death.^[7] In the Mashantucket concert, Underwood paid tribute to the lost employee by belting out a tearful version of her hit single "Temporary Home", also stating that the song "gives off a whole new meaning from its previous one."^[8]

References